Jake Gyllenhaal returning to Broadway for Burn This revival

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Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal is returning to the Broadway stage in a revival of Lanford Wilson's "gorgeous and timeless" play, Burn This.

Gyllenhaal, who received an Oscar nod for cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain, has only appeared in one previous show in New York's famous theatre district.

Burn This will reopen the restored Hudson Theatre in February 2017.

It originally debuted in 1987 with a cast that included John Malkovich and Joan Allen.

A spokesman for the theatre said the work was "one of the essential plays about downtown New York in the raw and gritty 1980s [which was] heralded for its complexity, humour, sexuality and emotional core".

The new production will be the first time one of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright's works has had a Broadway revival.

Director Michael Mayer said Gyllenhaal, who made his Broadway debut in 2014 in Nick Payne's Constellations, was "a dream choice" for the lead role of Pale.

The Hudson Theatre, which opened in 1903 and was granted landmark status for both its internal and external features in 1987, has recently undergone restoration work.

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