Blair Underwood has found his Blanche Du Bois. Nicole Ari Parker will make her Broadway debut as Blanche Du Bois, opposite Underwood (also making his Broadway debut) playing Stanley Kowalski, in the Emily Mann-directed production of A Streetcar Named Desire, scheduled to debut in spring 2012.

Unlike her co-star, Ms Parker, who graduated with an acting degree from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, doesn’t have any stage credits that I could immediately identify; so not only will this be her Broadway debut, it also very well could be her stage debut!

And what a stage to start on – the bright lights of Broadway, where many slave for years for opportunities like this.

On screen/on stage chemistry is so crucial in this, given the relationship between these 2 specific characters, and all that transpires between them; I certainly hope both actors deliver.

So, the obvious next question is, who’s going to be on the receiving end of his calls for “STELLA!?”

We’ll find out soon enough.

The play is expected to run in 2012.