'Mecca' on road to Broadway

Rosemary Harris, Carla Gugino and Jim Dale will star in a new production of Athol Fugard's 1987 play "The Road to Mecca," to be produced on Broadway by Roundabout Theater Company. Helmed by Gordon Edelstein, "Mecca" is presented by special arrangement with Off Broadway's Signature Theater, which already has announced Fugard as the focus of its next season of works by a single playwright. Signature's Fugard programming doesn't begin until February, when that troupe's new venue opens in midtown. Harris, last on Broadway in the 2009 revival of "The Royal Family," will play "Mecca's" central character, a reclusive old woman in South Africa who, after her husband dies, decorates the walls of her home with broken glass and creates a sculpture garden in which all the statues face east. Gugino ("Desire Under the Elms") plays the teacher who befriends the old woman, with Dale as the leader of the town's church congregation. Edelstein recently helmed a well-received revival of "The Glass Menagerie" that played Off Broadway at the Roundabout after its New Haven preem. Design team for "Mecca" includes Michael Yeargan (sets), Susan Hilferty (costumes) and John Gromada (sound). It's the first time "Mecca" has played the Main Stem. The play originally appeared Off Broadway in a 1988 production that starred the playwright. "Mecca" begins previews Dec. 16 ahead of a Jan. 17 opening at the American Airlines Theater. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com