Actresses Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon are to experiment onstage by rotating roles in Little Foxes.
The two old pals will tackle both Regina Hubbard Giddens and Birdie Hubbard in the ambitious Manhattan Theatre Club production of dramatist Lillian Hellman's play, set in 1900 Alabama, and Linney admits she has no idea if the plan to switch back and forth will work.
"It's a big experiment for everybody," the actress tells Entertainment Tonight. "I love that I have no idea... I'm sure Cynthia and I are going to play both parts differently, and who knows what that's going to do to the (rest of the) cast."
"The bizarre thing is trying to find your own Regina and your own Birdie while the actress across from you is also trying to find it," Sex & the City star Nixon adds.
Rehearsals begin later this month (Feb17) and the play opens for previews in New York on 29 March (17).
The Hubbards have been portrayed onstage by the likes of Tallulah Bankhead, Anne Bancroft, Elizabeth Taylor, Frances Conroy, and Stockard Channing.
"Roles like this are meant to be played," Linney tells the outlet. "It's just a testament to how good the play is."
The two friends last worked together on 10 episodes of Laura's hit TV drama The Big C.
The Little Foxes first hit Broadway in February, 1939, at the National Theatre. Bankhead originated the role of Regina Hubbard Giddens, opposite Patricia Collinge as Birdie. Collinge portrayed Birdie opposite Bette Davis in director William Wyler's 1941 movie and the play also became a TV movie in the mid-1950s, starring Greer Garson and Eileen Heckart.
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