Broadway Vets to Lead THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO at Bay Street Theater

Bay Street Theater has announced the full cast and creative team for THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO, the Tony Award-winning play by Alfred Uhry, directed by Will Pomerantz. The production will run June 28 - July 24.

Atlanta, 1939. It's the premiere of Gone with the Wind, it's the party of the year, and everything is about to change. The wealthy and important Freitag family is looking forward to Ballyhoo, the lavish German Jewish country club ball, and all it will mean for daughters Lala and Sunny. But life turns upside down when their uncle brings home his new employee, a handsome Eastern European bachelor from Brooklyn. Everyone must confront their own beliefs, prejudices, and desires. The family will never be the same as they take a journey filled with comedy, romance, and surprising revelations.

The cast stars Daniel Abeles (Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., Where We're Born) as Peachy Weil; Ari Brand (Bad Jews, Diner) as Joe Farkas; Ellen Harvey (House of Cards, How To Succeed in Business...) as Boo Levy; John Hickok (Amelie, Little Women) as Adolph Freitag; Dori Legg (Madame Secretary, Good Girls Revolt) as Reba Freitag; Erin Neufer (Nathan the Wise, Where We Are) as Lala Levy; and Amanda Kristin Nichols (The Tempest, Moon Over Buffalo) as Sunny Freitag.

The production team includes Alexander Dodge (Set Designer), Mike Billings (Lighting Designer), Lindsay W. Davis (Costume Designer), Jane Shaw (Sound Designer), Andrew Diaz (Props), Meg Murphy (Hair/ Wig Designer), and Kat West (Production Stage Manager). Casting by Stewart/Whitley.

"The Last Night of Ballyhoo is a great romantic comedy by one of our greatest living
American writers, and we are delighted to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of this Tony Award-winning play's premiere as part of our 25th Anniversary at Bay Street," says Artistic Director Scott Schwartz. "With his light and comedic touch, playwright Alfred Uhry brings us a story about family and Jewish identity, and explores questions of cultural assimilation and religious purity. These are timely issues for all of us as Americans, be you Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or from any other faith. I am excited to see this amazing cast and brilliant team of artists create the most glamorous party of the year on stage at Bay Street and bring life to Uhry's complex and refined mothers, daughters, sons and lovers."

Previews are sponsored by Peconic Landing.

STUDENT SUNDAY MATINEES returns this summer for the Mainstage Season, High School and College students can receive (1) FREE admission for the 2pm Sunday performances of THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO. Student ID must be shown.

Returning this year are TALKBACK TUESDAYS with members of THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO cast following each Tuesday performance except for preview week. The talkbacks will also feature special guests, including Rabbi Daniel N. Geffen from Temple Adas Israel in Sag Harbor on Tuesday, July 5. The Rabbi will discuss his reactions to the play with the cast, and will also talk about his childhood in the South during the time when the play is set.

Will Pomerantz (Director) has lead acting and audition workshops across the country and has directed and developed new plays and musicals with such theatres as The Guthrie, American Repertory Theatre, 2nd Stage, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre, Hartford Stage, New York Theater Workshop, The Signature Theatre, The Kennedy Center, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Studio Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum and Ensemble Studio Theater. He has directed world premieres by such playwrights as John Guare, David Auburn, Neil LaBute, Craig Lucas, Kia Corthron, David Lindsay-Abaire, Stephen Belber, Noah Haidle, Linda Cho, Kira Obolensky, and Russell Davis. In addition to his work on new plays, Will has also directed texts by Chekhov, Ibsen, Strindberg, Shakespeare, Shaw and Sophocles.

Daniel Abeles (Peachy Weil)NY Theater: Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. (SohoRep),Empathitrax (EST), The Undeniable Sound of Right Now (Rattlestick), Wyoming (Lesser America), Where We're Born (Rattlestick, Hilltown Plays), Offices (Atlantic Theater Company), Helping People (IRT), Squealer (Lesser America), Too Much Too Soon (TNC), Keep Your Baggage With You... (TNC), Too Little Too Late (HERE), Falling Petals (The New Ohio), Behold! The Bowery (Fringe). Select Regional: reasons to be pretty (Philadelphia Theater Company), The Gnadiges Fraulein(Provincetown), The Comedy of Errors (Lake George). TV: "The Good Wife" (recurring), "Person of Interest", "Forever", "Elementary", "Smash" (recurring), "Law & Order", "Wallflowers". Film: Seattle Road, You Bury Your Own, Son of Mourning, Gasoline. Education: NYU Tisch.

Co-Founder and Co-Producing Director at Lesser America.

Ari Brand (Joe Farkas) Broadway: The Neil Simon Plays (Nederlander, dir. David Cromer). Off-Broadway: My Name Is Asher Lev (Westside, dir. Gordon Edelstein), Black Tie (Primary Stages, dir. Mark Lamos), Romeo and Juliet (NYSF, dir. Michael Greif). Other: Diner (DTC, dir. Kathleen Marshall) Bad Jews (Geffen), Arabian Nights (Berkeley, KC Rep, dir. Mary Zimmerman), Much Ado About Nothing (NYCT), Diary of Anne Frank (Westport), My Name Is Asher Lev (Long Wharf), Claw of the Schwa (Midtown Int'l, MITF Award). Film/TV: "White Collar", To The Flame. Bay Street debut! His work and further information can be seen at www.aribrand.com

Ellen Harvey (Boo Levy) Broadway: Miss Jones in How To Succeed in Business...(starring Daniel Radcliffe), Madame Giry in Phantom Of The Opera (25th Anniversary Cast), The Music Man, Thou Shalt Not. Off-Broadway: Big Love (Eleanor) Signature Theatre. Shakespeare in the Park: Into The Woods (Cinderella's Stepmother). National Tours: Mary Poppins (Miss Andrew, Helen Hayes nomination), Disney's High School Musical (Ms. Darbus), Mamma Mia (Tanya), and Sunset Boulevard. Regional favorites: Animal Crackers (Mrs. Rittenhouse, Williamstown Theater Festival), Pericles(Dionyza, Two River Theatre), Sister Act (Mother Superior, North Shore Music Theater),Phantom (Carlotta, N.C. Theatre), Annie (Ms. Hannigan, Casa Manana), No,No,Nanette (Lucille, Goodspeed Opera House), The Little Mermaid (Ursula, N.C. Theatre), and Into The Woods (Cinderella's Stepmother, The MUNY). Television: Martha Wilson on "House of Cards", "Gotham", "Younger", "Elementary", "Partners", and "Stop The World ..."for A&E. Film: "The Producers", "The Hard Truth". Proud owner of a rescue dog! Everything else: www.ellenharvey.net

John Hickok (Adolph Freitag) On, Broadway, Hickok created the roles of Zoser in Elton John's Aida, Governor Slaton in the Tony-winning Parade, and Professor Bhaer opposite Sutton Foster in Little Women. He can be heard on all three cast albums. Most recently on Broadway he was seen opposite Frank Langella in Man And Boy, and was also in Our Country's Good and Rupert Holmes' Accomplice. Favorite shows in a long career - John Adams in 1776, directed by Frank Galati at ACT in San Francisco, Polonius in Hamlet at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Beauregard opposite Michelle Lee in Mame at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Dillard in Foxfire with James Whitmore at George Street Playhouse, Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet at Tennessee Repertory Theatre, Todd opposite Kim Hunter in the off-B'way premiere of Eye Of The Beholder, which he also directed. He's played Lysander twice and Peter Quince, as well as directed A Midsummer Night's Dream. He's directed all over this country and, in London, directed the critically acclaimed, Olivier-Award-winning world premiere ofBurning Blue at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on the West End. He also directs college productions: Urinetown, Spring Awakening and Rent at CCSU, The Bald Soprano and Albee's American Dream at Queens College, and Hot L Baltimore at Bard. As a teacher, he specializes in Shakespearean verse for actors, which he's taught in NYC, and was a visiting professor in theatre at Bard College for three years.

Dori Legg (Reba Freitag) NY: Toy Box Theatre: The Short Fall; Origin Theatre: Shaving the Pickle. Regional: Portland Center Stage: Other Desert Cities; Syracuse Stage:Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike; Actors Theatre Of Louisville: Noises Off; Fulton Opera House: August: Osage County, Enchanted April, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Prides Crossing, Glorious; Arena Stage: The Women; Folger Shakespeare Theatre: Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Melissa Arctic; Humana Festival: This Beautiful City (The Civilians); Woolly Mammoth: Recent Tragic Events (Helen Hayes Nomination); Triad Stage:Radiunt Abundunt, Snow Queen, Brother Wolf; Studio Theatre: Durang, Durang; Round House: Season's Greetings, Escape from Happiness; Delaware Theatre: The Diary of Anne Frank; Two River Theatre: Barefoot in the Park; Interact Theatre: Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Purloined Letter, Great Expectations, Pirates of Penzance,Iolanthe, Christmas at the Old Bull and Bush. Film: The Daft Penguin, El Camino,Double Negative, Guilty As Charged. TV: "Good Girls Revolt", "Law & Order: SVU", "Law & Order: CI", "Homicide", "As the World Turns", "Late Night with Conan O'Brien".

Erin Neufer (Lala Levy) spent her formative years in Tokyo, Japan before moving to Indiana and then New York, where she currently resides. She earned her Master's Degree at the NYU Graduate Acting Program. New York: Nathan the Wise (CSC with F. Murray Abraham), Where We Are (Ensemble Studio; Workshop), Colony Collapse(New Dramatists; Workshop). Theatre: Pride and Prejudice (CenterStage), Pulse (The Guthrie Theatre), The Seagull, Laughing Stock (Peterborough Players-NH Theatre Award, Best Supporting Actress), The Diary of Anne Frank (Pioneer Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre), Kennedy Center. NYU: Plenty, The Three Sisters, Describe the Night (Rajiv Joseph world premier), Mrs. Warrens Profession, Landscape of the Body.Film: Maybe Tomorrow.2007 Irene Ryan Award Winner.

Amanda Kristin Nichols (Sunny Freitag) a graduate of The University of London - Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (BA Acting); the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater, and LaGuardia High School of Music and Art & Performing Arts. She has worked in film, tv, and theater; including the New Shakespeare Initiative and New Works Festival with Bay Street Theater. Much love and gratitude to the beautiful team at Bay Street!

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