Ewan McGregor to Make Broadway Debut in Revival of 'The Real Thing'

The 'Jack the Giant Slayer' star will take on the key role previously played by Jeremy Irons and Stephen Dillane in a new theater production to be directed by Sam Gold.

Ewan McGregor is heading to Broadway in a new revival of Tom Stoppard's critically-acclaimed play "The Real Thing". The "Haywire" actor assumes the lead role of Henry, following the footsteps of Jeremy Irons and Stephen Dillane.

Henry is an unhappily-married playwright who, in this life-imitate-art story, writes a play about a crumbling marriage with his wife Charlotte starring in it. Things get complicated when he falls for Annie, the wife of Charlotte's co-star Max.

Both Irons and Dillane won Tonys for playing the key part in the original 1984 Broadway production and in the 2000 revival respectively.

The new production will be directed by Sam Gold ("Picnic"). Preview performances will start October 2, 2014 before officially opening on October 30 at the American Airlines Theater. The limited engagement show will run until January 4, 2015.

Although "The Real Thing" will be McGregor's Broadway debut, it's actually not his first involvement in a stage play. He starred in a West End revival of "Guys and Dolls" and got a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance. In 2008, he played on the London stage in another critically-acclaimed theater production "Othello".

On the big screen, McGregor was last seen in "Jack the Giant Slayer". He will next be seen in black-comedy drama "August: Osage County" alongside Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and Benedict Cumberbatch. He also lines up "Son of a Gun" and "Jane Got a Gun" as his next projects.