New York - UPI
Dylan Baker and Judith Ivey have joined the cast of The Audience.
The 55-year-old actor and 63-year-old actress will portray former British Prime Ministers John Major and Margaret Thatcher in the Broadway production. Helen Mirren will star as Queen Elizabeth II, a role she played in 2006 film The Queen.
The Audience is written by Peter Morgan, whose credits include The Queen, Frost/Nixon and Rush. The play focuses on the weekly tradition of private, one-on-one meetings between Queen Elizabeth II and her prime minister at Buckingham Palace.
Thatcher was the first woman to become British Prime Minister, and held the position from 1975 to 1990. Major was her preferred choice as a successor, and served from 1990 to 1997. He was subsequently succeeded by Tony Blair.
Baker is known for portraying Colin Sweeney on CBS drama The Good Wife, and appeared in Mauritius, November and God of Carnage on Broadway. Ivey last starred as Aunt Lavinia Penniman alongside Jessica Chastain and Dan Stevens in Broadway production The Heiress.
Mirren most recently appeared in The Hundred-Foot Journey, and is scheduled for a number of upcoming projects, including Woman in Gold with Ryan Reynolds and Katie Holmes, Trumbo with Bryan Cranston and Elle Fanning, and Eye in the Sky with Aaron Paul and Alan Rickman.
The Audience begins previews February 17 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, and opens March 8. The play will run through June 28, with Stephen Daldry as director and Geoffrey Beevers, Michael Elwyn, Richard McCabe and Rufus Wright as co-stars.