Richard Easton Collapses on Stage in The Coast of Utopia

Tony Award winner Richard Easton collapsed on stage during last night’s performance of Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater. He is currently undergoing tests in a local hospital and is in stable condition, according to a spokesperson for the production. Easton is expected to return to the show; until he does so, his role will be played by understudy David Manis.

The first part of the Utopia trilogy, titled Voyage, began previews on October 17 and will open officially on November 5. The other two parts will open in December and January, after which all three sections will play in repertory through March 11. Jack O’Brien is directing the production, which features a cast of more than 40 actors, including Billy Crudup, Josh Hamilton, Ethan Hawke, Amy Irving, and Brían F. O’Byrne.

Beginning in mid-19th-century Russia during the repressive reign of Tsar Nicholas I, the action of the play spans a period of 30 year as it tells the panoramic story of a group of Russian intellectuals headed by the radical theorist and editor Alexander Herzen, the novelist Ivan Turgenev, the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, the aristocrat-turned-anarchist Michael Bakunin, and the poet Nicholas Ogarev. They lead a band of like-minded countrymen in a revolutionary movement in which they strive to change and fix a political system by using their minds as their only weapon.

Easton won the Tony for Best Actor in a Play for his performance ni Stoppard’s The Invention of Love. His other recent Broadway credits include Henry IV, The Rivals, and Noises Off. Earlier this year, he co-starred in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Entertaining Mr. Sloane.