Chrissy Metz, a breakout star of NBC’s “This is Us,” will make her stage debut in an updated version of Neil LaBute’s “Fat Pig” in Los Angeles in May.
The play premiered Off Broadway in 2004, and follows the relationship between a man, Tom, and a heavyset woman, Helen, who is mocked relentlessly by Tom’s colleagues. Helen will be played by Ms. Metz, whose “This is Us” character Kate Pearson faces similar struggles with her weight. For that role, she just received a Golden Globe nomination and, earlier this year, an Emmy nomination.
Ms. Metz has experience with the part of Helen: she played her in a one-night staged reading to benefit the MCC Theater in New York in March.
The play will run from May 23- June 24 at the Geffen Playhouse, where it ran in 2007 with Chris Pine as Carter. But this version will look different: Mr. LaBute has revised the script and written a new ending. “Not long after ‘Fat Pig’s’ extended run at the Geffen, I decided to expand the play to include another office scene and a varied take on the ending,” Mr. LaBute wrote in a statement. “Both of these additions give new voice to the female characters in particular, yet I have never allowed the material to be added to a production until now.”
Jo Bonney, who directed the original production, will direct. The rest of the cast has yet to be announced.
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