Michael Sheen takes Dylan Thomas play back to New York

Actor Michael Sheen is to direct and star in a production of Under Milk Wood at the American theatre where Dylan Thomas first performed his famous work.

Sheen will take the role of First Voice when the show is staged at the 92Y in New York on 26 October, the eve of the centenary of Thomas's birth.

It will also be broadcast live on BBC Radio Wales.

The all-Welsh cast will include Kate Burton, daughter of Richard Burton who also performed the role of First Voice.

Dylan Thomas narrated the first read-through of Under Milk Wood at the 92Y in 1953, shortly before he died in the city.

It was first recorded for radio in 1954, and has since been adapted for film and television.

Sheen said: "For a play that is set in a fictional Welsh village, Llareggub, written by a Welshman from Swansea, it seems strange that New York would be so associated with the play, but it's where it was first performed, it's where the only recording of Dylan Thomas performing it himself was made here.

"So to be able to go out on to that very same stage, stand or sit behind a lectern exactly where Dylan Thomas did it back in 1953, and all these later to be able to - not recreate that - but to perform it again and give it new life in the same place where it was first born really, then that's incredibly thrilling and very moving.

"And for it to go out at the same time on the radio in Wales, knowing that everyone in Wales will be able to listen to it at the same moment as people in New York are able to sit and listen to it as well, it's terrific."