Abigail Breslin will play Helen Keller B'way

NEW YORK - Spunky "Little Miss Sunshine", a girl nor heroic. Abigail Breslin will play Helen Keller in the first Broadway revival of William Gibson, "The Miracle Worker", is on 3 March producer David Richenthal open on Wednesday. Previews starting on February 12, Circle in the Square Theater. Alison Pill will determine Annie Sullivan, the teacher, the blind and deaf Helen teaches how to represent the communication. " I am very honored, "the 13-year-old Breslin said in an interview." It's like the greatest thing in the world. … I read the biography of Helen Keller. I always knew the story, and there is always something I wanted to play. "Helen is one of my heroes - for any reason. They never gave up, and they had so many people who believed in her when her teacher Annie Sullivan." The production is by Kate Whoriskey, who has extensive regional theater credits and recently appointed artistic director of the Intiman Theater in Seattle. Richenthal, producer of events celebrated classics as "Death of a Salesman" and "Long Day's Journey Into be directed Night" has long been a fan of the game, especially since he good friends with Gibson, who died in 2008. "But I shall think we have to find ways to him again," said Richenthal. "I waited for the right director and right cast." And he feels he has found in its two stars and director. About Breslin, Richenthal, said: "I've never seen a girl his age, so clear and unstarry. Helen Keller was brilliant - an IQ of 150 to something - and, of course, to overcome a brave man to, what she has done. I Abigail see those qualities. "The producer said that he believed that have" The Miracle Worker "They also need to develop a view of a director of a great lady. "It's a game that is said can not be part of the old boys club," he said. "And I loved Kate's on this is that it is really a family. Well, this story () is is a little extreme, but there is hardly a family who do not have a child or a parent who has real problems. "Whoriskey has also said the producer" The Miracle Worker was "d" about three women - Helen, Annie and her mother Helen (even disposable), a woman who has to go against the advice of her husband, the young teacher for his daughter insisted. "So the question is:" Who can play Annie Sullivan? "," Richenthal has said. "I must say that was when I started in production, the obvious thought," you get a star to this role to play. ". .. But some incredibly difficult and have a movie star or not in a position to the chops on the stage. "I think Kate was glorious glad that I was in favor of Alison Pill as it is not just a saying - yet. It is," said Richenthal pill which appeared in several productions on Broadway, HBO's "In Treatment "and the film" Milk. "Gibson wrote" The Miracle Worker "for television" Playhouse 90 "in 1957, with Teresa Wright as Annie Sullivan and Patty (Patricia as the main actor) McCormack, Helen Keller. His Broadway adaptation opened two years later with Anne Bancroft as Annie and Patty Duke as Helen. The production phase lasted more than 700 performances. Both actresses won Oscars for their performances in the 1962-version of the film. There were several later television, including in 1979 in which Duke played the professor and his students Melissa Gilbert. Rehearsals for the new "Miracle Worker" will start 11th January.