Sarah Snook’s Dorian Gray was a West End triumph. Now it’s heading to Broadway

The highly acclaimed Australian theatre show The Picture of Dorian Gray is headed to New York and will premiere on Broadway next year.

Based on Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novel, the show was created and devised by Kip Williams during his tenure as artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company.

Sarah Snook will reprise her role as Dorian Gray on Broadway next year. Credit: Charlie Gray

It is an extraordinary piece in which the star plays 26 roles. Eryn Jean Norvill starred in the show’s first run in 2020, with the subsequent Australian tour alternating Norvill with Nikki Shiels. Sarah Snook starred in the 14-week London season.

At times, the lead actor is filmed on stage by a cast of interchanging camera operators in precision-timed, choreographed moves. This becomes something of a dance, with live and pre-recorded footage woven together to create a revolutionary new style of theatre.

Adding to her Emmy for playing Shiv Roy in Succession, Snook won an Olivier Award for her West End performance in the role. “It was a singular privilege to bring The Picture of Dorian Gray to life in London, and I am thrilled we will be able to share this astonishing production with audiences in New York,” she said.

“From Oscar Wilde’s timeless words to the masterful reinterpretation Kip Williams has created, this tale of virtue, corruption, vanity and repercussion is an electrifying journey for me as much as for the audiences, and I am filled with anticipation as we continue on this ambitious creative endeavour.”

Sarah Snook in the London production of The Picture of Dorian Gray.Credit: Marc Brenner

According to Williams, the show draws on a range of visual references and cinematic inspirations, from Hitchcock films to Michel Gondry’s music videos with Radiohead and Kylie Minogue.

“For all the technology we use – Steadicams, flying LED screens, mobile phones – at its core, the show is motored by an ancient form of theatre, that of a single actor directly telling you a story. For the entire two hours of the show, you never lose contact with that actor and their sharing of the story,” he says.

“You’re constantly invited into their imaginary world. I think that’s what draws the audience in and allows the audience to enter into the contemporary experimentation of the piece.”

He had experimented with using live video in theatre for nearly a decade, but Dorian Gray was the first time he combined live video with pre-recorded elements.

“I’d never seen it done, and I had the instinct that it could open up entirely new creative landscapes to explore. The idea to try and seamlessly interlace the live and pre-recorded elements was a huge creative leap of faith for me, but one that has been one of the most creatively fulfilling experiences of my life.”

The Michael Cassel Group took the show to London earlier this year, where it received rave reviews. Producer and chief executive Michael Cassel says he was impressed by the show’s scale and “ambitious approach to storytelling”.

“Despite only being one actor… it feels like a mega musical, and that’s what fascinated me, I thought this could appeal to audiences around the world because it feels that big.”

Cassel says the timelessness of Wilde’s work is also extraordinary. “Those themes were relevant when the piece was first written, and yet with Kip’s adaptation, it feels like it was written in 2024 and what we’re all dealing with in life today with influencers and desire and looks and everything else.”

Eryn Jean Norvill with Kip Williams. Credit: Daniel Boud

Snook’s daughter was six months old when she started rehearsing nine months old when performances began and a year old by the time the London run ended.

Speaking to this masthead in August last year, Snook said performing the role was utterly exhausting.

“I think if I had seen the show beforehand – and my husband says the same thing, because it’s a team decision when your kid’s that young – we both would have had different decision-making hats on.”

Asked whether she meant she might not have done it, Snook replied: “Potentially, yeah. I mean, ignorance is bliss.”

Cassel concurs. “You feel exhausted for her, and that’s part of the tour de force nature of the performance. What you see the actor give is what they leave on that stage.”

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