Anika Noni Rose Will Be Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with Rashad, Jones & Howard

An all-star cast of Phylicia Rashad, James Earl Jones, Anika Noni Rose and Terrence Howard will star in Debbie Allen's forthcoming revival of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The production will begin performances at the Broadhurst Theatre on February 12, 2008, and open on March 6.

Set in a plantation house in Mississippi, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof tells the story of the rivalries and misunderstandings that tear apart a family as it gathers for the 65th birthday of its patriarch, Big Daddy Jones. Rashad in real life, the older sister of director Allen is cast as Big Mama, Howard will play their alcoholic son Brick, and Rose has been cast in the iconic role of Maggie, Brick's restless wife who refers to herself as a "cat on a hot tin roof."

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof first opened on Broadway in March of 1955 and ran a total of 694 performances at the Morosco Theatre, winning the Pulitzer Prize. The play has been revived on the Great White Way three times, in 1974, 1990 and most recently in 2003 at the Music Box Theatre, starring Ashley Judd as Maggie, Jason Patric as Brick, Ned Beatty as Big Daddy and Tony nominee Margo Martindale as Big Mama. The 2008 revival will mark the first African-American production of the play approved by Williams' estate for the Broadway stage.

Rashad is currently playing the Queen in Lincoln Center Theater's production of Cymbeline. She won a Best Actress Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun and received a Tony nomination for August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. Other Broadway credits include Jelly's Last Jam, Into the Woods, Dreamgirls and The Wiz. Off-Broadway, she played the title role in Bernarda Alba and appeared in The Story, Helen, Blue, The Vagina Monologues and Everybody's Ruby. A two-time Emmy nominee, she is best known as Clair Huxtable in The Cosby Show.

Jones won Best Actor Tony Awards for August Wilson's Fences and for The Great White Hope and was nominated for a Tony for his performance in the revival of On Golden Pond. His many Broadway credits include Master Harold and the Boys, Othello, A Lesson from Aloes, Paul Robeson, Of Mice and Men and The Iceman Cometh. Off-Broadway and in Central Park, he has starred in productions of King Lear, The Cherry Orchard, Hamlet, Boesman and Lena, Troilus and Cressida, Coriolanus, Baal and The Blood Knot.

Rose won a Best Featured Actor Tony Award for Caroline, or Change and has appeared on Broadway in Footloose and off-Broadway in Eli's Comin'. She played Lorell in the film version of Dreamgirls and appeared in the TV miniseries The Starter Wife.

Howard received an Academy Award nomination for Hustle and Flow and has starred on the big screen in August Rush, Awake, The Brave Ones, Idlewild, Crash, Four Brothers and Get Rich or Die Tryin' among many others. His TV credits include the HBO movie version of Ruben Santiago-Hudson's Lackawanna Blues.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is being presented on Broadway by Front Row Productions and produced by Stephen C. Byrd. The design team will include Ray Klausen sets, William Grant lights and Jane Greenwood costumes.