Award-winning Actor Alan Cumming Brings His One-man Performance of Shakespeare's MACBETH to Audio

NEW YORK, June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Simon & Schuster Audio is proud to announce the publication of MACBETH, a new audio program based on William Shakespeare's timeless work, interpreted and performed by Tony Award-winning and Emmy nominated actor Alan Cumming. The program will be published on July 3, 2012 to coincide with the limited engagement of Cumming's one-man performance of MACBETH at New York's Lincoln Center Festival.  The audio program will be available in both CD and download formats.

The audio program, like the stage show, is directed by Tony Award winner John Tiffany (Best Direction of a Musical for Once) and Emmy Award winner Andrew Goldberg (A Yiddish World Remembered), who are also directing the show's first performances at the National Theatre of Scotland in Glasgow in June.

Cumming, who first performed MACBETH shortly after graduating drama school, said, "I've been interested in creating a unique perspective on MACBETH for years. With the help of John Tiffany and Andrew Goldberg, we were able to craft a really original and exciting interpretation of this classic play. I've narrated many audiobooks and I have great respect for them as a form of acting, so I'm very pleased to have this performance available as an audio program."

This radical reimagining of one of Shakespeare's most deeply psychological plays is set in a psychiatric unit in which Cumming is the lone patient. Channeling the story of Macbeth, he is inhabited in turn by each of the characters of the drama, including some of Shakespeare's most complex and troubled creations.

"We are thrilled to bring Alan's amazing performance to the audio medium," says Chris Lynch, Executive Vice President & Publisher of Simon & Schuster Audio.  "Anyone who isn't fortunate enough to see Alan perform MACBETH in person will now be able to share in the experience."

This exclusive studio recording of Cumming's dazzling solo performance captures the excitement, passion, and poetry of a wildly original tour-de-force that is destined to become theatrical legend.

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster Audio is a leading publisher of general interest audiobooks including bestselling fiction, nonfiction, business/finance, self-improvement, inspiration, language learning programs, original audiobook productions, and children's titles. In addition to a list that includes such unparalleled authors as Mary Higgins Clark, Vince Flynn, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, Michael Lewis, and David McCullough. Simon & Schuster Audio has produced audiobooks that have won seven Grammy Awards and earned thirty-five Grammy nominations since 1989. For more information about Simon & Schuster Audio, visit our website at www.audio.simonandschuster.com.  

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ABOUT ALAN CUMMING:  Alan Cumming is a Tony and Olivier Award-winning actor whose theatre credits include Cabaret, Hamlet, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and The Threepenny Opera.  His films include the Spy Kids trilogy, The Anniversary Party, X2: X-Men United, Goldeneye, Titus, Sweet Land, Eyes Wide Shut, and The Tempest. His television work includes his Emmy-nominated performance on The Good Wife. He has also written a novel, Tommy's Tale, and released an album, I Bought a Blue Car Today.

SOURCE Simon & Schuster Audio