In 1976, Coal Miner’s Daughter, country superstar Loretta Lynn‘s autobiography (written with journalist George Vescey) became a New York Times Bestseller; in 1980 the book was made into an Academy Award-winning film starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones. Now, it’s headed for Broadway, with actress Zooey Deschanel playing Loretta Lynn.  

The announcement came on the stage of the historic Ryman Auditorium during Opry Country Classics Thursday night. Following the announcement, Ms. Deschanel joined the country music icon onstage for a duet of ”Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

The onstage announcement and performance mirrored the 1979 Grand Ole Opry appearance where Ms. Lynn invited a young Sissy Spacek onstage to announce that she had chosen the actress to portray her in the forthcoming film.  Ms. Spacek went on to win the Academy Award for her performance.

“It’s a long way from Butcher Holler to Broadway in New York City. I never imagined I’d see Coal Miner’s Daughter on a movie screen, and now I can’t believe it’s going to be on a stage for people to see,” says Ms. Lynn. “I’m going to be right there in the front row. And I know Zooey is going to be great – she sings and writes her own songs just like I do, and we even have the same color eyes!”

“Loretta Lynn and her music have been inspirations for me for as long as I can remember,” said Ms. Deschanel.  ”She is a true legend and to be chosen to play such an iconic woman is a dream come true.”

The creative team and dates for the production will be announced in the coming months.  The schedule will not conflict with Ms. Deschanel’s current commitment to the hit FOX TV show, “New Girl,” on which she stars and produces.

The New York Post’s Michael Reidel reports that Tom Hanks will be making his Broadway debut next season in a new play by Nora Ephron.  She wrote and directed “Sleepless in Seattle,” among other movies.

Hanks has signed on to play tabloid newspaper columnist Mike McAlary in “Lucky Guy,” which will open in January for a limited run at a Shubert theater.  The play will be directed by George C. Wolfe.

Oscar winner Nicole Kidman will reunite with Tony-nominated playwright/screenwriter David Lindsay-Abaire for a film adaptation of the Kevin Wilson novel The Family Fang, according to Deadline.com. Kidman, who starred in the 2010 film adaptation of Lindsay-Abaire’s play Rabbit Hole, will produce the movie with her Blossom Films partner Per Saari and Olympus Pictures’ Leslie Urdang and Dean Vanech.

The Family Fang tells the story of performance artists who routinely suck their kids into taking part in a variety of bizarre events. When the fully grown children return home in a state of crisis, they are unwittingly enlisted to help in the execution of a daring and mysterious final performance by their parents, who are hellbent on achieving the act of a lifetime.

Deadline.com reports that the William Friedkin-directed black comedy Killer Joe will be released by LD Entertainment on July 27 with an NC-17 rating .The film received that rating in late February, and the decision was made after the distributor and filmmaker unsuccessfully went through the appeals process before deciding they didn’t want to change the ending.

An adaptation of the Tracy Letts play, Killer Joe is not the first time Friedkin turned in a cut of a film that drew a dreaded rating from the MPAA. While Friedkin tackled rough subject matter in films like The Exorcist and To Live And Die In L.A., he got an X-rating for the 1980 film Cruising, in which Al Pacino played a detective who goes undercover looking for a killer preying on gay men. Friedkin said he had to cut 40 minutes of that movie to get an R rating. But he won’t have to cut a frame of Killer Joe. LD Entertainment will release a trailer for the film tomorrow, and it will wear the NC-17 rating like a red badge of courage.

Killer Joe is a sexy black comedy that stars Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon and Thomas Haden Church.

The Goodman Theatre in Chicago is doing a production of Eugene O’Neill’s masterpiece – THE ICEMAN COMETH directed by Robert Falls and starring Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy.   The New York Times writes in today’s paper:

“The marquee names in Mr. Falls’s staging belong to Nathan Lane, the superlative musical-comedy star courageously braving the mighty role of Hickey, the salesman flogging salvation to men and women addicted to damnation; and Brian Dennehy, himself a former Hickey for Mr. Falls at the Goodman (in 1990), now undertaking the role of the apostate radical Larry Slade. But “The Iceman Cometh” depends for its power on a full stage of actors capable of bringing O’Neill’s roiling depiction of the lower depths of 1912 New York to satisfying life — which is to say harrowing life. Mr. Falls’s superbly cast production contains as many great performances as I’ve seen in a single show in years, certainly more than I saw in any Broadway show of the past, imperfect season.”

Tony Award winner Scarlett Johansson is close to finalizing a deal to return to Broadway in a revival of Tennessee Williams’ Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, according to Variety.

In April, “Avengers” star and Academy Award-nominated “Hurt Locker” actor Jeremy Renner revealed that he was considering starring as Brick in a Broadway run of Cat On a Hot Tin Roof along with Johansson as Maggie.

“I’m close to making a deal on it and I cannot wait absolutely to get to it. I’m exhilarated, I’m terrified, but I think in a good way,” Johansson told Variety.

No official announcement of the production has been made.

Johansson was last seen on Broadway in a revival of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge.

Cat On a Hot Tin Roof was previously revived in 2008 with an all-African American cast led by Terrence Howard and Anika Noni Rose. A 2003 revival starred Jason Patric and Ashley Judd.

Best Play 

Clybourne Park
Author: Bruce Norris

Other Desert Cities
Author: Jon Robin Baitz

Peter and the Starcatcher
Author: Rick Elice

Venus in Fur
Author: David Ives

Best Musical
Leap of Faith
Newsies
Nice Work If You Can Get It
Once

Best Revival of a Play
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Gore Vidal’s The Best Man
Master Class
Wit

Best Revival of a Musical
Evita
Follies
The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
Jesus Christ Superstar

Best Book of a Musical

Lysistrata Jones
Douglas Carter Beane

Newsies
Harvey Fierstein

Nice Work If You Can Get It
Joe DiPietro

Once
Enda Walsh

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre

Bonnie & Clyde
Music: Frank Wildhorn
Lyrics: Don Black

Newsies
Music: Alan Menken
Lyrics: Jack Feldman

One Man, Two Guvnors
Music & Lyrics: Grant Olding

Peter and the Starcatcher
Music: Wayne Barker
Lyrics: Rick Elice

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
James Corden, One Man, Two Guvnors
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
James Earl Jones, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man
Frank Langella, Man and Boy
John Lithgow, The Columnist

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Nina Arianda, Venus in Fur
Tracie Bennett, End of the Rainbow
Stockard Channing, Other Desert Cities
Linda Lavin, The Lyons
Cynthia Nixon, Wit

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Danny Burstein, Follies
Jeremy Jordan, Newsies
Steve Kazee, Once
Norm Lewis, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
Ron Raines, Follies

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Jan Maxwell, Follies
Audra McDonald, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
Cristin Milioti, Once
Kelli O’Hara, Nice Work If You Can Get It
Laura Osnes, Bonnie & Clyde

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Christian Borle, Peter and the Starcatcher
Michael Cumpsty, End of the Rainbow
Tom Edden, One Man, Two Guvnors
Andrew Garfield, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Jeremy Shamos, Clybourne Park

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Linda Emond, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Spencer Kayden, Don’t Dress for Dinner
Celia Keenan-Bolger, Peter and the Starcatcher
Judith Light, Other Desert Cities
Condola Rashad, Stick Fly

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
Phillip Boykin, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
Michael Cerveris, Evita
David Alan Grier, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
Michael McGrath, Nice Work If You Can Get It
Josh Young, Jesus Christ Superstar

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Elizabeth A. Davis, Once
Jayne Houdyshell, Follies
Judy Kaye, Nice Work If You Can Get It
Jessie Mueller, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Ghost the Musical

Best Scenic Design of a Play
John Lee Beatty, Other Desert Cities
Daniel Ostling, Clybourne Park
Mark Thompson, One Man, Two Guvnors
Donyale Werle, Peter and the Starcatcher

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Bob Crowley, Once
Rob Howell and Jon Driscoll, Ghost the Musical
Tobin Ost and Sven Ortel, Newsies
George Tsypin, Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark

Best Costume Design of a Play
William Ivey Long, Don’t Dress for Dinner
Paul Tazewell, A Streetcar Named Desire
Mark Thompson, One Man, Two Guvnors
Paloma Young, Peter and the Starcatcher

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Gregg Barnes, Follies
ESosa, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
Eiko Ishioka, Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark
Martin Pakledinaz, Nice Work If You Can Get It

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Jeff Croiter, Peter and the Starcatcher
Peter Kaczorowski, The Road to Mecca
Brian MacDevitt, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Kenneth Posner, Other Desert Cities

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Christopher Akerlind, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
Natasha Katz, Follies
Natasha Katz, Once
Hugh Vanstone, Ghost the Musical

Best Sound Design of a Play
Paul Arditti, One Man, Two Guvnors
Scott Lehrer, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Gareth Owen, End of the Rainbow
Darron L. West, Peter and the Starcatcher

Best Sound Design of a Musical
Acme Sound Partners, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
Clive Goodwin, Once
Kai Harada, Follies
Brian Ronan, Nice Work If You Can Get It

Best Choreography
Rob Ashford, Evita
Christopher Gattelli, Newsies
Steven Hoggett, Once
Kathleen Marshall, Nice Work If You Can Get It

Best Direction of a Play
Nicholas Hytner, One Man, Two Guvnors
Pam MacKinnon, Clybourne Park
Mike Nichols, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Roger Rees and Alex Timbers, Peter and the Starcatcher

Best Direction of a Musical
Jeff Calhoun, Newsies
Kathleen Marshall, Nice Work If You Can Get It
Diane Paulus, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess
John Tiffany, Once