"All My Children" Actors in Ottawa for "Harvey"

Actor Walt Willey, who played Jackson Montgomery on the daytime soap "All My Children," has a history of coming back to Ottawa, Illinois, to put on shows for a hometown crowd.This year's choice is "Harvey," the 1944 classic written by Mary Chase about a man who has a large and quite invisible bunny friend.

"Harvey" was a hit back in 44, playing 1775 performances at Broadway's 48th Street Theatre, and again this year, with Jim Parsons from TV's "Big Bang Theory" in the lead role of Elwood P. Dowd, the guy with the rabbit habit.

In Ottawa, Willey himself will play Elwood, with his WilleyWorld Productions partner Kim "Howard" Johnson and several Ottawa actors playing opposite him. Also of note in the cast: Vincent Irizarry, another "All My Kids" star.

Irizarry played heartthrob Lujack on "The Guiding Light" before appearing in the movie "Heartbreak Ridge" and then soaps "Santa Barbara" and "The Young and the Restless." On "All My Children," he was the evil (and yet very sexy) Dr. David Hayward, mad scientist who brought dead people back to life and fixated on certain women he couldn't have.

He will also be playing a doctor -- Dr. Lyman Sanderson -- in "Harvey," as the other people in town try to get ol' Elwood committed because he believes in an imaginary six-foot rabbit.

"Harvey" opens at the Ottawa High School Auditorium on Friday, July 27, continuing through the 29th. For performance details, visit the WilleyWorld Facebook page.