(This article, reprinted with permission, featuring Josh Radnor, class of 1992, appeared in the Columbus Dispatch in June, 2002.)

A former Columbus actor will make his Broadway debut in the title role of New York’s hottest play.

Starting Tuesday, Josh Radnor will replace Jason Biggs (An American Pie) for most of the summer in The Graduate.

The Broadway comedy, which stars Kathleen Turner and Alicia Silverstone, has become the best-selling play in New York despite negative reviews.

Turner briefly appears nude in the stage adaptation of the 1967 film about a college graduate who has successive affairs with a mother and her daughter.

Biggs has taken a leave of absence to appear in a Woody Allen film, to be shot during the summer.

Radnor, 27, will continue in the role of Benjamin Braddock until Aug. 18 at the Plymouth Theatre.

The actor appeared in the film Not Another Teen Movie and in the short-lived TV series The Court, starring Sally Field.

His off-Broadway credits include productions at the Manhattan Theatre Club and Blue Light Theatre Company.

The Bexley native, the son of Carol and lawyer Alan, graduated from Bexley High School and Kenyon College in Gambler. He received a master’s degree in acting from New York University.

"Josh is a great guy and a talented actor," said William Goldsmith, artistic and executive director of Columbus Children’s Theatre. "His great presence made the stage his own at every performance."

In the early 1990s with Columbus Children’s Theatre, Radnor played the Baker in an acclaimed production of Into the Woods that toured Scotland and England in 1993.

His other roles there included Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar, Potiphar in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and smaller roles in Godspell and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.