Barrett Foa and Jon Jon Briones Join Laura Bell Bundy in SWEET CHARITY

Single tickets are now on sale for the inaugural REPRISE 2.0 production of Sweet Charity. Directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, the classic Broadway hit plays from June 20 to July 1 at UCLA's Freud Playhouse. REPRISE 2.0 is led by producing artistic director Marcia Seligson.

Barrett Foa (Eric Beale on NCIS: Los Angeles, Avenue Q, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) as "Oscar" and Jon Jon Briones (Miss Saigon West End and Broadway; The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story as "Modesto Cunanan," father of Versace's murderer, "Andrew Cunanan") as "Herman" join the previously announced Laura Bell Bundy (Legally Blonde - Tony Award Nomination, Hairspray, Anger Management) as "Charity."

The REPRISE 2.0 2018 Season also includes Victor/Victoria directed by Richard Israel and choreographed by John Todd (September 5 - 16); and Grand Hotel - The Musical(October 24 - November 4) directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman and choreographed by Kay Cole. Single tickets for Sweet Charity are now on sale at Reprise2.org or by phone at 800-982-2787. Subscription packages are still available at Reprise2.org or by phone at 1-866-811-4111.

All of the productions will be conducted by REPRISE 2.0 Musical Director Gerald Sternbach. Joining the REPRISE 2.0 team with Seligson are Co-Artistic Directors Glenn Casale and Michael Donovan; Executive Producers Kevin Bailey and Arthur Allan Seidelman; and General Manager Matthew Herrmann.

Sweet Charity

Sweet Charity is a collaboration between some of Broadway's most spectacular talents. The hilarious, razor-sharp dialogue is by Neil Simon (Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple); the pop-influenced, jazzy music by Cy Coleman (Barnum and City of Angels) and lyrics by the legendary Dorothy Fields ("On the Sunny Side of the Street" and "I Can't Give you Anything But Love").

Based on Federico Fellini's The Nights of Cabiria, Sweet Charity was director Bob Fosse's riotously colorful valentine to his then-wife, Broadway dancing phenomenon Gwen Verdon. Premiering in 1966, it was nominated for nine Tony Awards and ran for 608 performances. John McClain said in the Journal-American, "The word was all around that Sweet Charity was a hit and after catching it I can only add that it is a big fat one ... there was that wonderful electricity which crackles through an audience at a successful premiere. Sweet Charity is simply an atomic smash."

Charity was played in Las Vegas and London by Juliet Prowse and by numerous stars in subsequent New York revivals, including Debbie Allen and later Ann Reinking (1986), Christina Applegate (2005) and Sutton Foster (2016). The film version (1969) stars Shirley MacLaine and was directed and choreographed by Fosse.

The story centers on Charity's life as a dance hall hostess "with a heart of gold", determined to break out of the Fan-Dango Ballroom. She accidentally finds herself in the bedroom of an Italian film star as she starts dating the neurotic and shy Oscar. When Oscar proposes, he insists he doesn't care about Charity's profession. But in the end, he does care very much and Charity is soon back to having her toes and heart stepped on in the ballroom. But not before singing and dancing to such rousing Broadway classics as "Big Spender," "If My Friends Could See Me Now," "Where Am I Going," and "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This."

The REPRISE 2.0 production is directed and choreographed by one of Broadway's most celebrated artists, Kathleen Marshall. A winner of three Tony Awards (with six more nominations), she directed and choreographed such Broadway hits as Anything Goes(2011 revival with Sutton Foster) and The Pajama Game (2006 revival with Harry Connick, Jr.). She was Artistic Director of New York's "Encores" series from 1996-2000.

REPRISE 2.0, led by its Producing Artistic Director Marcia Seligson, is presenting three classic American musicals at UCLA's Freud Playhouse in its Inaugural season. REPRISE 2.0 is partnering with the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television's Department of Theater (UCLA TFT), chaired by Brian Kite. Seligson was the founder of Reprise! Broadway's Best, which presented nearly 50 productions of classic musicals between 1997 and 2012. These included Promises, Promises; Finian's Rainbow; Wonderful Town; The Pajama Game; Sweeney Todd; Bells are Ringing; Call Me Madam; Hair; 1776; The Most Happy Fella; Follies; Anything Goes; Kismet; Company; Brigadoon; Pippin, On the Town, Carousel, How to Succeed, and the final show Cabaret.

Barrett Foa (Oscar) is best known as tech geek Eric Beale on all 9 seasons of the hit CBS crime drama/comedy "NCIS: Los Angeles." The show airs Sundays at 9pm on CBS and in syndication on USA, ION, and all over the world. Other TV: "Entourage", "NCIS", "The Closer", "Numb3rs", "Six Degrees". Last year, Foa's solo cabaret show, Grin and Barrett played to sold out houses at NYC's Feinstein's/54 Below and LA's Rockwell Table and Stage. While on hiatus, Foa starred in the off-Broadway one-man comedy, Buyer & Cellar (playing six characters including Barbra Streisand), starred as Harold Hill in The Music Man at Connecticut Rep., and starred, produced, and co-wrote the sold out hit For The Record: John Hughes at Rockwell in LA and City Winery in NYC. Prior to moving to LA, Foa starred on Broadway in the Tony-winning musicals Avenue Q (Princeton/Rod), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Leaf Coneybear), Mamma Mia! (original cast), and played Jesus in the 30th anniversary off-Broadway production of Godspell (cast recording). In New York, he has also worked at Playwrights Horizons (Adam Bock's The Drunken City), The Public, New York Theatre Workshop, Roundabout, The York, The Houseman, and Ars Nova. Regional credits include: Paper Mill (Pirates!, Camelot), Bay Street (The Lady In Question w/ Charles Busch), Hartford Stage / The Shakespeare Theatre Co., D.C. (Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing), TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, The Muny, North Shore MT, Pittsburgh CLO, MT Wichita, Weston Playhouse, and Maine State MT. Born and raised in New York City, Foa graduated from The Dalton School in Manhattan, attended Interlochen Arts Camp for four summers, studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, and received his BFA in Musical Theatre Performance from The University of Michigan. Foa was the on-air backstage host and social media correspondent for the 2013 and 2014 Tony Awards on CBS. Follow him on Instagram/Twitter @BarrettFoa

Jon Jon Briones (Herman) was born and raised in the Philippines. In 1989 he joined the original London cast of Miss Saigon and later in 2014 starred as the Engineer in the London West End revival, which transferred to Broadway in 2017 (Olivier and a Drama Desk Award nominee; winner What's On Stage, Broadway World, and Theater World Awards). He also appeared in tours of Miss Saigon in Germany, Asia, North America (twice), and returned to the original UK production for its final year. In Los Angeles, he played Georges in La Cage Aux Folles at East West Players (Ovation nomination); He was also nominated for an Ovation and an LA Weekly Award for playing the title character in The Romance of Magno Rubio at [Inside] the Ford and in a new work, Sweet Karma, as the lead character, Vichear Lam. He was involved in the pre-Broadway development of the musical, Allegiance with Lea Salonga and George Takei both in New York workshops and at The Old Globe in San Diego. Other roles in Los Angeles, New York and around the globe include: Fredrik Egerman in A Little Night Music, Enjolras in Les Miserables, Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors, Tateh in Ragtime, Lion in the The Wiz, Laertes in Hamlet, Rapunzel's Prince in Into the Woods, Slovitch in Fools, Man 1 in Closer Than Ever, and Lukas in Peregrinasyon with Ma-Yi Theater Company. Television guest star appearances include "American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace," "Las Vegas," "Sons of Anarchy," "Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders," "Designated Survivor," "Bones," "The Mentalist," "Monk," "Southland," "Miami Medical," "General Hospital," "Law & Order LA" and "Moonlight." Film credits include: Model Home, Blood Ransom, The Fifth Voyage of Sinbad, Breathe, Brown Soup Thing, An Immigrant Girl's Journey, Proud American, Finding Foosball, Potluck, Feast and Yokai. He now resides in Los Angeles with his wife and 2 children.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos