Up On The Marquee: HARVEY!

 

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) in association with Don Gregory, presents the new Broadway production of Mary Chase's Harvey starring Jim Parsons (Elwood P. Dowd), Jessica Hecht (Veta Louise Simmons), Charles Kimbrough (William R. Chumley, M.D.), Larry Bryggman (Judge Omar Gaffney), Carol Kane (Betty Chumley), Peter Benson (E.J. Lofgren), Tracee Chimo (Myrtle Mae Simmons), Holley Fain (Ruth Kelly, R.N.), Angela Paton (Mrs. Ethel Chauvenet), Rich Sommer (Duane Wilson), Morgan Spector (Lyman Sanderson, M.D.) and directed by Scott Ellis.

 

Performances run on Broadway at Studio 54 (254 West 54th Street). The limited engagement is scheduled to run through August 5th, 2012.

 

The design team includes David Rockwell (Sets), Jane Greenwood (Costumes), Kenneth Posner (Lights), Obadiah Eaves (Sound).

 

Two-time Emmy winner and Golden Globe® Award winner Jim Parsons ("The Big Bang Theory") returns to Broadway after his debut in Larry Kramer's 2011 Tony Award winning play The Normal Heart received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.

 

Roundabout Theatre Company welcomes back many alumni including Jessica Hecht, having last been seen on their stage in After the Fall (2004) and Howard Katz (2006). Larry Bryggman returns after appearing in Twelve Angry Men (2004) and Picnic (1994). Peter Benson returns after the 2006 Tony winning production of The Pajama Game. Holley Fain returns after the 2010 production of Present Laughter.

 

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.

Tickets are available by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212)719-1300 or online at www.roundabouttheatre.org.

Photo credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

'Harvey' at Studio 54

'Harvey' at Studio 54

'Harvey' at Studio 54

'Harvey' at Studio 54