Oscar Isaac & Keith David Join Cast of The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Broadway.com has learned that recent Julliard grad Oscar Isaac is set to star as Proteus, the part that was famously played by Raul Julia in the original production, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Keith David will also appear in the Public Theater mounting of the musical in Central Park. They join previously reported headliners Rosario Dawson and Norm Lewis.

Isaac has appeared off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre in When It's Cocktail Time in Cuba. His theatrical credits while at Julliard include Macbeth, American Occupation, The Marriage of Figaro, In the Blood, The Odyssey, Three Sisters, The Architecture of Loss, As You Like It and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. A recipient of a Princess Grace Award for acting, Isaac had a small role in the film All About the Benjamins. After Two Gentlemen of Verona, he is expected to star as late writer Federico García Lorca in the Manhattan Theatre club staging of Nilo Cruz's Beauty of the Father at City Center.

David was nominated for a Tony Award for his work in the musical Jelly's Last Jam. He also appeared on the Great White Way in The Lady from Dubuque, Hedda Gabler and Seven Guitars. He is a veteran of the Delacorte, where he has appeared in Othello, The Pirates of Penzance, Titus Andronicus and The Winter's Tale. His other off-Broadway credits include Public Theater stagings of The Haggadah, a Passover Cantata, Waiting for Godot, A Midsummer Night's Dream, La Boheme, Coriolanus and Kit Marlowe.

This musical version of The Two Gentlemen of Verona utilizes an adaptation by John Guare and Mel Shapiro and features lyrics by Guare and music by Galt MacDermot. It first played at the Delacorte Theatre in 1971. That production received much critical acclaim and transferred to Broadway where it won 1972 Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical.

The show, directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, is scheduled to run at Central Park's Delacorte Theatre from August 16 through September 11.