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The Old Man and Leftovers actor Bill Heck is set to replace Patrick J. Adams in the second run of Second Stage Theater’s Tony-winning play Take Me Out.

Heck was announced as Adams’ replacement on Thursday, along with the news that the entirety of the remaining original cast would be returning alongside stars Jesse Williams and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. That includes Julian Cihi, Hiram Delgado, Brandon J. Dirden, Carl Lundstedt, Ken Marks, Michael Oberholtzer, Eduardo Ramos and Tyler Lansing Weaks. Michael Castillejos, Lance Takeshi, Stephen Wattrus and Tim Wright will serve as understudies on the production.

Heck will play Kippy, the shortstop for the fictional major league baseball team the Empires and friend to Williams’ Darren Lemming, the team’s star center fielder and a Black biracial athlete who goes public about his sexuality. Kippy also serves as the show’s narrator.

Actor Bill Heck will join the return Broadway engagement of Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out co-starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Jesse Williams.

Heck will take the role of Kippy, played in the revival’s original staging last spring by Patrick J. Adams, who announced in August that he would not be making the October return due to scheduling conflicts with his CBC original series Plan B.

With the exception of Adams (Suits), the entire cast from the spring production will return. In addition to Ferguson and Williams, the rest of the returning cast includes Julian Cihi, Hiram Delgado, Brandon J. Dirden, Carl Lundstedt, Ken Marks, Michael Oberholtzer, Eduardo Ramos and Tyler Lansing Weaks. Oberholtzer was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance, while Ferguson won the trophy for his.

The Second Stage Theater production is produced by Barry and Fran Weissler...

Some good news from Broadway: Take Me Out, the well-received revival of Richard Greenberg’s baseball play, has extended its run by two weeks at Second Stage’s Hayes Theater.

The comedy-drama, starring Patrick J. Adams, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Jesse Williams, will now run through Saturday, June 11.

The extension, announced today by producer Second Stage Theater, comes just days after Take Me Out opened to overwhelmingly positive reviews on April 4.

Directed by Scott Ellis, Take Me Out also features cast members Julian Cihi, Hiram Delgado, Brandon J. Dirden, Carl Lundstedt, Ken Marks, Michael Oberholtzer, Eduardo Ramos and Tyler Lansing Weaks.

The play charts the aftermath when a big-time baseball star (Williams) comes out as gay.

As of now, there is a lot of uncertainty around Covid when it comes to Broadway. Within the past couple of months, several shows had to suspend performances due to positive cases in their casts, some others had to close permanently, and a couple more are taking hiatuses. The American Theatre Wing also hasn’t announced key dates for this year’s Tony Awards yet.

With that being said, we are now about halfway through the Broadway season, and there are currently 11 productions of plays set to open this spring. Could we be seeing any of them contend at this year’s Tonys? Below is an overview of each play as well as the awards histories of their authors, cast, and directors, plus the opening and (where applicable) closing dates.

“Skeleton Crew” (opened January 26; closes February 20)

This new play by Tony nominee Dominique Morisseau is set in 2008 at a small automotive factory in Detroit,...

Patrick J. Adams, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Jesse Williams have confirmed their return to the Broadway production of Take Me Out when the Richard Greenberg play begins performances next March.

The trio had been set to star in the Second Stage Theater production with a pre-pandemic opening of April 2020. The cast has been expected to return for the postponed 2022 opening, but confirmation came just today. Both Adams and Williams will be making their Broadway debuts.

Take Me Out begins previews at the Hayes Theater on March 9, 2022, and will officially open on April 4.

Also returning are previously announced cast members Julian Cihi, Hiram Delgado, Carl Lundstedt, Ken Marks, Michael Oberholtzer, Eduardo Ramos and Tyler Lansing Weaks. The role of Davey Battle, which was to have been played in the 2020 production by Brandon Dirden, remains to be cast.

The casting announcement was made today by Second Stage Theater. Scott Ellis will direct.

Broadway’s Second Stage Theater has hired Khady Kamara, the managing director of Arena Stage in Washington D.C., as the New York company’s new executive director.

Kamara will join Second Stage, which also includes Off Broadway productions, part-time beginning Sept. 14, then full time on Jan. 4, 2021.

As Arena’s managing director, Kamara is responsible for all of Arena’s combined $19 million earned and contributed income streams, as well as overseeing building operations for the 200,000 square foot Mead Center campus, general management and production. A core focus of her career, according to Second Stage, is strengthening community relations and developing new audiences with a focus on diversity and inclusion.

At Arena, Kamara doubled the subscription base and built strong patron engagement, Second Stage says. She contributed to the world premieres of Dear Evan Hansen and The Originalist, both of which transferred to New York, with Hansen produced Off Broadway by Second Stage.

Producers of Broadway’s Take Me Out starring Patrick J. Adams, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Jesse Williams have set an opening date of April 22, 2021, with previews beginning March 22.

The Second Stage Theater staging of the Richard Greenberg play is the latest production targeting a Spring opening after being interrupted or postponed this year due to Broadway’s Covid-19 shutdown. Take Me Out is directed by Scott Ellis.

In addition to Adams, Ferguson and Williams, Take Me Out, at the Second Stage’s Hayes Theater, will feature Julian Cihi, Hiram Delgado, Brandon J. Dirden, Carl Lundstedt, Ken Marks, Michael Oberholtzer, Eduardo Ramos and Tyler Lansing Weaks. The production had been scheduled to begin previews on April 2, 2020 and officially open on April 23, 2020.

Also aiming for Spring 2021 openings are the Tony Kushner-Jeanine Tesori musical Caroline, or Change, The Music Man, Flying Over Sunset, American Buffalo, Plaza Suite and The Minutes. Birthday Candles,...