News on your favorite shows, specials & more!

Analisa Leaming to Play the Principal in Broadway's SCHOOL OF ROCK; New Stars Announced!

By: Nov. 03, 2017
Get Show Info Info
Cast
Photos
Videos
Enter Your Email to Unlock This Article

Plus, get the best of BroadwayWorld delivered to your inbox, and unlimited access to our editorial content across the globe.




Existing user? Just click login.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's smash hit musical School of Rock - The Musical will welcome four new adult cast members to the show this November.

Analisa Leaming will join the cast in the role of Principal Rosalie Mullins beginning Monday, November 20. Leaming, currently appearing on Broadway in Hello, Dolly!, succeeds Jenn Gambatese, who will play her final performance on Friday, November 3.

The other three new cast members to join the production are Lori Eve Marinacci, Jonathan Gould and Badia Farha, who all begin performances on Monday, November 6.

Lori Eve Marinacci will assume the role of Rosalie from Monday, November 6 through Sunday, November 19, following which she will play the role of Patty. She will succeed Becky Gulsvig, who will play her last performance as Patty on Sunday, November 5.

Jonathan Gould will play the role of Ned, succeeding Steven Booth, who will play his last performance Sunday November 5.

Badia Farha will play the role of Ms. Sheinkopf, succeeding Emily Cramer, who will play her last performance on Sunday, November 5.

A native of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Analisa Leaming can currently be seen on Broadway in Hello, Dolly! starring Bette Midler, where she also understudies the role of Irene Molloy and has been with the production since it opened. She has starred on Broadway as Anna in the Lincoln Center Theater production of The King and I and as Anita in On the Twentieth Century. Her other New York credits include Encores! Productions of Pipe Dream & Where's Charley? and she has appeared in numerous regional theatres around the country such as MUNY, Geva Theatre Center, Barrington Stage Company, and North Shore Music Theatre.

Lori Eve Marinacci has appeared on Broadway and in Las Vegas in Hairspray. She has performed in the national tours of Little House on the Prairie and Kiss Me, Kate, and her regional credits include Rock of Ages, Big Fish, Sacramento Music Circus' Peter Pan, the world premiere of the play A or B? at Falcon Theatre in Los Angeles and Hair at Barrington Stage Company.

Badia Farha's credits include tours of Little Shop of Horrors and Rent. Off- Broadway, she has appeared in Attack of the Elvis Impersonators, Sistas the musical, Things to Ruin, We The People (America Rocks), and Rewrite. Her regional credits include Broadway Bounty Hunter, The Wiz, Sister Act, and Dreamgirls, and her film and TV credits include A Gifted Man, Punk!, and Clinch.

Jonathan Gould is a multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter who currently voices Dave in "Scaredy Squirrel" on Netflix and many more for Cartoon Network, Teletoon, and Nickelodeon. His theatre credits include several seasons with the Shaw Festival, Stratford Festival, Soulpepper Theatre, Citadel Theatre, The Grand, and Belfry Theatre.

Now in its smash second year at Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre (1654 Broadway), School of Rock - The Musical currently stars Justin Collette as "Dewey Finn," Connor John Gillooly as the "Dewey Finn" alternate, Jenn Gambatese as "Rosalie Mullins," Steven Booth as "Ned," Becky Gulsvig as "Patty," Zachary Zwelling as "Zach," Levi Buksbazen as "Freddy," Rachel Katzke as "Katie," Walden Sullivan as "Lawrence," Olivia Chun as "Summer," John Allyn as "Billy," and Amadi Chapata as "Tomika." The adult ensemble includes Emily Cramer, Natalie Charle Ellis, John Arthur Greene, Nehal Joshi, Andrew Kober, Lulu Lloyd, Jaygee Macapugay, Cassie Okenka, Patrick O'Neill, Jesse Swimm, Josh Tower, Joel Waggoner, Jonathan Wagner, and J. Michael Zygo. The kids' ensemble includes Terrance Bell, Jr., Chloe Bryan, Michael Cascetta, Gabrielle Greene, Sophia Kekllas, Ellie Kim, Conor Lauri, Cory Logan, Ruth Righi, and Demi Singleton.

School of Rock - The Musical is based on the smash hit 2003 film of the same name, featuring music from the movie, as well as an original score by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Glenn Slater, a book by Julian Fellowes and direction by Laurence Connor. School of Rock - The Musical opened to rave reviews on Sunday, December 6, 2015. This Ben Brantley New York Times 'Critics' Pick' "is an inspiring jolt of energy and mad skillz," raves Jesse Oxfeld of Entertainment Weekly. And in his four-star Critics' Pick review, Time Out's David Cote proclaimed, "School's IN - forever!" School of Rock - The Musical was nominated for four 2016 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score (Lloyd Webber and Slater), Best Book (Fellowes), and Best Leading Actor in a Musical (Alex Brightman).

School of Rock features choreography by JoAnn M. Hunter, scenic and costume design by Anna Louizos, lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design by Mick Potter and music supervision by Ethan Popp.

School of Rock - The Musical is a hilarious new musical that follows Dewey Finn, a failed, wannabe rock star who decides to earn a few extra bucks by posing as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school. There he turns a class of straight-A students into a guitar-shredding, bass-slapping, mind-blowing rock band. While teaching these pint-sized prodigies what it means to truly rock, Dewey falls for the school's beautiful, but uptight headmistress, helping her rediscover the wild child within.

School of Rock - The Musical opened in London's West End, also to rave reviews, on November 14, 2016, breaking all house records at the New London Theatre (a record previously held by War Horse). School of Rock was nominated for three 2017 Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (David Fynn) and Outstanding Achievement in Music, which it won. The production, which also recently won Best New Musical at the 2017 Whatsonstage Awards, recouped this past July.

School of Rock - The Musical kicked off its U.S. National Tour in Rochester, NY at RBTL's Auditorium Theatre on September 30, 2017. Additional information and dates can be found here.

School of Rock - The Musical is produced on Broadway by Andrew Lloyd Webber for The Really Useful Group, Warner Music Group & Access Industries, The Shubert Organization, and The Nederlander Organization. Nina Lannan and Madeleine Lloyd Webber serve as Executive Producers.







Videos