Kimberly Whalen, recently seen in Lyric Stage's productions of West Side Story as Maria and Carousel as Julie, steps into the role of Luisa in Off Broadway's The Fantasticks tonight, November 5, 2009. She replaces Addi McDaniel, who played her final performance on October 18, 2009.
Whalen's credits include The Light in the Piazza (Clara) at Theatre Three; A Christmas Carol (Belle) and Cinderella (title role) at Casa Manana; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Philia), Man of La Mancha (Antonia) and Oklahoma! (Laurey) at WaterTower Theater; and Master Class (Sophie) at Maltz Jupiter Theater. Film credits include The Tree of Life (with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn) and Breaking the Press.
The Fantasticks (music by Harvey Schmidt, book/lyrics/direction by Tom Jones) is a captivating and simple romantic comedy about a boy and girl who fall in and out of love at the hands of their meddling fathers. The audience uses its imagination to follow the narrator, El Gallo, as he creates a world of moonlight and magic until the boy and girl find their way back to one other. The score, which includes the hit songs "Try To Remember," "They Were You" and "Soon It's Gonna Rain," is as timeless as the story itself.
Having played a record-breaking 17,162 performances in its original run at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, The Fantasticks is now playing in the heart of Times Square at The Snapple Theater Center.
The Fantasticks company includes Lewis Cleale (Giant, Broadway's Spamalot, Once Upon A Mattress), MacIntyre Dixon (Broadway's Gypsy, 1776, A Funny Thing...Forum, Beauty and The Beast), Tom Flagg (Broadway's Will Rogers Follies, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Oklahoma), Gene Jones (No Country for Old Men, Broadway's Big River, Joe Turner's Come and Gone), Addi McDaniel (Disney's High School Musical at North Shore Music Theatre, Little House on the Prairie at The Guthrie), Michael Nostrand, (A&E's Emmy Award-winning Peter Pan, national tours of Jelly's Last Jam, The Mystery of Edwin Drood), Evy Ortiz, Richard Roland (Broadway's The Scarlet Pimpernel, Follies), Steve Routman (The Keen Company's The Conscientious Objector, Awake and Sing! at Arena Stage), Nick Spangler (winner of "The Amazing Race") and Douglas Ullman, Jr. (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Florida Repertory Theater, The Sound of Music Asia tour).
The Fantasticks plays at The Snapple Theater Center, 210 West 50th Street at Broadway. The performance schedule is as follows: Mondays at 8PM, Wednesdays at 2PM, Thursdays and Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 2PM & 8PM, and Sundays at 3PM & 7:15PM. Tickets for The Fantasticks are available by calling the box office at (212) 921-7862 or Ticketmaster.com at (212) 307-4100.
