Elizabeth McGovern to Play Ava Gardner in New Geffen Playhouse Production

Downton Abbey Emmy nominee Elizabeth McGovern will star as actor Ava Gardner in the Geffen Playhouse world premiere of her new play Ava: The Secret Conversations.

Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, the play will run April 4-May 7, 2023. It is based on the book The Secret Conversations, which Gardner wrote with Peter Evans, and is produced with the support of the Ava Gardner Trust.

In Ava: The Secret Conversations, the Hollywood icon sits down with ghost writer Peter Evans to write a juicy tell-all biography that will shock Tinseltown. But as Evans tries to get details about Gardner's marriages to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra, a different journey unfolds as he uncovers the private life of the Oscar-nominated femme fatale.

Prior to starring in the play, McGovern will appear as Martha in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at England's Theatre Royal Bath.