OLIVIER AND EMMY
AWARD WINNER SARAH SNOOK
WILL MAKE HER BROADWAY DEBUT IN
THE ACCLAIMED SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY PRODUCTION OF
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
ADAPTED AND DIRECTED BY KIP WILLIAMS
(New York, NY – October 2, 2024) – Following a sold out, critically acclaimed run in the West End, Sarah Snook (“Succession”) will make her Broadway debut playing 26 characters in the dazzling production of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The breathtaking stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s only novel is adapted and directed by Kip Williams, the Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company, where the production originated. The Picture of Dorian Gray will open at a Shubert theatre in March for a strictly limited engagement.
Wilde’s timeless text is revolutionized by Williams’ celebrated collision of form employing an explosive interplay of video and theater through an intricately choreographed collection of on-stage cameras bringing to life a dizzying 26 characters, each brought to life by Snook.
Marking her hotly anticipated Broadway debut following her critically acclaimed and Olivier Award-winning performance in the London premiere production of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Australian star Sarah Snook reprises her searing portrayal of all 26 characters in the production.
Snook was most recently seen as Shiv Roy in hit series “Succession,” a role that earned her global acclaim. Over four seasons of "Succession," she received an Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards and a Critics Choice Award.
“It was a singular privilege to bring The Picture of Dorian Gray to life in London and I am thrilled we will be able to share this astonishing production with audiences in New York,” Snook said. “From Oscar Wilde’s timeless words to the masterful reinterpretation Kip Williams has created, this tale of virtue, corruption, vanity and repercussion is an electrifying journey for me as much as for the audiences and I am filled with anticipation as we continue on this ambitious creative endeavor.”
Enrapturing audiences, the celebrated world premiere season in 2020 extended twice in Sydney and toured to critical and audience acclaim throughout Australia. In London The Picture of Dorian Gray was adored by critics and audiences alike and earned Snook a Best Actress Olivier Award and a Best Costume Design Olivier Award for Marg Horwell.
Williams’ interpretation of beauty, excess, and a deal with the devil brings a striking resonance in our current era, holding a mirror to 21st century society’s narcissistic obsession with youth.
Adapter and Director, Kip Williams said “I was so humbled by the response from audiences in London to The Picture of Dorian Gray, and I could not be more thrilled to be bringing this work to Broadway. It has been extraordinary to witness the way Oscar Wilde’s story continues to resonate with people today. I am so excited for audiences in New York to experience our show and to see the tour-de-force performance Sarah Snook gives in bringing to life the many characters in this new adaptation of Wilde’s remarkable story.”
“I have said it many times, but from the very first time I saw The Picture of Dorian Gray, I knew that it deserved a global audience,” Michael Cassel, producer of the Broadway season, said. “This production is a mesmerising spectacle that is transformative, innovative, and purely delightful. Sharing what Kip Williams has created is undoubtedly one of my proudest career achievements and I am overjoyed the incomparable Sarah Snook has agreed to reprise her astonishing performance for Broadway.”
Sydney Theatre Company’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is adapted and directed by Kip Williams, based on the novel by Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray stars Sarah Snook. Set and Costume Design is by Marg Horwell, Lighting Design by Nick Schlieper, Composition & Sound Design by Clemence Williams, Video Design by David Bergman, and Eryn Jean Norvill as Dramaturg & Creative Associate. The Broadway production of Sydney Theatre Company’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is produced by Michael Cassel, Adam Kenwright, Len Blavatnik and Danny Cohen, Daryl Roth, Amanda Lipitz and Henry Tisch. Foresight Theatrical is the General Manager and Aaron Lustbader is Executive Producer. Michael Cassel Group is the worldwide Executive Producer.
Sarah Snook is represented by United Talent Agency, Shanahan, and Jennifer Gabler Rawlings at Omni Artists LTD.
ABOUT SARAH SNOOK
Sarah is an Olivier Award winning performer who was most recently seen on the final season of the HBO award-winning series “Succession.”
For her portrayal of Shiv Roy over the past four seasons she has received a Primetime Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards and a Critics Choice Award and been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award. The series has received critical acclaim and, among its many accolades, won Best Drama Series at the 2020 and 2022 Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice TV Awards, and won Outstanding Drama Series at the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards.
In 2021, Sarah had a supporting role in Kornél Mundruczó’s Pieces of a Woman alongside Vanessa Kirby. The film premiered at the 2020 Venice Film Festival in competition and also screened at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.
Previously, Sarah starred as the lead in the 2015 Australian drama series “The Beautiful Lie,” which earned her a Logie Award nomination for Most Outstanding Actress as well as the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama. This marked Sarah’s second AACTA nomination in this category, which she previously won for her performance in the 2012 television movie “Sisters of War.” Her additional television credits include AMC’s anthology drama series “Soulmates” from Emmy-winning writer Will Bridges and Brett Goldstein, an episode of “Black Mirror,” and “The Secret River.”
On the big screen, Sarah’s first major role in America was in Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs alongside Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet. Written by Aaron Sorkin, the biographical drama premiered to critical acclaim at the 2015 Telluride Film Festival and later went on to receive two Oscar nominations.
Sarah delivered her most notable film performance as the complex lead “Jane/John” alongside Ethan Hawke in the science-fiction thriller Predestination, for which she received the AACTA Award and the Film Critics Circle of Australia award for Best Actress.
Other film credits include The Beanie Bubble opposite Zach Galifianakis and Elizabeth Banks, the supernatural horror film Winchester with Helen Mirren and Jason Clarke; The Glass Castle alongside Brie Larson; Holding the Man opposite Guy Pearce; Oddball; The Dressmaker with Kate Winslet; Jessabelle; and Not Suitable for Children.
Sarah lends her voice to Adam Elliot’s stop motion animated feature Memoir of a Snail as the lead character Grace Pudel. IFC Films has announced the film’s limited US release on October 25, with a wider expansion throughout November.
She is also currently starring in “All Her Fault,” with Dakota Fanning, Michael Peña, Jay Ellis and Jake Lacy, a limited series for NBC/Universal.
A trained actress, Sarah established herself in the world of theatre through her performances in King Lear with the State Theatre Company of South Australia; three productions for the Griffin Theatre Company including Crestfall, and S27; alongside Ralph Fiennes in The Master Builder at London’s iconic Old Vic Theatre; and most recently, in Saint Joan for the Sydney Theatre Company, for which she won Best Female Actor in a Play at Australia’s 2019 Helpmann Awards.
ABOUT KIP WILLIAMS
Adapter and Director
Kip Williams is an award-winning director of theatre and opera and is the current Artistic Director and Co-CEO of Sydney Theatre Company, a role he has held since November 2016. His appointment at age 30 made him the youngest Artistic Director in the company’s history.
Williams has directed for many of Australia’s leading theatre companies and festivals, including Sydney Theatre Company (STC), Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC), Malthouse Theatre, Adelaide Festival, Perth Festival, and Melbourne’s RISING Festival, as well as internationally for Auckland Arts Festival, Michael Cassel Group, Kindred Partners and Theatre Royal Haymarket in the West End.
In 2012, Williams made his mainstage theatre debut at the Sydney Opera House directing Australian screen legend Jack Thompson in Under Milk Wood. He has since gone on to direct over 20 productions for STC, including a multi-award winning cinema-theatre hybrid production of Suddenly Last Summer, lauded interpretations of Shakespeare including Romeo & Juliet and The Tempest starring Richard Roxburgh, a retelling of Lord of the Flies starring Mia Wasikowska, Daniel Monks and Yerin Ha, and collaborations with actor Hugo Weaving in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Macbeth, and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. Williams has regularly directed new writing, including the 7-hour epic The Harp in the South by Kate Mulvany, for which he won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Director and Best Production, and is an acclaimed adapter in his own right. His 'cine-theatre' trilogy of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, and Dracula have brought him international acclaim, with The Economist calling his work "the future of theatre".
Williams' work is noted for its stunning visuals and groundbreaking formal experimentation. He has been nominated a record six consecutive times for the Helpmann Award for Best Director, Australia’s top theatre prize, and in 2015 became the youngest director to win the award, for Suddenly Last Summer. He has twice won Melbourne’s Green Room Award for both Best Director and Best Production, first in 2016 for his adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie (MTC) and next in 2023 for his celebrated adaption of The Picture of Dorian Gray (STC). He has won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Director a record three times, for The Harp in the South (2018), The Picture of Dorian Gray (2021), and most recently for his adaptation of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (2022, STC). In 2024, The Stage nominated Williams for Best West End Debut for his direction of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Williams’ work in opera has been much lauded, including acclaimed productions for Opera Australia, Victorian Opera, Sydney Chamber Opera (SCO), Carriageworks, Dark MOFO, Australian String Quartet, Ensemble Offspring, and the Biennale of Sydney. His radical production for the SCO of Fausto Romitelli’s composition An Index of Metals was the first-ever theatrical staging of the piece. A longtime collaborator of composer and Artistic Director of SCO Jack Symonds, Williams most recently directed the world premiere of Symonds' new opera Gilgamesh.
A graduate of both Sydney University and Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Williams served as a Board Member for NIDA from 2016-2023.