Of Mice and Men: Leighton Meester joins cast

"Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester will make her Broadway debut starring as 'Curley's Wife' in the upcoming Broadway revival of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, directed by Tony Award winner Anna D. Shapiro.

Meester will join the previously announced Academy Award nominee James Franco and BAFTA Award nominee Chris O'Dowd, who are also making their Broadway debut in the revival.

Meester starred as "Blair Waldorf" on the TV show "Gossip Girl." Her other TV credits include "24," "Entourage" and "House." She is also a singer/songwriter and among other movies, starred opposite Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim McGRaw in the feature film "Country Strong."

The rest of the cast and the design team will be announced shortly.

Of Mice and Men will open at the Longacre Theatre on 16 Apr 2014, following previews from 19 Mar 2014, where it will play a strictly limited engagement through to 27 Jul 2014.

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is set against the backdrop of America's Great Depression and tells the story of the friendship between George (James Franco) and Lennie (Chris O'Dowd) who dream of buying a small farm of their own after years of ekeing out a living as itinerant farm workers. The two friends soon discover the flip side of their American Dream and the friendship is tested to its limits.

The revival of Of Mice and Men is being produced on Broadway by David Binder, with Kate Lear, Darren Bagert, Adam Zotovich, Barbara Whitman and Latitude Link. 101 Productions, Ltd are the executive producers.

Of Mice and Men premiered on Broadway in 1937, in a production directed by George S. Kaufman, and which starred Wallace Ford as 'George' and Broderick Crawford as 'Lennie.'

It was revived on Broadway in 1974, starring Kevin Conway as 'George' and 'James Earl Jones' as 'Lennie,' with directon by Edwin Sherin.