‘Take Me Out’ Returning to Broadway in October With Jesse Williams, Jesse Tyler Ferguson
“Take Me Out,” this year’s Tony Award winner for best revival of a play, will make a rare return engagement on Broadway after taking its final curtain call in June.
The comedic drama about a star baseball player who comes out as gay and the impact that has on the team’s clubhouse, nabbed four Tonys, including a best featured actor in a play prize for Jesse Tyler Ferguson. It also generated a lot of buzz for its ample on-stage nudity (that aspect led the show’s producers to require patrons to lock their phones in Yondr pouches to prevent photos from leaking online).
Ferguson will return for the production, as will Jesse Williams, the “Grey’s Anatomy” star who won raves for his lead performance. “Take Me Out” will open its doors on Thursday, Oct. 27 at the Schoenfeld Theatre. The show is written by Richard Greenberg and directed by Scott Ellis. Barry and Fran Weissler are lead producers. The play was originally staged on Broadway in 2003 and took home Tony Awards for best play, best direction of a play and best performance by a featured actor in a play for Denis O’Hare.
“Second Stage’s Tony Award-winning production was one of the most buzzed about plays of the spring season, and its limited run was too brief to capture the interest and demand for tickets,” said Barry Weissler. “Fran and I are so honored to serve as pinch-hitters and take the show into extra innings. We were blown away when we saw it at the Hayes earlier this year under Scott Ellis’ brilliant direction. After being big fans when the play premiered back in 2004, we were struck by how relevant and timely it continues to be. Richard Greenberg brilliantly uses the lens of America’s favorite pastime to expose and explore the prejudices that divide us, but he strikes the perfect balance, managing to entertain as well as enlighten. In short, to borrow a line from the show, Fran and I ‘have come to understand that baseball is a perfect metaphor for hope in a democratic society!’”
The remainder of the cast will be announced at a later date.