Roundabout Theatre Company in association with Don Gregory, announced that Jim Parsons (Elwood P. Dowd), Jessica Hecht (Veta Louise Simmons) and Charles Kimbrough (William R. Chumley, M.D.) starring in a new Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize winning comedy Harvey by Mary Chase and directed by Scott Ellis.
Performances of Harvey will begin on May 18th, 2012 on Broadway at Studio 54 (254 West 54th Street) with the official opening set for June 14th, 2012. The limited engagement is scheduled to run through August 5th, 2012.
Two-time Emmy winner and Golden Globe® Award winner Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory”) returns to Broadway after his extremely successful debut in Larry Kramer’s 2011 Tony Award winning play The Normal Heart and received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.
Tony® Award nominee Jessica Hecht returns to Roundabout Theatre Company having last been seen on their stage in Arthur Miller’s After the Fall and Patrick Marber’s Howard Katz. She most recently received a 2010 Tony Award nomination for her role as “Beatrice” in A View From the Bridge.
Tony® and Emmy Award nominee Charles Kimbrough makes his Roundabout debut following his Broadway performances in The Merchant of Venice, Accent on Youth, HayFever, Sunday in the Park…, Company (Tony Nomination). He television work includes “Murphy Brown” for which he received an Emmy Nomination.
Tony Award nominee Scott Ellis is the Associate Artistic Director of Roundabout Theatre Company. For Roundabout Theatre Company he has directed Twelve Angry Men, The Man Who Had All the Luck, The Boys From Syracuse, The Rainmaker, 1776, She Loves Me, Picnic, Company and A Month in the Country.
Harvey was first brought to the Broadway stage in 1944 and was directed by Antoinette Perry. The
play won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1944, and its initial run lasted for four years—1,775 performances. James Stewart assumed the role of “Elwood” from Frank Fay in the 1944 production and originated the role in the 1970 production as well as the film adaptation in 1950. Helen Hayes played “Veta” opposite Mr. Stewart in the 1970 production. Parsons stars as one of modern theatre’s most lovable characters, Elwood P. Dowd. Charming and kind, Elwood has only one character flaw: an unwavering friendship with a 6-foot-tall, invisible white rabbit named Harvey. In order to save the family’s social reputation, Elwood’s sister Veta (Jessica Hecht) takes Elwood to the local sanatorium. But when the doctors mistakenly commit his anxiety-ridden sister, Elwood — and Harvey—slip out of the hospital unbothered, setting off a hilarious whirlwind of confusion and chaos as everyone in town tries to catch a man and his invisible rabbit.
The creative team and the full company will be announced shortly.
For tickets and more information, visit www.roundabouttheatre.org or call Roundabout Ticket Services (212)719-1300. Tickets go on sale to the general public January, 2012.
Harvey will play Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8:00PM with a Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinee at 2:00PM.
