NEW YORK -- From spunky "Little Miss Sunshine" to an even more heroic young girl.

Abigail Breslin will play Helen Keller in the first Broadway revival of William Gibson's "The Miracle Worker," scheduled to open on March 3, producer David Richenthal announced last week. Previews begin Feb. 12 at Circle in the Square Theatre.

Alison Pill will portray Annie Sullivan, the determined instructor who teaches the deaf and blind Helen how to communicate.

"I am so honored," the 13-year-old Breslin said in an interview. "It's like the biggest thing in the world. ... I have read the biography of Helen Keller. So I've always known the story, and it's always been something I wanted to play.

"Helen is a hero of mine -- for so many reasons. She never gave up on herself and she had so many people who believed in her, like her teacher Annie Sullivan."

About Breslin, Richenthal said: "I have never met a young girl her age who is so clear-eyed and unstarry. Helen Keller was brilliant -- an IQ of 150-something -- and obviously a courageous person to overcome what she did. I see in Abigail those qualities."

Gibson wrote "The Miracle Worker" for television's "Playhouse 90" in 1957, with Teresa Wright as Annie Sullivan and Patty (billed as Patricia) McCormack as Helen Keller. His Broadway adaptation opened two years later with Anne Bancroft as Annie and Patty Duke as Helen. The stage production ran for more than 700 performances. Both actresses won Academy Awards for their performances in the 1962 film version.

There have been several subsequent television versions, including one in 1979 in which Duke played the teacher and Melissa Gilbert her pupil.

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