Emmy Winner Jim Parsons and Lee Pace Join Broadway's The Normal Heart

Jim Parsons, the Emmy Award-winning star of The Big Bang Theory, and Pushing Daisies alum Lee Pace are the latest additions to the cast of the forthcoming Broadway production of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart. The play will begin a limited 12-week engagement at the Golden Theatre on April 19 and open on April 27, directed by Anything Goes star Joel Grey, with assistance from George C. Wolfe.

Parsons and Pace will make their Broadway debuts in the roles of AIDS activists Tommy Boatwright and Bruce Niles, respectively. They join previously announced stars Joe Mantello in the leading role of writer/activist Ned Weeks, Ellen Barkin as Dr. Emma Brookner and John Benjamin Hickey as Ned’s lover, Felix Turner. Additional casting and creative team information will be announced shortly.

The Normal Heart unfolds like a real-life political thriller as a tight-knit group of friends refuses to let doctors, politicians and the press bury the truth of an unspoken epidemic behind a wall of silence. The play premiered at the Public Theater on April 21, 1985, for a run of 294 performances. The late Brad Davis opened as Ned and was later replaced by Grey. The play was revived at the Public in 2004 with Raul Esparza as Ned.

Parsons won both an Emmy and Golden Globe for playing physicist Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory. Pace has appeared off-Broadway in The Credeaux Canvas, The Fourth Sister, Small Tragedy and Guardians.

The Normal Heart will be produced on Broadway by Daryl Roth and Paul Boskind.