Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose (Caroline, or Change, Hollywood's "Dreamgirls") will play frisky Maggie the Cat; Academy Award nominee Howard ("Hustle & Flow," "Crash") will play drunken jock husband Brick, marking the film actor's Broadway debut; Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad (A Raisin in the Sun) will play Maggie's mother-in-law, Big Mama; and acting legend Jones (The Great White Hope, Fences, "Star Wars") will play the ailing patriarch Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams' play about "mendacity" and greed in a Mississippi family.

The limited engagement of the Pulitzer Prize-honored classic will begin Feb. 12, 2008, and open March 6 at the Broadhurst Theatre. Tickets are on sale through April 13.

This will be the first time an African-American cast appears in the Williams play on Broadway; there is a regional precedent for the casting conceit.

Cat is being presented by Front Row Productions and produced by Stephen C. Byrd, who stated, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has been revived on Broadway four times before; this production marks the first African-American production approved by Williams estate for the Broadway stage. This revival of Cat is not only making Broadway history, it is making American theatre and black theatre history too!"

The design team includes Ray Klausen (sets), William Grant (lights) and Jane Greenwood (costumes).

Tickets go on sale Dec. 29, 2007, and can be purchased at www.telecharge.com or by calling (212) 239-6200. For more information, visit www.Cat2008onBroadway.com.