Is Jessica Biel On the Verge of Broadway's Nervous Breakdown?

By Adam Hetrick
17 May 2010

Jessica Biel
Jessica Biel

Actress Jessica Biel may make her Broadway debut in the musical adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar's 1988 film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

The New York Daily News reports that filmmaker Almodóvar revealed Biel's casting at the Cannes Film Festival this week. Oscar Issac is also likely for the Broadway production.

A representative for Lincoln Center Theater could not confirm casting for the musical penned by David Yazbek (music/lyrics) and Lane (book), who previously collaborated on the Tony-nominated musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Both Biel and Issac participated in earlier workshops of the musical, which also featured Tony Award-winning actress Patti LuPone, Tom Hewitt and Sherie Rene Scott.

Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher (South Pacific, The Light in the Piazza) will direct Women on the Verge, which is slated to begin previews at the Belasco Theatre Oct. 2 and officially open Nov. 4.

The Oscar-nominated film centers on Pepa, a voice-over actress on a mission to deliver an important secret to her philandering boyfriend, Iván. A two-day chase ensues, involving Iván's mentally insane ex-wife, her son Carlos, Shiite terrorists, a mambo-loving taxi driver, gazpacho laced with sleeping pills and a charred bed.