Casting News -- May 29, 2009

Complete casting has been announced for the Roundabout Theatre Company's new fall revival of Bye Bye Birdie on Broadway. Nolan Gerard Funk will star as hip-swiveling rock star Conrad Birdie, with Allie Trimm as teen Kim MacAffee, Tony nominee Dee Hoty as Mrs. MacAfee, Matt Doyle as teen Hugo Peabody, Molly Ephraim as teen Ursula Merkle, and Jake Evan Schwencke as little brother Randolph MacAfee. The cast already includes John Stamos, Gina Gershon, Tony winner Bill Irwin, and Tony nominee Jayne Houdyshell. Previews begin Sept. 10 at the new Henry Miller's Theatre; the limited engagement runs Oct. 15, 2009 through Jan. 10, 2010.

Chevy Chase has joined the cast of Hot Tub Time Machine, a comedy starring John Cusack and Rob Corddry. The film follows a bunch of unsatisfied guys who get thrown back to their younger days in 1987 via their Jacuzzi. Chase plays a mysterious repairman who dispenses pearls of wisdom (and may or may not be behind the metaphysical road trip).

Danny McBride will co-write and star in Hench, a comedy based on the graphic novel about a football player who suffers a career-ending injury and needs a job, so he signs on as henchman to a successful villain.

Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey (or, at least their voices) will star in Oobermind, a superhero-themed animated movie from Dreamworks. Downey will voice a supervillain who finds life a little dull after vanquishing good-guy rival Metro Man; Fey's role is not specified. In addition, Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrara, and Jonah Hill will lend their voices to Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon; the animated film is about awkward teen who befriends an injured dragon in the land of Vikings and dragons.

2009 Tony nominees Sutton Foster and Will Swenson will star as the title characters in an invitation-only reading of the new musical Bonnie and Clyde: A Folktale. The cast also includes Marc Kudisch, Debra Monk, and Christopher Sieber. The musical premiered last year at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. The reading performs June 16 in NYC.

Bruce and Demi's daughter Rumer Willis will play a pregnant teen in the upcoming season of The Secret Life of the American Teenager. The episode is scheduled to air mid-August.

Jerry Hall, June Brown, Anita Dobson, Gemma Atkinson, and Jill Halfpenny will take over the West End stage production of Calendar Girls beginning July 28. Jill Baker, Richenda Carey, Sara Crowe, and Jack Ryder are also joining the new cast.

-- Daniel Lehman