Ryan Silverman, Judy Kuhn and Melissa Errico Star in Classic Stage Company's PASSION Beginning Tonight

Ryan Silverman as Giorgio, joins acclaimed/awarding winning actresses Judy Kuhn (as Fosca) and Melissa Errico (as Clara), in the company's new production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Tony Award-winning musical, directed by John Doyle (director of the acclaimed Broadway revivals of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd and Company).

PASSION is slated to begin performances tonight, February 7, 2013 at CSC (136 East 13th Street), with an official press opening scheduled for Thursday, February 28. Passion opened on Broadway in May of 1994 and received the Tony Award that year for Best Musical.

Ryan Silverman (Giorgio) has starred as Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway and in Las Vegas. He has also been featured in Music in the Air (Karl) at Encores!; Cry-Baby on Broadway and The Most Happy Fella (Al) at New York City Opera. In London he played Tony in the Olivier Award-nominated West Side Story. He starred as Sky in the National tour of Mamma Mia!, and as Jose in the world premiere of the new musical Carmen at La Jolla Playhouse. He also performed in the Chicago production of Wicked. Regional credits include Thoroughly Modern Millie (Jimmy), Cinderella (Prince), Grease! (Danny), Hello, Dolly! (Cornelius), Assassins (John Wilkes Booth), Forever Plaid (Smudge), Sweeney Todd (Anthony) and Blood Brothers (Eddie Lyons). TV and film: Gossip Girl, The 5 Minarets Of New York, Sex and the City 2, True Blood. Concert performances with: The New York Pops, Philadelphia Pops, Philadelphia Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, Seattle Symphony, The Cincinnati Pops, Utah Symphony, Houston Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, among others. For more about Silverman, visit www.ryansilverman.com.

Classic Stage Company is the award-winning theatre committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience. Last season, CSC presented critically-acclaimed productions of The Cherry Orchard with John Turturro and Dianne Wiest, which received the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival; Bertolt Brecht's Galileo starring Academy Award-winner F. Murray Abraham, directed by Brian Kulick; and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Bebe Neuwirth and Christina Ricci, directed by Tony Speciale. Past seasons have included critically-acclaimed productions of Chekhov's Three Sisters with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hecht, Juliet Rylance and Peter Sarsgaard, directed by Austin Pendleton (Obie Award); David Ives' The School for Lies with Hamish Linklater (Obie Award), directed by Walter Bobbie; Unnatural Acts, conceived and directed by Tony Speciale; Ostrovsky's The Forest with Dianne Wiest and John Douglas Thompson, directed by Brian Kulick; David Ives' Venus In Fur with Nina Arianda and Wes Bentley, directed by Walter Bobbie; Shakespeare's The Tempest with Mandy Patinkin, directed by Brian Kulick; Chekhov's Uncle Vanya with Denis O'Hare, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, directed by Austin Pendleton; Anne Carson's An Oresteia (International PEN Award for Poetry); Chekhov's The Seagull with Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming; David Ives' New Jerusalem with Richard Easton, directed by Walter Bobbie; Hamlet, Richard II, Richard III with Michael Cumpsty (Obie Award as Hamlet), directed by Brian Kulick; and Yasmina Reza's A Spanish Play with Zoe Caldwell, directed by John Turturro.