Haley Joel Osment to Make Broadway Debut in 'American Buffalo'

David Mamet's "American Buffalo," brings in Haley Joel Osment as the third member of the show's junk shop trio which already includes John Lequizamo and Cedric the Entertainer. Osment will be making his Broadway debut in the production.

The 20-year-old Osment, who was an Academy Award nominee for "The Sixth Sense," joins John Leguizamo and Cedric the Entertainer in the revival that begins preview performances Friday, October 31 at Broadway's Belasco Theatre and is scheduled to officially open Nov. 17.

Osment, who began his television and film career at age five, won his first honor, the Youth in Film Award, for his role as Forrest, Jr. in the Oscar-winning feature film, Forrest Gump.

In his last film, Home of the Giants, Haley played a budding writer whose friendship is tested against the backdrop of classic Indiana basketball.  He has squared off with Robert Duvall and Michael Caine in New Line Cinema's Secondhand Lions.  He gave an award-winning performance in legendary director Steven Spielberg's, A.I.  He co-starred with Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt in the adaptation of Catherine Ryan Hyde's novel Pay it Forward, and squeezed in a trip to Poland to shoot Edges of the Lord, where he portrayed a Jewish boy sent away by his parents to hide with a Catholic family during the Nazi occupation.  Osment most recently shot Montana Amazon.

Other feature film credits include Nora Ephron's Mixed Nuts, Jason Alexander's directorial debut For Better or Worse, and Norman Jewison's Bogus, co-starring Whoopi Goldberg and Gerard Depardieu.

In the voice-over arena, Osment is heard as Chip in Walt Disney's animated release Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, as Zephyr in The Hunchback of Notre Dame Deux, as Beary in The Country Bears, and as Mowgli in Disney's The Jungle Book 2.

He made his acting debut starring opposite multi-Emmy winner Edward Asner in the television series "Thunder Alley."  He went on to co-star as Matt Foxworthy on "The Jeff Foxworthy Show," and then appeared as Avery Brown on the long-running series, "Murphy Brown."

Osment's guest starring television credits begin with a two-part special of "The Pretender," playing a kidnapped prodigy whose genius is exploited through mind control. On "Chicago Hope," he found himself stuck in an elevator with a corpse.  As guest star on "Touched By An Angel," he explored the true-life story of Lou Gehrig's disease.  And on a two-part special of "Walker Texas Ranger," he played Lucas, an orphaned boy dying of AIDS.  Osment then captured audiences on a heartfelt episode of "Ally McBeal" playing a dying boy who wants to sue God.

In television films, Osment's credits include the HallMark Hall of Fame presentation of "The Ransom of Red Chief," "The Lake," and "I'll Remember April."

His honors include threeYoung Star Awards for performances in TNT's "Last Stand at Saber River" with Tom Selleck, the Hallmark presentation of the CBS drama "Cab to Canada," with Maureen O'Hara, and "The Sixth Sense."  He is a recipient of the Broadcast Film Critics Award, the ShoWest Award and two-time recipient of the Saturn Award.

American Buffalo is a 1976 play by playwright David Mamet and won the 1977 Outer Critics Circle Award. "The play concerns a team of men, Don, Teach, Bob, and Fletcher (who does not appear in the play, but is referred to), who are conspiring to steal a coin collection from a wealthy man. Don, who owns a junk shop, sold a nickel to a man for much less than what it was worth. Out of revenge, he and his friend-in-training, Bob, plan to steal the man's coin collection after suspecting that he went away for the weekend," describes press notes.

The production will be directed by Robert Falls, who has also directed Long Day's Journey Into Night and Glengarry Glen Ross.

 American Buffalo is produced by Elliott Martin, Ben Sprecher, Louise Forlenza, Wendy Federman, and Nelle Nugent

 American Buffalo will play the following schedule at the Belasco Theatre (111 West 44^th Street, between 6^th and 7^th Avenues): Tuesday at 7pm; Wednesday - Saturday at 8pm, Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 3pm.  Tickets go on sale September 4 through www.Telecharge.com or by calling (212) 239-6262 / (888) 268-2020 (outside the NY Metro Area).

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.