Bernadette Peters, Halle Bailey, & More Join Jesse Eisenberg Musical Comedy

Following his success with A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg has added more stars to his untitled musical comedy film. Joining the previously announced Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti are Broadway legend Bernadette Peters, The Little Mermaid star Halle Bailey, and Havana Rose Liu (Bottoms, off-Broadway's All Nighter), according to Variety. The movie also features Tony Award-winner Bonnie Milligan, Dear Evan Hanson's Colton Ryan, along with Broadway alums Lilli Cooper (Tootsie, The Cottage) and Maulik Pancholy (30 Rock, Phineas and Ferb).

The currently untitled film follows a timid woman (Moore) who is unexpectedly cast in a community theater production of an original musical. After joining the production, she finds herself lost under the spell of the character and the dynamic director (Giamatti).

In addition to writing the original music and lyrics and directing the feature, Eisneberg will also star. Music supervision will be done by Steven Gizicki, with Bill Sherman as the executive music producer. Hamilton's Andy Blankenbuehler is providing choreography for the film. 

As Eisenberg previously teased on The Kelly Clarkson Show, he has written both the script and the original songs featured in the in-universe musical. "You see the rehearsals and everything...Since I wrote the music for it, if the music is bad, no one will think it's my fault: they'll think that's the intention," he deadpanned on the show. Production will begin early next year.

Most recently, Eisenberg wrote, directed, and starred in the dramedy A Real Pain alongside Kieran Culkin, which hit theaters in November.

Eisenberg made his television debut with the short-lived comedy-drama series Get Real (1999–2000). Following his first leading role in the film Roger Dodger (2002), he appeared in the films The Village (2004) and The Squid and the Whale (2005) and led the 2009 comedies Adventureland and Zombieland. He gained wider recognition for starring as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher's film The Social Network (2010), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Last year, Eisenberg made a special appearance during the New York City Center stage production of Titanic.  In October 2011, Eisenberg made his playwriting debut in Rattlestick Playwrights Theater's Off-Broadway production of Asuncion, staged at Cherry Lane Theatre.

Eisenberg also acted in the play, which was directed by Kip Fagan. His other playwrighting credits include The Revisionist, The Spoils, and Happy Talk. Stage acting credits include Summer and Smoke (1996), The Gathering (1999), Orphans (2005), Scarcity (2007), The Final Interrogation of Ceausescu's Dog (2015), A Little Part of All of Us (2015), The Blizzard (2016), Oh, Hello (2016), The Peopel Speak (2017), Shoshana and Her Lovers (2017), as well as The 24-Hour Plays on Broadway.