Breaking: Betsy Wolfe Departs CAROUSEL Revival

Producers Scott Rudin and Roy Furman announced today Betsy Wolfe has departed the upcoming Broadway production of Carousel due to scheduling difficulties. Casting for the role of Carrie Pipperidge will be announced shortly.

Scott Rudin said, "We wish Betsy well and are enormously disappointed she won't be able to join the company at the Imperial."

Betsy Wolfe said, "I am so sad that I won't be able to join this beautiful production due to scheduling conflicts this fall, and wish the team all the best moving forward."

The show, directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien and choreographed by Justin Peck will play the Imperial Theatre (249 West 45th Street) when it makes its return to Broadway next spring in one of the most deeply anticipated productions of the new season.

Betsy Wolfe currently stars as Jenna in the Broadway hit, Waitress. Her additional Broadway credits includeFalsettos, Bullets Over Broadway, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Everyday Rapture, and 110 in the Shade. Off-Broadway, Ms. Wolfe starred in the acclaimed revival of The Last Five Years and appeared in the City Center Encores! production of Merrily We Roll Along. She originated the lead role in the musical Up Here (La Jolla Playhouse) and created the role of Mary Ann Singleton in the musical adaptation of Tales of the City (American Conservatory Theater). In 2013, Ms. Wolfe made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Ida in Die Fledermaus. She has headlined sold-out engagements for the Broadway Today concert series at both Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, and on November 17, she returns to Carnegie Hall for a solo engagement with The New York Pops celebrating female composers and lyricists. Ms. Wolfe holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (CCM).

Beginning preview performances on Wednesday, February 28, 2018, Carousel officially opens on Thursday, April 12. Tickets go on sale, via Telecharge.com, Saturday, September 9, at 10:00 AM (EST).

It was announced earlier this month that Ms. Wolfe, Mr. Gemignani, and Ms. Colin would join the previously announced stars, Tony Award nominee Joshua Henry as Billy Bigelow, Tony Award winner Jessie Mueller as Julie Jordan, Renée Fleming, in her first-ever appearance in a Broadway musical as Nettie Fowler, as well as Amar Ramasar as Jigger, and Brittany Pollock as Louise.

The ensemble of Carousel features Colin Anderson, Yesenia Ayala, Nicholas Belton, Colin Bradbury, Andrei Chagas, Leigh-Ann Esty, Laura Feig, David Michael Garry, Garett Hawe, Rosena M. Hill Jackson, Amy Justman, Jess LeProtto, Skye Mattox, Adriana Pierce, David Prottas, Craig Salstein, Ahmad Simmons, Antoine L. Smith, Corey John Snide, Erica Spyres, Ryan Steele, Sam Strasfeld, Ricky Ubeda, Scarlett Walker, Jacob Keith Watson, and William Youmans. Additional cast members will be announced shortly.

The creative team of this new production of Carousel includes four-time Tony Award winner Santo Loquasto (Scenic Design), Tony and Academy Award winner Ann Roth (Costume Design), nine-time Tony Award winner Jules Fisher and three-time Tony Award winnerPeggy Eisenhauer (Lighting Design), Tony Award winner Scott Lehrer (Sound Design), Tony, Grammy, Emmy, and Academy Award winner Jonathan Tunick (Orchestrations), and Andy Einhorn (Musical Supervision and Direction).

Set in a small New England factory town, Rodgers & Hammerstein's timeless musical Carousel describes the tragic romance between a troubled carnival barker and the young woman who gives up everything for him. Elevated to an epic scale with a sweeping musical score that features some of the most beloved numbers in the American songbook, and incandescent ballet sequences, this story of passion, loss, and redemption introduced Broadway to a new manner of musical drama - one that "set the standard for the 20th-century musical" (Time Magazine) and would captivate theatergoers for generations to come.

Carousel played its world premiere on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre on April 19, 1945, and received unanimous raves. Brooks Atkinson in The New York Times called Carousel "nothing less than a masterpiece." John Chapman of the Daily News proclaimed it "the finest musical play I have ever seen."

In 1999, Time Magazine named Carousel the best musical of the century, saying that Rodgers & Hammerstein "set the standard for the 20th-century musical, and this show features their most beautiful score and the most skillful and affecting example of their musical storytelling."