Speech & Debate Film, With Sarah Steele and Austin P. McKenzie, Sets Release Date
(© Haley Rynn Ringo)
The film adaptation of Tony winner Stephen Karam's acclaimed drama Speech & Debate will hit select theaters Friday, April 7, Sycamore Pictures has announced. The film will also be distributed the same date on iTunes and VOD platforms.
Karam pens the screenplay for the feature film, which is directed by Dan Harris, the screenwriter behind Superman Returns and X-Men: Apocalypse. Sarah Steele, who took on the role of Diwata in the show's New York premiere at Roundabout Underground in 2007, reprises her performance, joined by Liam James (The Way Way Back) and Austin P. McKenzie (Deaf West's Spring Awakening).
The cast also includes Roger Bart, Janeane Garofalo, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Kal Penn, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and Skylar Astin, with cameos by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kristin Chenoweth, and Darren Criss. Chenoweth also performs an original song.
Speech & Debate, which originally starred Steele alongside Gideon Glick, Jason Fuchs, and Susan Blackwell, follows three high school misfits linked by a scandal involving one of their teachers, who revive their school's long-defunct speech and debate society.
