Jim Parsons Heads to Broadway in 'The Normal Heart'

[JamesG]

Jim Parsons and Lee Pace Join Cast of ‘Normal Heart’ on Broadway
By DAVE ITZKOFF
March 7, 2011


Proving that it is possible for the star of a CBS comedy to take a break from his series without mortifying the network or his co-stars or burning all of his bridges in the entertainment industry, Jim Parsons, the “Big Bang Theory” star, will join the cast of the coming Broadway production of “The Normal Heart,” the play’s press representatives said Monday.

Mr. Parsons, who in recent months has won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of the physicist Sheldon Cooper, will make his Broadway debut in “The Normal Heart,” playing Tommy Boatwright, a Southerner in a nascent group of HIV/AIDS activists in the early 1980s.



Also joining the cast is Lee Pace, a star of the late, lamented ABC series “Pushing Daisies”, who will be making his Broadway debut in the role of Bruce Niles, a closeted fellow activist.







This latest production of “The Normal Heart,” Larry Kramer’s semi-autobiographical work about AIDS, friendship and love in 1980s-era New York, will be directed by Joel Grey (with some help from George C. Wolfe), and is to begin previews at the Golden Theater on April 19 with an opening night planned for April 27.


Previously announced cast members include:
Joe Mantello as the protagonist
Ned Weeks
Ellen Barkin as Dr. Emma Brookner
John Benjamin Hickey as Weeks’s lover, Felix Turner

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