Orlando Bloom & Condola Rashad are Romeo & Juliet

Orlando Bloom is making his Broadway debut in a production of Romeo and Juliet, sharing the stage with Tony Award nominee Condola Rashad.

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When the show opens this fall, Bloom and Rashad will become the first actors to play Shakespeare's famous star-crossed lovers on Broadway in the last 36 years.

"Shakespeare did not only write of his world -- he imagined ours," said director and five-time Tony Award nominee David Leveaux. "The very improbability that two young people might, through their imaginations and their courage, change the world by overcoming the cynical tyranny of division handed down to them by their elders, is the best and happily most improbable reason I can imagine to bring this story to the Broadway stage today."

Although best known for his big-screen roles in the Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises, Bloom has considerable stage experience, having made his professional debut in a West End production of David Storey's In Celebration.

Rashad recently starred in the Lifetime remake of Steel Magnolias, featuring Queen Latifah and Alfre Woodard, and earned a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut in 2012's Stick Fly.

Romeo and Juliet begins previews at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on August 24 and officially opens on September 19. Tickets will become available to the general public via ticketmaster.com on Monday, April 8.