Ana Gasteyer, Wayne Knight & Marc Kudisch to Star in Encores! GIRL CRAZY

Girl Crazy, the first Encores! production of the New York City Center season, will star Ana Gasteyer, Wayne Knight and Marc Kudisch and will run November 19 - 22. Girl Crazy, directed by Jerry Zaks and choreographed by Warren Carlyle with Guest Music Director Rob Fisher, has music and lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin and book by Guy Bolton and Jack McGowan.

Girl Crazy, the Gershwin's fanciful depression-era musical of 1930, is the tale of a sophisticated New Yorker (Chris Diamantopoulos) marooned in a dusty Western cow town with no one who understands him but the Yiddish-speaking cabbie (Wayne Knight) who brought him there and no one to love but the only woman (Becki Newton) within 50 miles. The show gave birth to one of the all-time flashiest Broadway scores, featuring "I Got Rhythm," "Embraceable You," "But Not for Me" and "Bidin' My Time," among others. Girl Crazy opened at the Alvin Theatre on October 14, 1930 and ran for 272 performances.

The Girl Crazy cast features Jeremy Beck, Chris Diamantopoulos, Ana Gasteyer, Mylinda Hull, Wayne Knight, Marc Kudisch, Becki Newton, Richard Poe, Daniel Stewart Sherman and Gregory Wooddell.

Jeremy Beck (Pete Howell) has appeared Off Broadway in Bury the Dead, Betrayed, The Second Tosca, Pink, Bang Big and The Dog in the Manger. His regional credits include Love's Labour's Lost, The Cherry Orchard, Quartermaine's Terms, She Loves Me and A Flea in Her Ear (Williamstown). In London, he appeared in the West End production of Shakespeare's R&J. He appeared in the film Gods and Generals.

Chris Diamantopoulos (Danny Churchill) has appeared on and off Broadway, as Marius in Les Miserables, in The Full Monty, and in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Music of the Night and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, in which he understudied Donny Osmond in the title role. He stars as Rodney in USA Network's "The Starter Wife" and has appeared on numerous television shows, including "Third Watch," "Frasier," "Nip/Tuck," and "The Sopranos." He received a Gemini Award nomination and a Prism Award for his portrayal of Robin Williams in the NBC movie "Behind the Camera: Mork & Mindy." Recently, Mr. Diamantopoulos starred opposite Lili Taylor in the Lifetime series "State Of Mind." He is married to co-star Becki Newton.

Ana Gasteyer (Frisco Kate Fothergill) is currently appearing on Broadway in The Royal Family. Her other Broadway credits include Elphaba in Wicked, Mrs. Peachum in The Threepenny Opera and Columbia in The Rocky Horror Show. Her off Broadway credits include Kimberly Akimbo, The Vagina Monologues, Cinderella (NYC Opera), Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (Pittsburgh CLO), Fosca in Passion (Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Jefferson Award nomination), Elphaba in Wicked (Chicago's Oriental Theatre, Jefferson Award nomination). She was a cast member of "Saturday Night Live" from 1998 - 2002 and played Lindsay Lohan's mother in the feature film Mean Girls, written by Tina Fey.

Mylinda Hull (Patsy West) appeared on Broadway in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Sweet Charity and the 2001 Broadway revival of 42nd Street. Her off Broadway credits include Road Show at the Public Theater, I Love You, You're Perfect..., and the 2004 premiere of Irving Berlin's White Christmas, directed by Walter Bobbie. She made her Encores! debut in Face the Music.

Wayne Knight (Gieber Goldfarb) has appeared on Broadway in the plays Gemini, Mastergate, Art and Sweet Charity with Christina Applegate. Knight is well known for his role as Newman in "Seinfeld" and his appearances on "3rd Rock from the Sun." His film roles include Jurassic Park, Toy Story 2, JFK, Basic Instinct, Dirty Dancing and Tarzan. Currently, Mr. Knight can be seen regularly on the web series, "Woke Up Dead," and in guest appearances on "CSI," "Nip/Tuck" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Marc Kudisch (Slick Fothergill) garnered critical acclaim as well as his third Tony and fourth Drama Desk Award nominations, respectively, in his role as Franklin Hart in 9 to 5. On Broadway, Marc was seen in The Apple Tree, while doing double duty and performing as the Pirate King in New York City Opera's The Pirates of Penzance. Marc had previously been nominated for the Tony Award first for the role of Trevor Graydon in Thoroughly Modern Millie (Drama Desk and Outer Critics nominations as well), and then for Baron Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Outer Critics nomination as well). His other Broadway roles include The Proprietor in Assassins (Drama Desk nomination), Jeff Moss in Bells Are Ringing, Jackie in the Public Theatre's The Wild Party and Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. His previous Encores! credits include No Strings.

Becki Newton (Molly Gray) currently plays the role of Amanda Tanen in "Ugly Betty," a role which earned her an Emmy nomination. She also stars in ABC.com's "Mode After Hours" webisode series and has appeared in "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Charmed." Ms. Newton is married to co-star Chris Diamantopoulos.

Richard Poe (Jake Howell) is a veteran of Broadway's Cry-Baby, Journey's End, M. Butterfly, 1776, Our Country's Good, The Dinner Party, Moon Over Buffalo, Fiddler on the Roof and The Pajama Game. Off Broadway, he was recently seen in Christopher Durang's Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them.

Daniel Stewart Sherman (Lank Sanders) has appeared on Broadway in Desire Under the Elms, Cyrano de Bergerac, A Touch of the Poet, Henry IV and The Full Monty.

Gregory Wooddell (Tom Mason) has appeared in Cymbeline at Lincoln Center Theatre, the world premeire of Terrence McNally's Some Men at Philadelphia Theatre Company, the American premiere of School of Night at Mark Taper Forum, the world premiere of Miracle at Naples at Huntington Theatre, Othello at Shakespeare Theatre Company and The School of Night at the Mark Taper Forum.. His television and film credits include "30 Rock" and recurring roles on "One Life to Live," 'Guiding Light' and 'Days of Our Lives' and The Paradise Virus.

Jerry Zaks (Director) directed Stairway to Paradise and Bye Bye Birdie for Encores! and acted in the first production, Fiorello! He has received four Tony Awards, four Drama Desk Awards, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, an Obie Award, and an NAACP Image Award nomination. Mr. Zaks has directed more than 30 New York productions, including, on Broadway: Guys and Dolls (Tony Award), Six Degrees of Separation (Tony Award), Lend Me A Tenor (Tony Award), House of Blue Leaves (Tony Award), A Funny Thing...Forum, Smokey Joe's Café, Anything Goes, and A Bronx Tale. His television credits include "Everybody Loves Raymond" "Fraiser" and "Two and a Half Men." Mr. Zaks served as resident director at Lincoln Center Theater from 1986-1990. Since 1990 he has been proudly affiliated with Jujamcyn Theaters.

Rob Fisher (Guest Music Director) was the founding music director and conductor of Encores! from its inception in 1994 until 2005, for which he won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Special Achievement in 1997. He served as Music Director for the 40th anniversary production of Hair in Central Park (continuing his association with the Broadway revival in 2009), for the revival of My Fair Lady with the New York Philharmonic in 2007 and for Chicago and its Grammy Award-winning cast album. Along with conducting many leading orchestras, Mr. Fisher has collaborated recently in concert with Kristin Chenoweth, Victoria Clark, Patti LuPone and David Hyde Pierce.
Warren Carlyle directed and choreographed last season's Encores! productions of Finian's Rainbow and the show's current Broadway production. His other credits include the Broadway production of A Tale of Two Cities, and off-Broadway productions of You Again for the NY Fringe Festival, Working and Slut! Regionally he has choreographed Mame at The Kennedy Center, The Pirates of Penzance at Goodspeed and Paper Mill Playhouse and The Baker's Wife at Goodspeed, among many others. In addition to Finian's Rainbow, his previous Encores! credits include Juno and Stairway to Paradise.

This production is generously supported by The Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Fund, Roz and Jerry Meyer and Ruthe and Tony Ponturo.

The Newman's Own Foundation is a proud sponsor of Encores! The Newman's Own Foundation is an independent, private foundation which derives its grant-making income from royalty payments received in conjunction with the sale of Newman's Own food products. Since the inception of Newman's Own in the early 1980s, over $250 million has been donated to thousands of charitable organizations worldwide.

The season is also made possible, in part, by the Stephanie and Fred Shuman Fund for Encores!
New York City Center Encores! (Jack Viertel, Artistic Director; Rob Berman, Music Director) has, since 1994, celebrated the rarely-heard works of America's most important composers and lyricists. Conceived as

concert versions, each Encores! season gives three scores the chance to be heard as originally intended by their creators. Over the years, Encores! has presented the works of the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart,

Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill, Bock and Harnick, Burt Bacharach, Kander and Ebb, Comden and Green, and many others. The program is the recipient of a special 2000 Tony

Honor for Excellence in the Theatre, as well as an Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award and Jujamcyn Theaters Award.

New York City Center (Arlene Shuler, President and CEO) has long been known and beloved by New York audiences not only as one of the City's preeminent performing art institutions but also as an accessible and welcoming venue for dance and theater. New York City Center produces the Tony-honored Encores!

musical theater series, and is home to some of the country's leading dance companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, as well as Manhattan Theatre Club, one of New York's leading theater companies. In 2004 New York City Center launched the acclaimed Fall for Dance Festival, continuing to fulfill its mission to make the arts accessible to the broadest possible audience. In 2006, New York City Center formed partnerships with both London's Sadler's Wells Theatre to facilitate the exchange of innovative dance works, and with Carnegie Hall to work together on exciting new programming initiatives between the two neighboring institutions. In 2007 New York City Center introduced the Encores! Summer Stars series with the critically-acclaimed production of Gypsy¸ starring Patti LuPone, which subsequently enjoyed a successful run on Broadway, and which was followed by Damn Yankees starring Sean Hayes and Jane Krakowski and this past summer's The Wiz starring Ashanti.

Tickets for the 2009-2010 Encores! season are available at the New York City Center Box Office (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues), through CityTix® at 212-581-1212, or online at www.nycitycenter.org. Tickets for the Orchestra, Grand Tier and Mid-Mezzanine tickets are $95; tickets for the Rear Mezzanine and Front Gallery are $50; tickets for the Rear Gallery are $25.

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.