TV EXCLUSIVE: Behind AND THE CURTAIN RISES with Kristin Hanggi at Signature!

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Virginia's Tony Award®-winning Signature Theatre, through its groundbreaking American Musical Voices Project (AMVP), presents the musical comedy And the Curtain Rises (formerly known as Wheatley's Folly). Beginning performances on Thursday, March 17, 2011, And the Curtain Rises marks the third production presented as part of Signature's AMVP, the largest commissioning program for new musicals in the country, following Michael John LaChiusa's Giant in 2009 and Ricky Ian Gordon's Sycamore Trees last year. 

Directing And the Curtain Rises will be Tony Award® nominee Kristin Hanggi (Broadway's Rock of Ages). In this exclusive BroadwayWorld special, Hanggi takes you behind the scenes of the new production and inside the rehearsal room. Click below for the first episode and stay tuned for more!

Music for And the Curtain Rises was composed by Joseph Thalken, one of five composers to garner Signature's prestigious Musical Theatre Composer Grant. The book for And the Curtain Rises is written by Michael Slade with lyrics by Mark Campbell. Working with Hanggi on the creative team are Music Director/Conductor Boko Suzuki, Choreographer Josh Walden, Set Designer Beowulf Boritt, Costume Designer Kathleen Geldard, Lighting Designer Colin K. Bills, and Sound Designer Matt Rowe.

Inspired by true events, And the Curtain Rises tells the outrageous and funny story of how the first American musical - 1866's legendary The Black Crook - was born. This musical comedy follows novice producer William Wheatley as he frantically struggles to save his mess of a play. With a dreadful script, an uncompromising author, a cast on the verge of revolt, and scenery and costumes destroyed, the production is in shambles. Conditions are further complicated when a French ballet troupe is forced to seek refuge in their theatre after their theater burns down next door. Rather than throw in the towel and count his losses, Wheatley decides to take control and turn lemons into lemonade.

The cast for And the Curtain Rises features Nick Dalton (William Wheatley), Rebecca Watson (Millicent Cavendish), Kevin Carolan (C.H. Morton), Jennifer Smith (Rose Morton), Sean Thompson (Charles Barras), Alma Cuervo (Mme. Grimaud), Anna Kate Bocknek (Marie Bonfant), Erick Devine (Jeremiah Burnett), Brian Sutherland (Roman Korda), Erik Altemus (George C. Boniface), William Diggle (James Timoney), and a host of ballerinas.

For tickets and more information please visit www.signature-theatre.org.