Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus' upcoming Carnegie Hall concert presentation of the new musical KRISTINA has announced full casting.
Tony Award® nominee Louise Pitre returns to the New York stage after originating the role of "Donna Sheridan" in the composing team's global smash hit musical MAMMA MIA! on Broadway.
Kevin Odekirk originated the role of "Robert" in the New York workshop presentation of KRISTINA after making his Broadway debut in Les Misérables.
Previously announced stars Helen Sjöholm, who originated the title role in the Swedish production of KRISTINA, and internationally renowned tenor Russell Watson, lead a 27 member cast featuring Derin Altay, Chris Bohannon, Jane Brockman, Walter Charles, Rebecca Eichenberger, Osborn Focht, Blythe Gruda, Liz Griffith, Joy Hermlyn, David Hess, Michael James Leslie, T. Doyle Leverett, Rob Lorey, Frank Mastrone, Raymond Jaramillo McLeod, Linda Mugleston, Jan Neuberger, Robert Ousley, Sal Sabella, Greg Stone, Jessica Vosk and Kathy Voytko.
Directed by Lars Rudolfsson and featuring the 50 piece American Theatre Orchestra conducted by Tony Award® winner Paul Gemignani, KRISTINA will be performed in concert for two performances only at Carnegie Hall on September 23 and 24, 2009. This will mark the first presentation in English with lyrics by Björn Ulvaeus and Herbert Kretzmer.
Originally titled Kristina från Duvemåla, the musical premiered at the Malmo Music Theatre in Sweden in 1995 to great acclaim from critics and audiences alike. The musical ran for almost four years, winning four Guldmasken Theatre Awards (Sweden's Tony!) and was seen by more people than any other musical in Swedish history.
In 1996, a concert version of KRISTINA was performed (in Swedish) at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota; a part of the country where many of the events in the Moberg novels took place. The Minneapolis Star Tribune called the concert "engaging, emotionally charged and haunting."
Based on The Emigrants series of novels by Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg (The Emigrants, Unto a Good Land, The Settlers, and The Last Letter Home), KRISTINA tells the epic story of an extended family's migration from Sweden to America in the mid-19th Century.
Universal Music is proud to promote the concert alongside Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. A cast recording will follow, released through Universal Music's Decca Records.
Best known as the song-writing partners of ABBA, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus are also the composers of the stage musicals Chess and Mamma Mia!
Louise Pitre (Ulrika) made her Broadway debut and earned a Tony Award® nomination for her role as "Donna Sheridan" in Mamma Mia! when the hit musical opened at the Winter Garden Theatre in 2001, where she starred for two years. A Toronto audience favorite, she has starred as "Fantine" in Les Misérables, as the title role in Edith Piaf and in Annie Get Your Gun, Song and Dance, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris; I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change; The World Goes 'Round; Blood Brothers; Tartuffe; Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?; The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd; Applause and Rock 'n' Roll. She is the winner of three Dora Mavor Moore Awards, the National Broadway Touring Award, a New York Theatre World Award, a San Francisco Critics' Circle Award and a Bessie Award all for best performance by a leading lady in a musical. She can be seen this fall as the host of CTV's new series "Star Portraits" beginning September 12 on Bravo!. Other television: Lifetime's "A Christmas Wedding," "Recipe for a Perfect Christmas," CBC's "MVP," and as Celine Dion's mother "Therese" in the CBC biopic "Celine". Louise is the recipient of honorary degrees from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Humber College and an Honorary Doctorate of Music from her alma mater The University of Western Ontario. She has recorded four studio albums. www.louisepitre.com
