TV: Eden Espinosa on 'Flora, the Red Menace' & 'Rent'

Newly renamed Reprise Theatre Company is staging the John Kander and Fred Ebb musical Flora, the Red Menace for a limited two-week run beginning May 6. The production stars Wicked's Eden Espinosa in the title role opposite Manoel Felciano, who last starred in Reprise's production of Sunday in the Park with George.

Flora, the Red Menace was first staged on Broadway in 1965 with Liza Minnelli making her debut, and winning her first Tony Award, in the role of Flora. It was also the first collaboration between Kander and Ebb, a duo that would later create classic musicals including Cabaret and Chicago.

Flora "tells a depression era story of a spunky young woman, determined to make it in New York - and brings back the times of the New Deal era, when the Works Projects Administration (WPA) employed millions of people, and the Federal Theatre Project and leftist politics would shape the next three decades of American life," state press notes.

BroadwayWorld's own James Sims stopped by UCLA's Freud Playhouse to chat with Felciano and Espinosa about the short rehearsal time for a Reprise production, their reuniting on stage after both performing on Broadway in Brooklyn, the Musical and Espinosa's upcoming role as Maureen in the final Broadway cast of Rent starting May 30th.

Espinosa made her Broadway debut in Wicked, standing by for Elphaba and Nessarose before taking the lead on the national tour and then returning to star on Broadway and later the Los Angeles sit-down production. Felciano received a Tony Award nomination for his take on Tobias in the last Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd and has recently released his solo CD "Moonshot."

Flora, the Red Menace, under the direction of Philip Himberg, plays through May 18th at UCLA's Freud Playhouse in Los Angeles. For tickets, call the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310-825-2101 or visit www.reprise.org. And for more from James Sims visit www.simsscoop.com.