Katie Holmes Returning to Broadway

Katie Holmes is headed back to Broadway.

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It was announced on Thursday that the actress has signed on to play Lorna in Theresa Rebeck’s new play, Dead Accounts. The five-character comedy is set to open this fall at the Music Box Theatre and will be directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien (Hairspray, The Coast of Utopia). Jeffrey Finn is producing.

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The move marks Holmes’ first major career step since filing for divorce from Tom Cruise weeks ago and setting up house in New York. Since the split, Holmes has filmed an episode of Project Runway: All Stars and is reported to be working on the indie film Molly, which she also co-wrote and produced. The actress is repped by CAA.

Dead Accounts will mark Holmes’ return to Broadway, where she debuted in 2008’s All My Sons, opposite John Lithgow, Diane Wiest and Patrick Wilson. Tabloid interest in Holmes and Cruise helped pump ticket sales for that Arthur Miller revival, despite a mixed critical response.

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Industry rumors had circulated that Holmes was mulling a role in a planned 2011 run of the rape revenge drama Extremities, for which Chloe Sevigny had also been approached. But that production failed to materialize. 

The new play is also the first new project for Rebeck since she stepped down as the showrunner on NBC's musical dramedy Smash and was replaced by Gossip Girl's Josh Safran. A former writer on NYPD Blue and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Rebeck has previously been on Broadway with the 2007 play Mauritius, and last season with Seminar, which starred Alan Rickman. 

Through the story of a clan thrown into turmoil by an unexpected return, Dead Accounts tackles corporate greed, small-town values and family bonds. Additional casting for the play has not yet been announced.