Hugh Jackman returning to Broadway in The River

Hugh Jackman is returning to Broadway for his first dramatic stage role in five years.

The X-Men star will play a reclusive fisherman caught up in the probe into a woman's disappearance in Jez Butterworth's The River.

The three-hander, co-starring British actress Cush Jumbo and Northern Irish star Laura Donnelly, will begin previews at the Circle in the Square Theater in October (14) before officially opening on 16 November (14).

Jackman says, "I'm going back to Broadway. I'm doing a play called The River, a Jez Butterworth play. So I'm really looking forward to treading the boards here on Broadway."

His last Broadway play was in 2009 when he starred alongside Daniel Craig in cop drama A Steady Rain. He returned to the Great White Way in 2011 for his one-man musical extravaganza Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway.