Debra Messing to Join Abigail Breslin in ABC's DIRTY DANCING Remake

As previously reported, ABC is at work on adapting the hit 1987 film DIRTY DANCING into a three-hour musical broadcast starring Abigail Breslin as Baby - today, Deadline has confirmed that the project has officially received a green light, with television star and stage alum Debra Messing coming on board.

Messing, who currently stars on NBC's THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA, will take on the role of "Marjorie Houseman, Dr. Houseman's wife and mother of Baby (Breslin) and Lisa. She is a meticulous 1960's housewife who takes great pride in her family and is using this summer vacation to try and rekindle her romance with her workaholic husband."

Fellow Broadway veteran Kelly Bishop played the role in the original film.

Although the production will not be broadcast live, it will be "in the vein of FOX's planned filmed remake of Rocky Horror Picture Show."

Wayne Blair is on board to helm the project and Tony winner Andy Blankenbuehler, who choreographed the hit Broadway musical HAMILTON will serve as choreographer.

The production team will also include Adam Anders and Judy Cairo (producers), Stephen Altman (Production Designer) Adam Anders and Peer Astrom (music). Jessica Sharzer (American Horror Story) will pen the script.

Messing is best known for her role on NBC's Emmy Award-winning comedy series "Will & Grace." Messing captivated television audiences worldwide for eight seasons with her comedic brilliance as Grace Adler, an interior designer whose best friend and soul mate is gay. For her work on the popular sitcom, Messing won the 2003 Emmy Award and received five additional Emmy nominations. She earned a total of seven Golden Globe nominations, seven Screen Actors Guild nominations (winning the ensemble award in 2001), two American Comedy Award nominations and one individual People's Choice Award nomination. She also collected TV Guide's Actress of the Year in a Comedy Series honor in 2001.

Most recently, Messing was seen for two seasons (2012-13) on NBC's "Smash," which chronicled the struggles of getting a Broadway production up and running. The drama was executive produced by Steven Spielberg.

In 2014, Messing appeared in the Manhattan Theater Club's winter production of "Outside Mullingar," opposite Brian F. O'Byrne. The play, which opened Jan. 23, 2014 and had its final performance March 16, was nominated for a 2014 Tony Award for best play.

Messing portrayed Harper Pitt in the pre-Broadway workshop of Tony Kushner's Tony Award-winning play "Angels in America: Perestroika." She then left New York for Seattle to star as Cecily in "The Importance of Being Earnest" and, upon her return, was cast as both Mary-Louise Parker's and Polly Draper's understudy in the New York premiere of John Patrick Shanley's critically acclaimed Off-Broadway play "Four Dogs and a Bone." She next went on to co-star in Paul Rudnick's Off-Broadway play "The Naked Truth."

Off-Broadway, she co-starred with Maria Tucci in the highly acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Donald Margulies' "Collected Stories," which premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club and was chosen as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

On the big screen, Messing was last seen in "Nothing Like the Holidays" and "The Women," both of which were released in 2008. Messing's film work also includes two romantic comedies, "The Wedding Date," opposite Dermot Mulroney, and the box office hit "Along Came Polly," with Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston. In 2002, she co-starred in Woody Allen's comedy "Hollywood Ending."

Photo by Walter McBride