Finding Neverland's Matthew Morrison Talks Glee 'Handcuffs' & Returning Home to Broadway

Glee star and Tony nominee Matthew Morrison is heading back to the Great White Way this spring in Finding Neverland. The Broadway alum will star as J.M. Barrie, a role he helped create in the workshop production earlier this year. Many audiences may know him only as Mr. Schue, but the actor says he is ready to return to his roots after “struggling to find something new.”

“I’m excited to not have any more handcuffs, so to speak, and to go back to where my roots are,” Morrison tells the Associated Press. This marks his first Broadway role since Ryan Murphy put him in the small screen handcuffs (or something) in 2009. He last appeared in the revival of South Pacific in 2008 and earned a Tony nomination for The Light in the Piazza in 2005.

There may be some similarities between a high school Glee club advisor and an author with a childlike imagination, but Barrie “is so different—like night and day—from Will Schuester,” Morrison says. He hopes audiences will “walk out with a new respect or appreciation for what I can bring to the table.”

Finding Neverland, directed by Diane Paulus, follows the story of Barrie and his relationship with the family of widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. Llewelyn Davies' children eventually became Barrie's inspiration to write Peter Pan. The recent American Repertory Theater production starred Jeremy Jordan in the role Morrison will reassume. Performances will begin on March 15, 2015 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Additional casting for the Broadway production will be announced later.