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Haley Joel Osment, on Leave From NYU, to Hit Broadway

Photo: Getty Images


It’s official: American Buffalo has the weirdest cast ever. Michael Riedel reports this morning that Haley Joel Osment, now all grown up, will play the drugged-out young con man Bobby, joining John Leguizamo and Cedric the Entertainer in the late-seventies Mamet classic. This raises the Broadway revival of Buffalo from an interesting show to a must-see possible train wreck; this is Osment’s stage debut, and it’s not like the guy’s been exercising his chops on film — he’s taking the semester off from NYU, “where he’s double-majoring in fine arts and Middle Eastern studies.” (What did you do on your semester off? Smoke pot? Slacker.)

We’re trying to imagine that kid from The Sixth Sense up on a stage, trading Mametese jabs with Cedric the Entertainer, and failing entirely. Is this the most bizarre casting imaginable for this role? We can’t think of anyone more unlikely, short of, you know, their actually casting a stage-trained non-celebrity.

OSMENT: I SEE B’WAY AUDIENCES [NYP]

Haley Joel Osment, on Leave From NYU, to Hit Broadway