Roslyn Ruff, Christian Camargo, Justin Guarini & More Join Cast of ROMEO & JULIET!

Additional casting has been announced for the upcoming Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet, starring international film star Orlando Bloom and two-time Tony Award nominee Condola Rashad as Shakespeare's titular star-crossed lovers, and directed by five-time Tony Award nominee David Leveaux.

Christian Camargo-last on Broadway in the 2008 production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons and recently seen on screen in the Oscar-winning Best Picture The Hurt Locker, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, and Showtime's "Dexter"-will play the role of Mercutio, Roslyn Ruff (The Piano Lesson, Oscar-nominated film The Help) will play Lady Capulet, and Justin Guarini (American Idiot, Women on the Verge...) will play Paris. Making their Broadway debuts are Conrad Kemp (HBO's The Girl, Jerome Salle's Zulu) as Benvolio; Corey Hawkins as Tybalt, and Geoffrey Owens as Prince Escalus.

ROMEO AND JULIET opens at Broadway's Richard Rodgers Theatre on Thursday, September 19, 2013 following preview performances from Saturday, August 24, 2013. As previously announced, the production also stars Tony Award-winning actor Brent Carver (Kiss of the Spider Woman) as Friar Laurence, two-time Tony Award nominee Jayne Houdyshell (Well, Follies) as the Nurse, and Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper (The Life, "House Of Cards") as Lord Capulet.Further casting and additional creative team members will be announced at a later date.

While Romeo and Juliet is the most famous love story of all time, this production will mark the first time in 36 years that the play will be produced for Broadway. This version of the classic tale will retain Shakespeare's original language but have a modern setting in which members of the Montague family will be white, and the Capulet family will be black.

One of Shakespeare's best known and most beloved plays, Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic-romances dating back over 500 years. The famous youthful lovers first appeared in Italian novella in the 1500's and gained popularity in England after being adapted and translated into English by Arthur Brooke in 1562. As described in Brooke's poem, "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet" - on which Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" is based - while the Montagues and Capulets are from different "races" or "stocks" their deadly feud is not based on their race, but rather on the "grudging envy" of men of "equal state." In this new production, the members of the Montague household will be white, and the blood relatives of the Capulet family will be black. While race defines the family lineages, the original cause of the 'ancient quarrel', passed down by successive generations to their young, has been lost to time. Shakespeare's dramatization of the original poem sets the two young lovers in a context of prejudice, authoritarian parents, and a never ending cycle of 'revenge.' Against this background, the strength of their love changes the world.

The last time Romeo and Juliet was produced on Broadway was the 1977 Circle in the Square production featuring Paul Ryan Rudd and Pamela Payton-Wright. Other notable New York productions include: The Public Theater's 2012 gala staged-reading at the Delacorte Theater starring Kevin Kline and Meryl Streep; the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2011 production at the Park Avenue Armory starring Sam Troughton and Mariah Gale; The Public Theater's 2007 Shakespeare in the Park production starring Oscar Isaac and Lauren Ambrose; the 1986 Shakespeare on Broadway for the Schools repertory production starring Geoffrey Owens and ReGina Taylor; The Old Vic Company's 1956 production at the Winter Garden Theater starring John Neville and Claire Bloom; as well as the 1940 Broadway production starring Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.

Orlando Bloom is appearing with the permission of Actors' Equity Association.

The Richard Rodgers Theatre Box Office opens July 22, 2013. Tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster.com (1-800-745-3000) for performances through Sunday, November 24, 2013. In order to make this production accessible to all, 100 tickets per performance will be set aside at $20 for purchase by students and educators, available at the box office.