Hank Azaria Will Star on Broadway in Sorkin's Farnsworth Invention

Hank Azaria will star as TV pioneer David Sarnoff in the upcoming Broadway production of Aaron Sorkin's The Farnsworth Invention. The play will begin previews at the Music Box Theatre on October 15 and open on November 14, directed by Des McAnuff Jersey Boys, 700 Sundays. Jimmi Simpson will co-star as Philo T. Farnsworth, the high school student who invented television.

The Farnsworth Invention represents a return to theater for the Emmy-winning creator of TV's The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Sorkin was last represented on Broadway in 1989 with the hit play A Few Good Men. His new play debuted at the La Jolla Playhouse in a month-long workshop production last February.

The Farnsworth Invention centers around the bitter conflict that pitted Philo T. Farnsworth Simpson, a boy genius who invented television as a high school student in 1927, against David Sarnoff Azaria, the head of the Radio Corporation of America RCA. The legal battle between Farnsworth and RCA would later become known as one of the great, tragic examples of legal and industrial force combining to crush a rightful patent owner. In a race that would change humanity forever, two men battle one another for honor, glory and a place in the history books.

Azaria received a Tony nomination for Spamalot and starred in Sexual Perversity in Chicago in London. He has starred in the TV series Huff and Mad About You and will voice several characters in the upcoming movie adaptation of The Simpsons.

Simpson appeared on Broadway in The Rainmaker and spent four seasons with the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where his credits include Camino Real, The Winter's Tale and The Blue Demon. McAnuff directed him in Tartuffe at La Jolla in 2002.

The Farnsworth Invention will be produced on Broadway by Dodger Properties with Steven Spielberg, Dan Cap Productions, Fred Zollo, Latitude Link and the Pelican Group. The design team will include Klara Zieglerova Scenic Design, David C. Woolard Costume Design, Howell Binkley Lighting Design and Walter Trarbach Sound Design. The creative team also includes Andrew Lippa original music and Lisa Shriver choreography.