Report: Mark Ruffalo Cast as Brick in Upcoming Broadway Cat

By Robert Simonson
26 Mar 2003

Mark Ruffalo in a scene from This is Our Youth.
Mark Ruffalo in a scene from This is Our Youth.
Photo by Carol Rosegg

As expected, Off-Broadway actor and indy movie favorite Mark Ruffalo has been cast as Brick in the upcoming Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

The news, long expected, was reported in a profile of Ruffalo in New York magazine. Ruffalo will play opposite Ashley Judd's Maggie the Cat and Ned Beatty's Big Daddy. News of the revival has been slow in coming and difficult to confirm. Repeated calls to Bill Kenwright have gone unreturned.

Ruffalo first made his mark as a misfit teen in Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth. Lonergan and Ruffalo later teamed again for the praised film "You Can Count on Me," the actor's most prominent movie credit to date. Other stage roles include James Lapine's The Moment When at Playwrights Horizons.

Beatty is primarily a film animal, with such credits as "Deliverance," "Network," "Superman," "The Big Easy" and "Nashville" behind him. Judd is also almost exclusively a movie actress, with only one Broadway credit, Picnic, behind her. Her films include such fare as "Kiss the Girls," "Double Jeopardy" and "High Crimes."

The role of Maggie was originated onstage by Barbara Bel Geddes in the 1955 production. Elizabeth Ashley played the part in the 1974 Broadway revival and Kathleen Turner was Broadway's most recent Maggie the Cat in 1990. Burl Ives famously created the part of Big Daddy, with the folk singer forging a new career as a dramatic actor in the process. Fred Gwynne was the bellowing patriarch in 1974 and Charles During won a Tony for the part in 1990. As for Brick, slightly less famous players have filled the troubled, former football player's shoes. Ben Gazzara was the first to drown his sorrows. Keir Dullea was Ashley's husband and Turner tempted Daniel Hugh Kelly.

Produced by Bill Kenwright, this production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof originated on the London stage with direction by Anthony Page. The cast at the Lyric Theatre featured Brendan Fraser, Frances O'Connor, Ned Beatty, Gemma Jones, Abigail McKern and Clive Carter.