Broderick to Play Lonergan's Starry Messenger on Broadway in 2007

A play entitled The Starry Messenger, written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, will hit Broadway in April 2007. Matthew Broderick is set to star, according to The New York Times.

The Starry Messenger centers on a Hayden Planetarium astronomy teacher Broderick trying to decode the mysteries of the cosmos and his own life. Naked Angels presented an in-progress reading of this work at the West Bank Café all the way back in the spring of 1996.

This will not be the first time Broderick, a two-time Tony winner currently appearing on Broadway in The Odd Couple, has worked with Lonergan on a major venture. Broderick appeared in Lonergan's acclaimed 2000 film You Can Count on Me and will also be featured in the writer/director's next movie, Margaret. Margaret is expected to be released later this year.

Lonergan, who first made a splash with the play This is Our Youth in the mid-to-late 90s, was last represented on the New York stage with Lobby Hero in 2001. The Starry Messenger will mark his Broadway debut.