Bradley Cooper in ‘The Elephant Man’ on Broadway is delayed

The much-anticipated Broadway return of Bradley Cooper in a revival of “The Elephant Man” has been delayed by a few weeks, with the start of performances pushed back to Nov. 7 from a previously announced start of Oct. 18.

“The Elephant Man,” directed by Scott Ellis, is now scheduled to officially open on Dec. 7 with a run at the Booth Theatre in New York scheduled to close on Feb. 15. Organizers had previously said that opening night would be Nov. 13 and that the play would close on Jan. 18.

Organizers attributed the delay to a scheduling conflict. Cooper will reprise the role of a disfigured British man that he played at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2012. The Broadway cast also includes Patricia Clarkson as an actress who befriends him and Alessandro Nivola as the doctor who takes him into his care.

The play, by Bernard Pomerance, is inspired by the real-life case of Joseph Merrick, a 19th century Englishman who suffered severe deformities and who eventually became famous. The stage drama was first seen on Broadway in 1979 and was revived in 2002 in a production starring Billy Crudup.

Pomerance’s play is frequently revived at theaters around the world and has attracted a number of famous young actors to the role of Merrick.

Cooper previously appeared on Broadway in 2006 in the play “Three Days of Rain,” opposite Julia Roberts.

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