Richard Thomas Set for Jury Duty in National Tour of Twelve Angry Men

Richard Thomas will headline the Roundabout Theatre Company tour of Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men. He will play Juror #8, the role Boyd Gaines originated in last season's acclaimed Broadway mounting of the courtroom drama, according to Variety.

Thomas has become a theater fixture in the last few years. He worked with the Roundabout earlier this season when he starred on Broadway in A Naked Girl on the Appian Way. This past summer he played Touchstone in As You Like It at Central Park's Delacorte Theatre. During the 2004-2005 season he appeared on the Great White Way in Democracy and a season earlier he starred off-Broadway in The Stendhal Syndrome. Thomas is famous for playing John-Boy on the TV hit The Waltons from 1972 through 1977 and has revisited the character in subsequent reunion specials A Walton Thanksgiving, A Walton Wedding and A Walton Easter. In addition to the aforementioned shows, his Broadway credits include Sunrise at Campobello, Strange Interlude, The Playroom, Everything in the Garden, Fifth of July, The Front Page, Love Letters. He has appeared off-Broadway in The Seagull, Square One, Tiny Alice, The Stendhal Syndrome and As You Like It among others.

In Twelve Angry Men, a young delinquent awaits sentencing for the manslaughter of his aggressive father. One juror Thomas feels that there is a "reasonable doubt"--to the frustration of his 11 colleagues--thus preventing a quick verdict. During the heated deliberations, the hidden preconceptions and assumptions of the jurors are revealed. When faced with playing the hangman, each juror is forced to face himself.

Twelve Angry Men, directed by Scott Ellis, was a huge hit at the American Airlines Theater last season. The tour of the production is scheduled to kick off at the Shubert Theater in New Haven, Connecticut on September 19.