CHATTER: Chris Rock to Make Broadway Debut in 'Hat'

Michael Riedel reports in today's New York Post that Chris Rock is set to make his Broadway debut, opposite Bobby Cannavale, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Annabela Sciorra and Yul Vazquez. The play, but Stephen Adly Guirgis is called 'The Motherf***er With the Hat' aka 'Hat'. 

Directed by August: Osage County's Anna D. Shapiro, and produced by Scott Rudin, it'll open April 11 at the Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway for a limited 14 week run. 

The show is said to be able a couple (Cannavale and Rodriguez) in love, and their struggles with drugs and alcohol, in which Rock will play the AA sponsor. 

His 1997 stand-up Chris Rock: Bring the Pain won two Emmys for Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program/Special and his 2000 album Chris Rock: Bigger & Blacker won a Grammy for Best Spoken Comedy Album with the subsequent HBO performance winning an American Comedy Award for Funniest Male Performer in a TV Special. In 2005 Rock hosted the 77th Academy Awards.

Chris Rock has also compiled a notable film and TV career, starting in the late 1980's when he had a small role in Beverly Hills Cop II. This role was the beginning of a long career on the big and small screen. Rock has had roles in movies such as: New Jack City, Dr. Dolittle, Lethal Weapon 4, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Madagascar. He also directed, wrote and stared in the films Head of State and I Think I Love My Wife. As for television, aside from his own show Everybody Hates Chris, Rock has been in Miami Vice, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Martin, Homicide: Life on the Street, and King of the Hill. He was also part of the cast of Saturday Night Live considered the "bad boys of SNL" which included Adam Sandler, David Spade, and Chris Farley.

Chris Rock was voted by Comedy Central as the fifth greatest stand-up comedian of all time.

Stephen Adly Guirgis is a member and the co-artistic director of New York City's LAByrinth Theater Company. His plays have been produced on five continents and throughout the United States. His most recent play, The Little Flower of East Orange, starring Ellen Burstyn and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, completed an extended run at The Public Theater last season. Other plays include Our Lady of 121st Street (10 best plays of 2003; Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Best Play Nominations), Jesus Hopped the ‘A' Train (Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award, Laurence Olivier Nomination for London's Best New Play), In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings (2007 LA Drama Critics Best Play, Best Writing Award), and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (10 best Time Magazine & Entertainment Weekly), produced by LAByrinth in collaboration with The Public Theater. Judas Iscariot also completed a critically acclaimed run in London at the Almeida Theater. All five plays were originally produced by LAByrinth and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Along with his play Den of Thieves, they are all published by Dramatists Play Service as well as by Faber and Faber. His one act play, Dominica The Fat Ugly Ho, was directed by Adam Rapp as part of the 2006 E.S.T. Marathon. His new play, "The Motherf**ker With the Hat" will premiere in New York in the 2010-2011 season. As an actor, he appeared in numerous plays including Guinea Pig Solo, produced by LAByrinth at The Public Theatre, and has had leading film roles in Todd Solondz's Palindromes, Brett C. Leonard's Jailbait opposite Michael Pitt, and in Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret. Other credits include Philip Seymour Hoffman's upcoming Jack Goes Boating, Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche New York, Adam Rapp's Blackbird, Noah Buschel's Neal Cassady, as well as Meet Joe Black, Noise, Trainwreck: My Life as an Idiot, and "Law and Order". His television writing credits include NYPD Blue, The Sopranos, David Milch's CBS drama Big Apple, and Shane Salerno's NBC series UC: Undercover. Stephen has received a 2006 PEN/Laura Pels Award, a 2006 Whiting Award, and a 2004 TCG fellowship. He attended the 2004 Sundance Screenwriter's Lab, and was named one of 2004's 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine. He is the recipient of new play commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Center Theater Group, and South Coast Repertory, and is a member of New Dramatists, MCC's Playwright's Coalition, New River Dramatists, and The Actor's Studio Playwright/Directors Unit. He developed and directed Liza Colón-Zayas' Sistah Supreme for Danny Hoch's Hip Hop Theater Festival, Marco Greco's award-winning Behind the Counter with Mussolini in New York and Los Angeles, and directed Melanie Maras's "Kiss Me on the Mouth" for InViolet Rep. A former Violence Prevention Specialist/H.I.V. Educator, he has facilitated numerous workshops in New York City area prisons, schools, shelters, and hospitals.