Tommy Tune to Star in Houston Grand Opera's SHOW BOAT, Opening Jan 18

According to the Houston Chronicle, nine-time Tony Award winner, Broadway performer, choreographer and director Tommy Tune is set to play "Cap'n Andy Hawks" in the Houston Grand Opera production of Show Boat, opening January 18, 2013.

"I'm thrilled to return home to Houston to make my debut at Houston Grand Opera performing one of the greatest American classics," Tune told the Chronicle.

Read the original report here.

The Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein musical will be directed by Francesca Zambello in a co-production with Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera and Washington National Opera. Houston Grand Opera artistic director and music director Patrick Summers is set to conduct.

Tune will join Sasha Cooke as "Magnolia Hawks", Joseph Kaiser as "Gaylord Ravenal", Melody Moore as "Julie LaVerne", Morris Robinson as "Joe", Marietta Simpson as "Queenie" and Cheryl Parrish as "Parthy Ann Hawks". Lynn Wyatt will also play "Lady on the Levee".

The creative team also features choreographer Michele Lynch, set designer Peter J. Davison, costume designer Paul Tazewell, lighting designer Mark McCullough and chorus master Richard Bado.

Show Boat follows the theatrical family of The Cotton Blossom as it sails the Mississippi providing musical entertainment at towns along the river. A magical score and epic story make Show Boat a seminal work of the musical theater with a uniquely American accent. Houston Grand Opera's 1982 production made it to Broadway in 1983, directed by Michael Kahn and conducted by John DeMain.

Tune, a Houston native, made his Broadway debut in Baker Street as a dancer, eventually landing a featured role in Seesaw, for which he won his first Tony Award. Since then, Tune appeared as Dr. Dolittle in the US touring revival in 2006, which he also directed. He has also starred on Broadway in Busker Alley, Tommy Tune Tonite!, the US touring revival of Bye Bye Birdie in 1991, My One and Only on Broadway and on tour in the early '80s, which he also directed and choreographed, How Now, Dow Jones and A Joyful Noise. Tune has also appeared on the West End in Mack & Mabel.

He directed and choreographed the Broadway and touring productions of The Will Rogers Follies, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, My One and Only, Nine, A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine and more, as well as Grand Hotel on the West End.

Tune has won nine Tony Awards, eight Drama Desk Awards, three Astaire Awards and the Society of Directors and Choreographers' George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement, as well as the National Medal of Arts.

For more about Show Boat at Houston Grand Opera, visit www.houstongrandopera.org.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.