Bradley Cooper will return to Broadway next fall in a revival of “The Elephant Man.”
Rounding out the cast will be Oscar-nominee Patricia Clarkson (“Pieces of April”) and Alessandro Nivola (“Junebug”). All three actors appeared in a 2012 Williamstown Theater Festival production of the play.
Scott Ellis, who oversaw that show, will direct the Broadway production, which will be performed in the Shubert Theatre to be announced at a later date.
Cooper, who is up for Best Supporting Actor at this year’s Academy Awards for his work in “American Hustle,” has told outlets that he has been obsessed with the character of John Merrick since seeing John Hurt‘s performance in the David Lynch film of the same name.
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Cooper also did a version of the play as his Actors Studio Drama School thesis, Backstage reports.
The play centers on Merrick, a disfigured man in Victorian England, who eventually was able to overcome life in a freak show to emerge as a high society fixture.
It was written Bernard Pomerance and was last revived on Broadway in 2002 with Kate Burton and Billy Crudup.
Cooper was last seen on Broadway opposite Julia Roberts in 2006’s “Three Days of Rain.” He has also appeared on-screen in “The Hangover” trilogy, “Limitless” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” for which he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
For the record: An earlier version of this article mistakenly said that Cooper was nominated for an Oscar this year for “Silver Linings Playbook.”