Steve Carell will make his Broadway debut as Uncle Vanya next spring

Steve Carell, the screen actor best known for his breakout role as a bumbling boss in the comedy “The Office,” will make his Broadway debut in a revival of Chekhov’s classic play.Uncle Vanya“.

Carell will lead a cast of veteran television, film and theater stars in the production, which will begin performances April 2 and open April 24 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, one of the homes of the nonprofit Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater.

“Uncle Vanya” is a dark Russian drama, first performed in 1899, about a rural family whose dreary but stable routine is disrupted when their long-absent landlord, a retired professor, comes to visit his new, younger wife. . The play has been performed and adapted several times — this will be the 11th production on Broadway — and this iteration will be based on a new translation by Heidi Schreck, whose previous Broadway project was an autobiographical show called “What Does the Constitution Mean to Me?” It is expected to be the most widely performed play in American theaters this season (excluding plays by Shakespeare and Dickens).

Carell, who played a regional manager in The Office, will also play a manager in Uncle Vanya. His character is the long-suffering country estate manager (and brother of the professor’s first wife); He oversees the estate with his niece, Sonia, who will be played by Alison Pill, who last appeared on Broadway in a revival of “Three Tall Women” and was a Tony Award nominee for her role in “The Lieutenant of Inishmore.” They will be joined by William Jackson Harper, an alumnus of the NBC comedy “The Good Place,” who this year wowed Off-Broadway audiences with his starring role in “Primary Trust”; He will play the role of Astrov, a local doctor.