West End Boy: Jonathan Groff (right) with his Glee co-star Lea MicheleThere's a gleeful twist to the thriller Simon Russell Beale will lead into the West End in the autumn - Jonathan Groff, the new heartthrob from television's hottest show, Glee, will be joining him on stage.
I can reveal that Groff, 25, who will appear on UK TV screens on Monday in the first of several new episodes of the hit high school comedy, will star with the award-winning Russell Beale in a new production of Ira Levin's comic murder thriller Deathtrap, beginning performances in London on August 21.
Director Matthew Warchus met with the cream of young actors in London, New York and Los Angeles before deciding on Groff.
The actor will play the part of Clifford, a gifted young writer who befriends Sidney Bruhl (Russell Beale), a best-selling novelist and playwright. He turns up at Bruhl's Connecticut home with a new stage thriller which turns out to be superior to anything Bruhl has done.
'Jonathan gave one of the best readings I've heard in my life,' said Warchus, a director not known to scatter such praise lightly
At the time, neither Warchus nor producers David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers knew that Glee would captivate the public's imgination to the extent that it has. Groff made his first singing and dancing appearance on Glee on Tuesday night in the States - in an episode that earned the show its highest ratings to date.
He plays Jesse St John, a student from a rival school who dates Glee diva Rachel (played by Lea Michele) . Grof f described Jesse in the New York Times recently as a 'miva' - which is a male diva, of course! UK viewers will have a chance to check him out when the first series resumes on Monday on E4 (it's repeated on Friday on Channel 4).
Cast: Other Glee actors perform at the White House earlier this monthGroff came to prominence in the NY production of Spring Awakening, in which Ms Michele (pictured with Groff) happened to be his leading lady. He was in an early version of the production of Hair that's just opened at the Gielgud and had a small role in Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock.
As Warchus - and just about everybody else has noted - Groff has star quality in bags.
'It's a bit of a cliché, but there's no denying it.
'He's certainly got the looks, but what is surprising is the depth of acting power he has for someone so young, which is going to be important since
he's going to be holding the stage alongside Simon Russell Beale,' Warchus told me. 'We've got him for his last five minutes before he's a global star.'
Deathtrap was a long-running success both on Broadway and in London three decades ago.
Warchus, who won the Tony award last year for his direction of God Of Carnage, explained he's interested in plays that are on the threshold of moving from dated to classic, like Boeing-Boeing, which he turned into a retro-cool smash.
Before Deathtrap, Warchus will direct Mark Rylance, Joanna Lumley and David Hyde Pierce in La Bete at the Comedy Theatre.
Rehearsals with Russell Beale (currently starring opposite Fiona Shaw in the National Theatre triumph London Assurance), Groff and Anna Massey, returning to the theatre after a long absence, begin in July and producer Pugh told me the first preview at the Noel Coward Theatre is set for August 21, with official opening night on September 7.
source: dailymail