A Tale of Two Cities, Slated for Dec. '06 Bway Run, Fills Out Artistic Team

By: Dec. 19, 2005
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A choreographer and design team has been announced for the Broadway-bound production of A Tale of Two Cities.

The show, which has been long in development, has also announced a targeted December 2006 Broadway opening.  It would follow a fall 2006 out-of-town tryout.

Thommie Walsh (My One and Only) has been assigned the job of choreographer, while sets will be handled by Tony Walton (Guys and Dolls, Grand Hotel, Pippin), lighting by Christopher Akerlind (The Light in the Piazza) and costumes by David Zinn (Bach at Leipzig).  They will join Michael Donald Edwards, who was recently announced as the show's director after a months-long search that followed the withdrawal of previous director David H. Bell.  Edwards has won acclaim for his work as a director of both theatre and opera.

A Chicago tryout was to have preceded the Broadway opening, but plans for an engagment in the Windy City have now been scrapped.  The musical was originally slated to open on Broadway in spring of 2006, although no theatre was announced.

A Tale of Two Cities, which will be produced by Ron Sharpe/>/>, Barbra Russell, Sharon Fordham, Donald Warner, William Broder/>/>ick, Ron Phelps and Mary Laminack, features a book, music and lyrics by Jill Santoriello.

"Set against the epic backdrop of the French Revolution and based on the classic Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities is a sweeping musical about injustice, vengeance and the redemptive power of love. When Dr. Manette is released from the French Bastille after 17 years, he must be resurrected from the brink of madness by his daughter, Lucie. In England they meet two very different men: the exiled French aristocrat, Charles Darnay, whom Lucie marries, and the drunken cynic, Sydney Carton. Soon family secrets and political intrigue combine to draw Lucie and her family back to Paris. At the height of the Reign of Terror, the musical finds an unlikely hero in Carton, inspired by love to make an extraordinary sacrifice," as the show is described in concert notes from last year.

After a summer 2004 concert (and a previous concert and star-studded recording), the show received a workshop in July of this year; it starred Cheyenne Jackson/>/>, James Barbour/>/> and others. A private performance (consisting of three performances over two days) was also held for investors this September, despite the lack of a director.  A Tale of Two Cities' budget, as suits an epic musical about the French Revolution, is currently set at $18 million; the lavish show will also feature a cast of 30. Casting and a Broadway theatre have yet to be announced.

 




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