T.R. Knight to Exit Grey's Anatomy; Eyes Tenor on Broadway

Grey’s Anatomy star T.R. Knight is reportedly exiting the hit ABC series and may be headed back to his Broadway roots. According to Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello, Knight has been granted release from his contract at Grey’s and is “in talks” to headline a Broadway revival of Ken Ludwig’s 1989 farce Lend Me a Tenor in 2010.

Grey’s producer Shonda Rhimes positioned Knight’s character, Dr. George O’Malley, to be written out by having him hit by a bus in the season-ending episode. Rhimes told EW that the notion of replacing Knight with another actor (via plastic surgery on George) is “hilarious, ridiculous.”

Before becoming an original cast member of Grey’s Anatomy in 2004, T.R. Knight appeared on Broadway in Noises Off and Tartuffe and off-Broadway in This Lime Tree Bower, Scattergood (receiving a Drama Desk Award nomination) and Boy. He began his career at the Guthrie Theatre in his native Minneapolis, where he played Tiny Tim at age five in A Christmas Carol and later appeared in Ah, Wilderness!and Amadeus.

The recent reading of Lend Me a Tenor was reportedly directed by Stanley Tucci and had a cast that included Knight, Alfred Molina, Tony Shalhoub, Jan Maxwell and Marian Seldes. The comedy about a fictional tenor received six 1989 Tony nominations, including Best Play, with a cast that included Tony nominee Victor Garber (in the role Knight would presumably be playing), Tony winner Philip Bosco, Tony nominee Tovah Feldshuh and Ron Holgate in the title role. Directed by Tony winner Jerry Zaks, it ran for 476 performances at the Royale (now the Jacobs) Theatre.