Tony Nominee Jonathan Groff & True Blood's Rutina Wesley to Co-Star in MCC's The Submission
Tony nominee and Glee featured player Jonathan Groff and True Blood cast member Rutina Wesley have signed on to co-star in MCC Theater’s off-Broadway premiere of Jeff Talbott’s The Submission. Walter Bobbie’s production will begin previews on September 8 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and open on September 27 for a limited engagement through October 22.
Joining Groff and Wesley in the cast are Eddie Kaye Thomas (American Pie, off-Broadway’s Bacheolorette) and Will Rogers (Unnatural Acts, When the Rain Stops Falling).
In The Submission, Shaleeha G’ntamobi’s stirring new play about an alcoholic black mother and her card sharp son trying to get out of the projects has just been accepted into the nation’s preeminent theater festival. Trouble is, Shaleeha G’ntamobi doesn’t exist, except in the imagination of wannabe-playwright Danny Larsen (Groff), who created her as a kind of affirmative-action nom-de-plume. But a nom-de-guerre may prove more useful as the lies pile up, shaky alliances are forged, and everyone dear to Danny must decide whether or not to run for cover as the whole thing threatens to blow up in his lily white face. According to The New York Times, Thomas plays Danny’s boyfriend, and Rogers is cast as Danny’s friend. Details of Wesley’s role are not being revealed.
Groff received a Best Actor Tony nomination for creating the role of Melchior Gabor in Spring Awakening and won an Obie for his work in a pair of Craig Lucas plays, Prayer for My Enemy and The Singing Forest. He starred in the Central Park production of The Bacchae and in the West End revival of Deathtrap opposite Simon Russell Beale. On TV, Groff plays the recurring role of Jesse St. James in Glee.
Wesley is best known for playing Tara Thornton, the hard-luck best friend of Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO vampire drama True Blood. A Juilliard graduate, Wesley appeared on Broadway alongside Julianne Moore in The Vertical Hour and appeared off-Broadway in In Darfur. She recently recorded a staged reading of A Raisin in the Sun as part of LA Theatreworks’ Radio Theatre series.
