Butler, Goodwin, Stuart & McGowan to Star in Pandora's Box at NYMF

Kerry Butler, Deidre Goodwin, James Patrick Stuart and Tom McGowan will star in the NYMF 2010's Production of Pandora's Box - A New Musical Play with Music and Lyrics by Glen Roven, Book by Maria S. Schlatter, and Directed by Gary Halvorson and Wayne Cilento. The show will run at Theater St. Clements (423 West 46th) with performances on October 8, 9, 11, 13, 14 and 16th.

Press notes describe the show as "Pandora, a suburban housewife and her serial-philanderer husband Oliver, have their love and lives turned upside down the day that Mona, a Lesbian handy-woman walks through their door. In this raucous, contemporary sex farce, Mona and Oliver face off in a fight to win the greatest prize of all, the love of the beautiful Pandora."

The entire cast will be announced later this month. Tickets on sale now through pandorasboxthemusical.com or nymf.org

Kerry Butler, Tony Award nominee and one of Broadway' s favorite ingénues (although she was recently cast as a terrorist!) has starred in Hairspray, Beauty and the Beast, Xanadu and Les Mis, to name but a few. In Pandora's Box, she plays the slightly naive suburban housewife Pandora who innocently opens the door one day to find someone who turns her life upside down. Kerrybutler.net

Deidre Goodwin recently starred as Sheila in the revival of A Chorus Line. In addition to also starring on Broadway as Velma in Chicago and appearing in the movie version, Deidre performed in Chita Rivera's: A Dancer's Life, Never Gonna Dance, Nine, The Boys From Syracuse and The Rocky Horror Show plus many more. In this modern musical, she plays Mona the handy woman who enters the hyper-heterosexual Forrester family home and changes everyone's lives forever.

James Patrick Stuart, who plays Oliver the relentlessly philandering husband, returns to NYC after appearing in almost 100 movies and TV episodes in California. An Emmy award nominee for All My Children, Stuart has subsequently appeared in It' s Complicated, Imagine That, 90210, Samantha Who, and CSI: Miami to name a few. James is known to children all across the world as the voice of Private on The Penguins of Madagascar.

Tom McGowan made Broadway history when he, as the understudy, took over the lead in La Bete right before it opened and won a Tony Nomination for Best Actor. His other Broadway credits include Ivanov and Chicago. Instantly recognizable as the station manager Kenny from Frasier and Bernie from Everybody Loves Raymond, he has also appeared on TV in Curb Your Enthusiasm, ER and Brothers and Sisters, as well as in the films Sleepless in Seattle, As Good As It Gets and The Birdcage, to name a few.

Gary Halvorson (Director), a graduate of Juilliard, comes to Pandora's Box directly from directing the Opening Night Broadcast of Das Rhinegold at the Met. He has directed over fifty operas for television including Figaro with Bryne Terfel and Cecilia Bartolo, Wozzek, The Merry Widow, and Carmen to name a few. A frequently collaborator of Michael Tilson Thomas, he has directed the award winning documentaries of the San Francisco Symphony Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, as well as Stravinsky's Rite of Spring plus many others. He was also chosen to direct the Grand Reopening of Carnegie Hall. In addition to all of his musical work, Gary has directed the most successful comedies on television including: Friends, Two and a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond, Roseanne, The Drew Carey Show and Muppets Tonight. He recently directed the workshop of Pandora's Box and next season sees the Broadway debut of Dr. Seuss's The 5,000 Fingers of Doctor T, also by Glen Roven and Maria S. Schlatter.

Wayne Cilento (Director, Musical Staging) began his choreographic career after a successful stint as a Broadway actor performing in A Chorus Line (Mike, original cast), The Act, Seesaw, Perfectly Frank, Irene, Big Deal, Rachel Lily Rosenblum and Dancin' (Tony nomination.) As a Choreographer, Wayne is currently represented on Broadway and around the world with Wicked; he won a Tony Award for The Who's Tommy and nominations for Sweet Charity, How to Succeed..., Dream: The Johnny Mercer Musical, Jerry's Girls, and Baby. He has done musical staging for Liza Minnelli, Barry Manilow, Chita Rivera, Billy Joel, Donna Summer and Pete Townshend.

Glen Roven (Music and Lyrics) made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting his Violin Concerto based on The Runaway Bunny, with Glenn Close and the American Symphony Orchestra. He recorded the piece with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Brooke Shields for Sony/BMG. Baritone Mark Stone recently performed an entire evening of Roven's concert music also at Carnegie Hall. This past Mother's Day, Soprano Lauren Flanigan debuted his Goodnight Moon, A Lullaby for Soprano and Orchestra, based on the famous Children's classic, at a free concert in Central Park for 10,000. He began his Broadway career as a rehearsal pianist for Pippin while still in high school, and at nineteen was the musical director of Sugar Babies on Broadway. He also wrote the scores for John Guare's, Lydie Breeze and Gardenia, Christopher Isherwood's A Meeting By the River and Larry Glebart's Mastergate, plus was a contributing composer to A...My Name is Alice. His musical Heart's Desire was performed at the Cleveland Playhouse and the Shaftesbury Theatre in London; his musicAl Norman's Ark, (with a cast of 250 and directed by Peter Schneider) was performed at the Ford Amphitheater in LA. Next season sees the opening of his Broadway Musical, Dr. Suess' The 5000 Fingers of Doctor T directed by Halvorson and written by Schlatter.

Maria S. Schlatter (Bookwriter), an Emmy winning television producer and writer has written comedy, music, and variety specials and series for the top performers in entertainment including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Muhammed Ali and Roseanne. An award winning videographer, she has produced and written tributes for Julie Andrews, Blake Edwards, Goldie Hawn, Frank Oz and Garry Marshall as well as producing the Gstaad Film Festival. She has written for John Cleese, Drew Carey and Eddie Murphy. Next season sees the opening of her Broadway Musical, Dr. Suess' The 5000 Fingers of Doctor T directed by Halvorson and a score by Roven.

 

Photo Credit: BWW-Staff