Judy Kuhn and Melissa Errico Set to Lead PASSION at Classic Stage Company in 2013

PASSION-20010101

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner announced today that acclaimed/awarding winning actresses Judy Kuhn and Melissa Errico will star as Fosca and Clara in the company's new production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Tony Award-winning musical PASSION, to be directed by John Doyle (the Tony Award-winning revivals of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd and Company). PASSION is slated to begin performances in February, 2013. Additional casting will be announced in the coming weeks and months, as well as full creative team. PASSION opened on Broadway in May of 1994 and received the Tony Award that year for Best Musical.

Judy Kuhn played Fosca previously in Passion, directed by Eric Schaeffer, as part of the Kennedy Center's 2002 Sondheim Celebration. She has been nominated for three Tony Awards and three Drama Desk Awards for her work on Broadway in The Roundabout's hit revival of She Loves Me, the American premiers of Chess and Les Miserables and Rags. Also on Broadway she appeared in Richard Nelson's play Two Shakespearean Actors, Alan Menken & Tim Rice's King David, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Judy played Olga in a new adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters by Craig Lucas (Intiman Theatre) and created the role of Betty Schaefer in the U.S. premiere of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. In London's West End she starred in Metropolis for which she received a Laurence Olivier Award Nomination. Other theatre includes Ricky Ian Gordon's Sycamore Trees (Helen Hayes Award), Michael John LaChiusa's The Highest Yellow, Eli's Comin' at The Vineyard Theatre (Obie Award), title role in The Ballad of Little Jo at the Steppenwolf Theatre Co. (Jeff Award Nomination), As Thousand's Cheer (Drama Dept.), Tina Landau and Ricky Ian Gordon's Dream True (Vineyard Theatre), Strike Up the Band (Encores!), The Glass Menagerie (McCarter Theatre/Emily Mann, dir.), Martin Guerre (Hartford Stage/Mark Lamos, dir.), and Martha Clarke's Endangered Species (BAM).

Judy sang the title role in Disney's Pocahontas as well as the in the sequel Pocahontas II: Journey To A New World. Other film and television appearances include: "Enchanted," "Hope & Faith," "Law & Order," "All My Children," "The Secret Life of Mary Margaret" on HBO), "My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies" on PBS, "The Kennedy Center Honors," "The Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert" on PBS, "In Performance At The White House" on PBS, and the independent feature Day on Fire in which she costarred and performed the soundtrack with John Medeski. Judy has performed on concert stages around the world including appearances at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, The Hollywood Bowl, The Royal Albert Hall in London and with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops Orchestra. She can be heard on numerous original cast recordings as well as her solo album Just In Time: Judy Kuhn Sings Jule Styne. In October of 2007 Judy released a new CD Serious Playground:The Songs of Laura Nyro and has performed selections from the recording in concert at Lincoln Center, Joe's Pub and the Kennedy Center.

Melissa Errico has starred in numerous Broadway musicals and released two major solo CDs: Blue Like That (EMI) and Lullabies and Wildflowers (VMG/Universal). In 2003, Melissa won a Tony-nomination for Best Leading Actress in the Broadway musical Amour, composed by multi-Oscar-winning composer Michel Legrand. During the summer of 2011, Melissa co-starred with Alec Baldwin in Gift of the Gorgon by Peter Shaffer, and reprised Camelot with Jeremy Irons for one-night only on Broadway at The Shubert Theater. Errico's other Broadway credits include Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Children and Art, Dracula, Finian's Rainbow, Short Talks on the Universe, High Society, My Fair Lady and Anna Karenina. Other theater credits include The Threepenny Opera (Wiliamstown Theatre Festival), Sunday in the Park with George (Sondheim Festival) and the off-Broadway productions of One Touch of Venus and Call Me Madam.