George C. Wolfe Will Assist Joel Grey for THE NORMAL HEART

Joel Grey, the much-lauded star of both stage and screen, will have a busy spring. The 78-year-old actor is appearing in the Roundabout revival of ANYTHING GOES, and will also be directing THE NORMAL HEART, beginning rehearsals later this month. His schedule will keep him so busy, in fact, that Tony Award-winning director George C. Wolfe will step in to direct THE NORMAL HEART when Grey's projects conflict, reports the New York Times.

"George and I both have a deep love of this play," Grey told the New York Times, "and I'm thrilled we'll get to work together on its Broadway premiere."

In a career that was launched in the early 1950's, Joel Grey has created indelible stage roles including the iconic M.C. in Cabaret (Tony Award), as song and dance man George M. Cohan in George M! (Tony nomination), as Charley VII in Goodtime Charlie (Tony nomination), as Jacobowsky in The Grand Tour (Tony nomination), as Olim in New York City Opera's Silverlake, as Amos Hart in the landmark revival of Chicago and as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz in Wicked. 

THE NORMAL HEART will be his Broadway directorial debut. 

George C. Wolfe's directing credits for the theatre include Angels in America - Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk, Jelly's Last Jam. The Wild Party, Caroline or Change, and A Free Man of Color, among others. He directed the film "Nights in "Rodanthe" and "Lackawanna Blues" for HBO. He is the writer of the award-winning play The Colored Museum and created Harlem Song for the Apollo Theatre. Awards include two Tony Awards, four Obie Awards, Actors Equity Paul Robeson Award, the NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Lambda Liberty Award, among many others. From 1993-2005 he was the Producer of The Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival and serves on the President's Committee for the Arts and The Humanities.

THE NORMAL HEART focuses on the terrifying early years of the AIDS epidemic in New York and the criminal silence of official America in dealing with it. First produced by Joseph Papp and directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg for New York's Public Theater, The play was a critical sensation and ran for 294 performances. Following a successful staged reading in October - also directed by Grey - the show is set for an April 27 opening.

For the full New York Times article, click here.