All Black Cast on to Hit Broadway in "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof"

Debbie Allen directs the new African-American-cast production of the Tennessee Williams classic about greed and lies in a Mississippi family - starring James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Terrence Howard, Anika Noni Rose and Giancarlo Esposito,

The "strictly limited engagement" of the Pulitzer Prize-honored drama will begin previews Feb. 12, 2008, and open March 6 at the Broadhurst Theatre. Tickets are on sale through April 13.

Tony Award winner Rose (Caroline, or Change, Hollywood's "Dreamgirls") will play frisky Maggie the Cat; Academy Award nominee Howard ("Hustle & Flow," "Crash") will play drunken jock husband Brick, marking the film actor's Broadway debut; Tony Award winner Rashad (A Raisin in the Sun) will play Maggie's mother-in-law, Big Mama; acting legend Jones (The Great White Hope, Fences, "Star Wars") will play the ailing patriarch Big Daddy; and Esposito ("Do the Right Thing") will play Brick's brother, Gooper.