Broadway-Bound TOOTSIE Starring Santino Fontana Will Play Pre-Run in Chicago

TOOTSIE's story is hitting the stage! Scott Sanders Productions announced today that the world premiere of the new comedy musical, TOOTSIE, will play a pre-Broadway engagement this fall at Broadway In Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre (151 West Randolph Street, Chicago, IL) from September 11 - October 14. TOOTSIE will come to Broadway in spring 2019.

TOOTSIE tells the story of a talented but difficult actor who struggles to find work until an audacious, desperate stunt lands him the role of a lifetime.

TOOTSIE will star Tony Award nominee Santino Fontana as struggling actor Michael Dorsey. Santino is well known to TV and film audiences for his role as Greg on "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" and for providing the voice to the villainous 'Prince Hans' in the blockbuster animated film, Frozen. His many Broadway credits include his Tony-nominated performance in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, Billy Elliot, Sunday in the Park with George, and Brighton Beach Memoirs.

TOOTSIE features an original score by Tony Award nominee David Yazbek (The Band's Visit, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), a book by Robert Horn (13; Dame Edna, Back with a Vengeance), choreography by Tony Award nominee Denis Jones (Holiday Inn, Honeymoon in Vegas), and musical direction by Andrea Grody (The Band's Visit). TOOTSIE will be directed by seven-time Tony Award nominee and Olivier Award winner Scott Ellis (She Loves Me, On the Twentieth Century).

The Tony Award-winning design team for TOOTSIE includes scenic designer David Rockwell, costume designer William Ivey Long, lighting designer Donald Holder, and sound designer Brian Ronan.

Additional casting and creative team members will be announced at a later date.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Santino Fontana is perhaps best known to national audiences for providing the voice to the villainous 'Prince Hans' in Disney's Academy Award-winning animated feature, Frozen. He was also seen in Universal Studio's Sisters, starring opposite Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. On television he's starred on The CW's critically acclaimed musical comedy series, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," as Greg. Simultaneously, Santino played David Saperstein, opposite Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta, in NBC's drama series, "Shades of Blue."

On stage, Santino most recently starred in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater and 1776, as part of the New York City Center's Encores! series, for which he received rave reviews. Santino's portrayal of Moss Hart in Lincoln Center's production of Act One, which was filmed for PBS, also received critical praise. In 2013, Santino received a Tony Award nomination for his leading role as Prince Charming in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, and in 2012, he won Obie and Lucille Lortel awards for his acclaimed performance in Stephen Karam's Sons of the Prophet. Santino's other theatre credits include The Importance of Being Earnest (Clarence Derwent Award), A View From the Bridge, Brighton Beach Memoirs (Drama Desk Award), Billy Elliot, Zorba, and Sunday in the Park with George. As a vocalist, Santino has recently performed in jazz venues such as Lincoln Center's Appel Room and Birdland. As an orchestra soloist, Santino has sung at Carnegie Hall, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and other top tier venues with symphonies, big bands, and smaller ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, the New York Pops and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Santino has recently wrapped shooting "Singularity," a pilot for FX from producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. His other television credits include guest stars on "The Good Wife," "Nurse Jackie," "Brain Dead," and "Royal Pains." He can also be seen in the popular web series, "Submissions Only." He has four independent film projects due to be released soon, including the romantic comedy, Off the Menu, the psychological thriller Impossible Monsters, the dramatic short Limit of Wooded Country, and the comedy Papercop.

A varied career as a recording artist, Emmy-winning TV and film writer, music producer, and pianist has somehow led David Yazbek to become one of Broadway's preeminent composer/lyricists. Three of his shows, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown have been nominated for Best Score Tony Awards. His most recent musical, The Band's Visit, opened on Broadway to rave reviews and has been named to every Best of the Year list for 2017. The show also received the Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical. He's also received three Grammy nominations and a Drama Desk Award. Yazbek won an Outstanding Writing Emmy Award for his stint on Late Night with David Letterman. He scored the last season of HBO's Boardwalk Empire, wrote the theme song to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, and has written hundreds of songs, scripts, scores and jingles for adult and children's TV. As a recording artist, Yazbek is responsible for five albums-The Laughing Man, Tock, Damascus, Tape Recorder, and Evil Monkey Man. He has written and/or produced for such acts as XTC, Ruben Blades, The Persuasions, Joe Jackson, Tito Puente and many others. As a performer, he and his band are engaged in an ongoing series of monthly shows at NYC's 54 Below club.

Robert Horn has written or co-written the books for Dame Edna, Back with a Vengeance; 13 with Jason Robert Brown; Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical, with Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark; Lone Star Love with the Red Clay Ramblers; and Dandy with composer Andreas Carlsson. Mr. Horn has also made contributions to numerous large-scale live events, such as Bette Midler's 2016 Divine Intervention world tour. He has written, created, or produced such television series as Designing Women, Living Single, High Society, The Jenny Rivera Show, Car Wash, and the Kelsey Grammar/Martin Lawrence series Partners, to name just a few. Mr. Horn's film and teleplay credits also include Teen Beach Movie (and its sequel), Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure, Wild Life, and Good Advice.

Scott Ellis' Broadway credits include She Loves Me (2016 Tony Award nomination), On the Twentieth Century, You Can't Take It With You(Tony nomination), The Elephant Man, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Tony nomination), Harvey, Curtains (Tony nomination), The Little Dog Laughed (Drama League Award nomination), Twelve Angry Men (Tony nomination), The Man Who Had All the Luck, The Rainmaker, 1776 (Drama Desk Award and Tony nominations), She Loves Me (Tony nomination, also in London where he received the Olivier Award for Best Revival and Best Director), Picnic (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), Company, A Month in the Country and Steel Pier (Tony nomination). Off-Broadway credits include Dada Woof Papa Hot; The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin; Gruesome Playground Injuries; Streamers; Good Boys and True; Entertaining Mr. Sloane; Flora, the Red Menace (Drama Desk nomination); And the World Goes 'Round (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards); and The Waverly Gallery. His television credits include "Dr. Ken" (pilot), "Undateable" (pilot), "Two Broke Girls," "The Good Wife," "The Closer," "Weeds" (executive producer), "30 Rock" (Emmy Award nomination for Best Director), and "Modern Family."

Denis Jones (Choreographer). Recent credits include Holiday Inn, The New Irving Berlin Musical (Tony Award nomination); Honeymoon in Vegas (Broadway); Forum (Two River/ Williamstown Theatre Festival); Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical (Dallas Theater Center); The Tempest (New York Shakespeare Festival); and Paint Your Wagon (NY City Center Encores!).

Andrea Grody (Music Director) is currently the Music Director and Supervisor of the Broadway musical The Band's Visit. Recent projects include the world premieres of Shaina Taub's As You Like It (Public Works), The Band's Visit (Atlantic Theater Company), Cake Off (Signature Theatre/Bucks County Playhouse), The Fortress of Solitude (Public Theater/Dallas Theater Center), Unknown Soldier (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and Love's Labour's Lost (Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park); and the regional premieres of The Great Immensity and Venice (Public Theater). Other favorites include Assassins (Yale Rep) and Robin Hood as Composer/Music Director (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Writing credits include the full-length musical Strange Faces and several songs for The Civilians' Let Me Ascertain You series.

TOOTSIE is produced by Scott Sanders Productions (SSP) an award-winning theatre, film and television Production Company that was recently acquired by Westfield Corporation, where Mr. Sanders has been named their first-ever Creative Head of Global Entertainment. SSP was most recently represented on Broadway as the lead producer of the acclaimed 2016 Tony Award-winning revival of The Color Purple.That production was also the recipient of a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Performance on NBC's "Today." The Color Purple is currently playing to rave reviews on a highly successful tour across North America. Scott Sanders Productions has developed and produced such stage properties as After Midnight, which won a Tony Award in 2014; the Tony Award-winning Elaine Stritch at Liberty; the first-ever Broadway revival of Evita starring Ricky Martin, Elena Roger and Michael Cerveris; the critically acclaimed The Pee-Wee Herman Show (on Broadway and in Los Angeles); Oprah Winfrey at Radio City Music Hall and O Magazine's 10th Anniversary.

TOOTSIE is based on the story by Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart and the Columbia Pictures Motion Picture.

For more information visit: TootsieMusical.com

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos