Matthew Broderick teams with Christopher Hampton on Broadway

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He’s perhaps best known for playing an academic truant in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.’ Now, Matthew Broderick is poised to switch teams and join the ranks of academia in the Broadway revival of Christopher Hampton’s 1970 drama ‘The Philanthropist,’ which is scheduled to open at the American Airlines Theater on April 26.

‘The Philanthropist’ focuses on a professor of philology (the study of language and comparative linguistics) who is unerring in his need to please other people. The play had its Broadway debut in 1971 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre and received a Tony nomination for best play.

Hampton, who won an Oscar for his screen adaptation of ‘Dangerous Liaisons,’ is currently represented on Broadway in the revival of Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull,’ for which he wrote the translation.

‘The Philanthropist,’ which is being produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company, will mark Broderick’s first Broadway engagement since he co-starred with Nathan Lane in the 2005 revival of Neil Simon’s ‘The Odd Couple,’ which received largely negative reviews but still managed to find an audience. In 2001, Broderick and Lane starred in ‘The Producers,’ which received a record 12 Tony Awards.

— David Ng