Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy in The Iceman Cometh at the Goodman? Confirmed

Photo: Liz Lauren

A little over a year ago, you might recall, Nathan Lane casually mentioned to a Daily Beast writer that he'd be playing Hickey opposite Brian Dennehy's Larry Slade in a Chicago production of The Iceman Cometh directed by Robert Falls. When I inquired with the Goodman Theatre at the time, they played it coy, telling me Falls and Dennehy are "always tossing ideas around" and that any talk of Iceman was purely hypothetical.

Well, guess what? Not only will Nathan Lane be playing Hickey opposite Brian Dennehy's Larry Slade in a Chicago production of The Iceman Cometh directed by Robert Falls, but Falls tells the Tribune he's been working on putting the production together at the Goodman for three years. Slick, Bob, slick. Still, the prospect of Lane joining Falls and Dennehy as the latter two revisit Iceman, in which Falls first directed Dennehy as Hickey in a 1990 Goodman production (above, with James Cromwell as Slade), is tantalizing indeed. The Iceman Cometh will run April 22–June 10, 2012, in the Goodman's Albert Theatre; tickets are currently available only as part of a Goodman season package.