It's always bothered me that the most talented cast member from CW's unimaginably terrible teen drama Gossip Girl, Leighton Meester, has always been the one stuck with the shittiest movie roles. Sure, The Oranges was fine, but what was up with The Roommate? That's My Boy, with its gross incest plot? Monte Carlo? Country Strong? Meester is great, and I will admit that a few of the projects she currently has in the works are interesting — namely Life Partners , with her fiancé Adam Brody, and Community star Gillian Jacobs — but all of her already released projects have been greatly disappointing, and not at all worthy of an actress that is of the caliber Meester is. So, color me insanely ecstatic to hear about her next move: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Leighton Meester is set to make her Broadway debut in Of Mice and Men at the Longacre Theatre in NYC. Even better, it's the same production that's already got James Franco and Chris O'Dowd set to star.
Meester will reportedly be portraying the character of ranch boss Curley's wife in the production, which is, of course, based off of John Steinbeck's classic novella of the same name that you probably read/pretended to read in high school. Curley's wife, if you don't recall, is described as "the flirtatious, lonely farm beauty nursing broken dreams of movie stardom, who turns the head of gentle giant Lennie... spelling tragedy for the simple-minded field worker." As for Franco and O'Dowd, they'll be portraying main characters George and Lennie.
Most significantly, though: This is the first time that the production has been on stage in about 40 years, so it's bound to get a lot of attention. (And for once, it's pretty much guaranteed that Leighton is going to have some good material to work with. Finally!)
The production will begin previews on March 19, and officially open on April 16, to run as a limited engagement until July 27. Tickets will go on sale Jan. 11.
The past few weeks have been pretty big for Meester — in addition to this news, it's also been confirmed that she former GG star is engaged to her boyfriend of nearly a year, Adam Brody.
