Jerry O’Connell has been added to the long list of stars in the upcoming Broadway production of Joe DiPietro’s Living on Love starring Grammy Award-winning opera singer Renée Fleming. Previously announced cast members include Anna Chlumsky and Douglas Sills.
O’Connell will be playing the role of Robert Samson, which was acted by Justin Long in the show's production last summer at the Williamstown Theatre. This is not his first foray onto the Broadway stage, though. O’Connell made his debut on the Great White Way in 2011 in Seminar and also appeared in the off-Broadway show American Hero last spring.
Chlumsky and Sills have returned, having acted in the original show in 2014, along with Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson. Chlumsky is currently acting alongside James Earl Jones in Broadway’s You Can’t Take It With You. Her performance in Living on Love will mean that she will be acting in two shows within one Broadway season.
Directed by Kathleen Marshall, Living on Love stars Fleming as opera singer Raquel De Angelis, whose conductor-husband, played by Sills, starts to fall for Chlumsky, a woman hired to ghostwrite his long-delayed autobiography. She retaliates by hiring her own ghostwriter, O’Connell, but also gets romantically attached.
Fleming will only sing a little in the play, some improvised a cappella.
“I’ve spent my life singing tragic characters, so to be able to make people laugh is an extraordinary joy,” said Fleming.
The show will begin preview performances April 1 at the Longacre Theatre. Opening night is set for April 20.
