Laurie Metcalf Will Scare The Piss Out Of You

The brilliant Laurie Metcalf, who won three Emmy Awards for her groundbreaking realism as Roseanne’s sister on TV’s Roseanne, will star on Broadway opposite Bruce Willis in Misery. Metcalf is no newcomer to the stage, having been nominated for a Tony as recently as 2013. But she has never had a role like that of the sadistic and overzealous Annie Wilkes, the deranged fan who famously hobbles and humbles her favorite author. Metcalf is sure to be absolutely terrifying.

Stephen King writes novels that really want to be movies — or TV shows. The King oeuvre just adapts well to film. But of all the King books, Misery is singularly tailor-made for the stage. Sure, the James Caan-Kathy Bates flick was terrific (she won an Oscar, after all) but the horrid intimacy — even claustrophobia — of the Misery story is so well suited the stage. The 83-year-old William Goldman, in a return to Broadway, wrote the play.