Ken Ludwig's adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder On the Orient Express to Premiere at McCarter

McCarter Theater’s Season to Include Nilo Cruz and Ken Ludwig
By ERIK PIEPENBURG for The New York Times
A new work from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz (“Anna in the Tropics”) and a stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1934 novel “Murder on the Orient Express” will make their premieres as part of the 2016-17 season at the McCarter Theater Center in Princeton, N.J., the company announced on Thursday.

The season will begin with Mr. Cruz’s “Bathing in Moonlight,” a drama about a priest and his relationship with a woman from a Cuban-American family on the verge of losing their Miami home. The production, set to run from Sept. 9-Oct. 9, 2016, will reunite Mr. Cruz with the director Emily Mann, who directed “Anna in the Tropics” at the McCarter in 2003 as well as on Broadway later that year, when it was nominated for a Tony Award.

The detective Hercule Poirot comes to the stage in the mystery “Murder on the Orient Express,” adapted by the Tony Award-nominated playwright Ken Ludwig (“Lend Me a Tenor”). Ms. Mann will direct the production, set to run March 14-April 2, 2017.

The season will also see Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer-winning play “Disgraced” (Oct. 11-30, 2016), in a coproduction with the Guthrie Theater and Milwaukee Rep; Bedlam Theater’s “Hamlet” and “Saint Joan” in repertory (Jan. 13-Feb. 12, 2017); and Lynn Nottage’s drama “Intimate Apparel” (May 5–June 4, 2017).

Casting for the season has yet to be announced.