(Photo courtesy of the company)
Shia LaBeouf will no longer make his Broadway debut this spring in Daniel Sullivan’s revival of Lyle Kessler’s Orphans. The actor, best known for his work in the Transformers franchise of films, has parted ways with the production due to “creative differences,” according to representatives from the show’s public relations office, Boneau/Bryan-Brown.
A replacement for LaBeouf, to join a cast that includes Emmy winner and Tony nominee Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) and British actor Tom Sturridge (On the Road), will be announced in the future. The production is still scheduled to begin previews on March 19 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, with an opening set for April 7.
Orphans follows two brothers who are living in a run-down North Philadelphia row house where the eldest brother, Treat, supports his seemingly simple-minded younger brother, Phillip (Sturridge), by petty thievery. One night, Treat kidnaps a rich older man named Harold (Baldwin), who we later discover has his own motives and becomes the father figure that the orphaned brothers have always yearned for.
