EXCLUSIVE: The London Barbican Theatre’s scintillating production of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, boasting an all-star ensemble led by Cate Blanchett, Tom Burke and Emma Corrin and directed by the estimable Berlin-based Thomas Ostermeier, is setting course for New York in 2026, multiple sources inform me.

The play, adapted by Duncan Macmillan and Ostermeier, is propelled by blasts of oomph. It feels so marvelously fresh that it could have been written today. Indeed, Macmillan and Ostermeier keep on eye on current events and amend their script as and when significant news emerges.

Like, on Thursday night, Jason Watkin’s Sorin made a point about the “f*cking high tariffs” he has to pay on his country estate’s farm produce, a clear reference to the tariffs introduced Wednesday by the Trump administration.

The line had the Barbican audience whooping with irresistible, gleeful laughter. The reference wasn’t in the show last week.

No deals for a transfer to New York have been set yet. However, my sources tell me that it’s hopeful that the production will glide into a NYC theater “at some point next year.”

Blanchett, who plays Arkádina, the giddy, vainglorious stage idol, declared on Late Show With Stephen Colbert a few weeks ago that she hopes it might move to “the Armory or BAM” [Brooklyn Academy of Music] following its six-week season in London.

Well, the play performs its final show at the Barbican this Saturday, but the cast’s availability is such that it wouldn’t be able to regather until next year.

The Barbican Theatre’s panoramic stage, with a center section thrust into the audience and semi-circular seating, lends itself to how the Park Avenue Armory and BAM can be configured, although it’s worth noting that Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater would also be a good match for the Barbican’s configuration.

Ostermeier’s past productions of Hamlet and Richard III both played at BAM’s Harvey Theater.

The modern dress production at the Barbican is executed with the kind of infectious dynamism for which audiences hunger. All too often these re-examinations of classic pieces can become an endurance test. Who will wilt first, the audience or the actors? I’m thinking here particularly of Rami Malek (he’s good in The Amateur movie) in Oedipus at the Old Vic and Sigourney Weaver in director Jamie Lloyd’s The Tempest at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

While I was excited to see Weaver make her London stage debut, I was in denial for some time over the fact that it had been a disaster. Lloyd made a better fist of it with Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell in the deliciously disco-inspired version of Much Ado About Nothing.

The actress Rosamund Pike and I had a little debate about whether it’s 1970s or 1980s disco, but that’s another story.

There’s a fascinating discussion early on in The Seagull about how theatre has become “elitist and overpriced” and how it bores the bejeezus out of the young, which is what I hear bemoaned constantly. However, I didn’t feel that at the Barbican. As I surveyed the audience — I love looking at punters as much as I do the action on stage — I detected only that young and old alike were enjoying the vigorous exploration of the text.

And who’s not going to have fun watching Blanchett tap-dance and doing the splits! And who’s not going to laugh out loud at Burke breaking the fourth wall to roll up his trousers to show a bit of leg?

Even so, Macmillan, Ostermeier and company capture the essence of Chekhov’s tragic tale with a sense of fun, longing and a lingering sadness. 

No matter how daffy some of it is, the production has the important factor of clarity; a quality that the great stage director Peter Hall used to say is a vital component of any revival of a classic.

The Seagull’s full cast is Paul Bazely, Blanchett, Priyanga Burford, Burke, Corrin, Zachary Hart, Paul Higgins, Tanya Reynolds, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Watkins.

It’s produced by Benjamin Lowy and Emily Vaughan-Barratt for Wessex Grove and Gavin Kalin Productions with co-producers Eilene Davidson Productions, Grace Street Creative Group, Kater Gordon Productions, Keren Misgav, Patrick Gracey Productions, Roast Productions, Rupert Gavin & Mallory Factor, Tilted Productions, Winkler & Smalber and The Barbican. 

Blanchett and Burke will be among the presenters at Sunday’s Olivier Awards ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall. The Seagull missed the cut-off but will be eligible for honors next year.

Other presenters on hand to award Olivier busts Sunday include Atwell, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Samantha Barks, Corbin Bleu, Naomi Campbell, Elizabeth Debicki, Idris Elba, Marianne Elliot, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Martin Freeman, Hiddleston, Celia Imrie, Shobana Jeyasingh, Jane Krakowski, Ewan McGregor, Chris O’Dowd, Elaine Paige, Harriet Scott, Bryn Terfel, Gok Wan and Jacqueline Wilson.