Downton Abbey Star Dan Stevens to Join Broadway’s Heiress

Dan Stevens, who stars as Matthew Crawley in the Golden Globe-winning series Downton Abbey, will play the role of Morris Townsend in the upcoming Broadway revival of The Heiress, which will begin performances at a theater to be announced in October 2012.

The actor joins the previously reported stars Jessica Chastain and David Strathairn. Moisés Kaufman will direct the production.

Adapted from the Henry James novel Washington Square by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, the play centers on Catherine Sloper (Chastain), a woman from a wealthy family being courted by a handsome man (Stevens) whom her disapproving father (Strathairn) believes is only after her sizable inheritance.

Stevens’ previous stage credits include the lead role of Septimus Hodge in David Leveaux’s West End production of Arcadia, as well as productions of Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, The Vortex, Hay Fever, Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It. He will appear in the forthcoming feature films Summer in February and Vamps.