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Pasqua, Cartell and Dowdy Set for TESS At NYMF 9/29-10/9
By: Gabrielle Sierra Sep. 08, 2010
Jenna Pasqua, Nick Cartell, and Broadway's Michelle Dowdy (Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray) will star in the 2010 New York Musical Theatre Festival production of TESS - A New Rock Opera, which will run at the Theatre at St. Clements from September 29th thru October 9th. Based on the classic novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy TESS features music, lyrics, and libretto by award-winning sisters Annie and Jenna Pasqua (who is starring in the title role) and will be directed by frequent Williamstown Theatre Festival director Kate Pines at NYMF.
With a cast of sixteen and entirely sung thru, in TESS - A New Rock Opera, the title character's spirited and innocent life unravels when her impoverished family's desperate need to connect to a once mighty bloodline results in an act of violence and shame. Desired by two men, forsaken by Victorian society, and burdened by secrets and duty, Hardy's dark heroine struggles to remain pure in a stained world and through a maze of intense love and tragic loss, she fights for her moment of happiness which in turn, pulls her towards her ultimate fate. The show blends folk, pop, and classical music within a contemporary rock score, and some of the songs in the production include "Falling," "Resurrection, and "My Angel."
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