There’s something very special about Roundabout Theatre Company’s 50th anniversary season: Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is composing original music for its upcoming Broadway show, “Old Times” that opens in previews next month at the American Airlines Theatre.
“The music Thom has written for Old Times gives an immediacy and a ‘now-ness’ to the show,” director Douglas Hodge said in a statement. “The play itself is about memory and love — Thom’s music works backward and forwards and plays with time and repetition in the same way,” that playwright Harold Pinter does in the script, Hodge said.
“I’ve enjoyed exploring through music the script’s themes of love and memory as well as Pinter’s rhythms, twists and turns,” Yorke said in a statement.
“Old Times” will star Clive Owen as Deeley, the man who winds up in a subtle and disturbing power struggle after meeting Anna, his wife’s friend from long ago. The part of Deeley’s wife, Kate, will be played by Kelly Reilly and Eve Best will play Anna.
The show opens in previews Sept. 17 and officially opens Oct. 6 with a limited engagement through Nov. 29.
Yorke, 46, is best known as singer, principal songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of Radiohead, but has also performed and recorded extensively outside the band. Last year he released his second solo record, “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes.”