HBO's The Gilded Age is adding more theatre royalty to their cavalcade, with Tony winners Laura Benanti and Robert Sean Leonard joining the cast as recurring characters for the second season of the period drama.
The first season of the Julian Fellowes-penned series debuted January 24 with a cast full of familiar theatre faces, including Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Audra McDonald, Kelli O'Hara, Denée Benton, and Donna Murphy. Altogether the cast of season one had 20 Tony awards between them, and the latest casting announcement for season two brings the total to at least 22.
Leonard, who won a Tony Award in 2001 for his work in The Invention of Love, will play Reverend Matthew Forte, the new rector of the church attended by all the highest New York society. Benanti, a 2008 Tony winner for her performance in Gypsy, will play Susan Blane, a recent widow living in Newport who hires Larry (Harry Richardson) as architect for a major home renovation.
Also joining as recurring guest stars are Christopher Denham, David Furr, Ben Lamb, Matilda Lawler, Dakin Mathews, Michael Braugher, and Nicole Brydon Bloom, with Rebeca Haden, who briefly appeared in the series' first season, returning in a fully recurring role as the mysterious Flora McNeil (opposite Broadway favorite Michael Cerveris).
Fellowes executive produces with Gareth Neame, series’ director Michael Engler, David Crockett, Salli Richardson-Whitfield and Bob Greenblatt. Co-executive producing are writer Sonja Warfield and historical consultant Erica Dunbar. Bernie Telsey and Adam Caldwell from Telsey + Company are the show’s casting directors. The Gilded Age is a co-production between HBO and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.
