Orlando Bloom, Condola Rashad to Star in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ on Broadway

A Broadway version of “Romeo and Juliet,” from the director David Leveaux (“Arcadia”), will showcase Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers as an interracial couple.

Orlando Bloom, who made his London stage debut in 2007 after a film breakthrough in the “Lord of the Rings” movies, will play Romeo. Condola Rashad, a Tony nominee for “Stick Fly” and about to open in “The Trip to Bountiful,” will be Juliet. The play is to begin previews Aug. 24 for a Sept. 19 opening at the Richard Rodgers Theater. Jayne Houdyshell will play the Nurse and Joe Morton will be Lord Capulet, with additional casting to be announced.

“They could have been any number of different ethnicities,” Mr. Leveaux said in a telephone interview, referring to his casting choices. “The two actors I wanted to be together producing sparks just happened to be those two and I followed my nose in casting the families.” He decided to make the Capulets an all-black clan and the Montagues all-white to reflect real life rather than make a comment on race, he added.

“There was nothing simple about that choice but I’m not about to turn a contemporary version of Shakespeare into a sociological or political point,” he said. “We know there are families from one background or another who would reject their children getting together with someone from another group. Romeo and Juliet reject that notion. It is still the case that children try to oppose the cultural expectations thrust upon them, the rigidity of tribes, the rigidity of fundamentalism.”

Classic Stage Company recently announced its own fall production Off Broadway, which will star the film actress Elizabeth Olsen (“Martha Marcy May Marlene”) as Juliet.