Cast Complete for 'Mahagonny,' with LuPone and McDonald

Complete casting has been announced for the starry upcoming Los Angeles Opera production of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, starring the previously announced Tony Award-winners Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald.

Directed by Tony-winner John Doyle (Company, Sweeney Todd), the Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht musical will be performed Feb. 10, 14, 17, 22, 25 and March 1 and 4, 2007.

Joining LuPone (Sweeney Todd, Evita), as Leocadia Begbick, and McDonald (110 in the Shade, Ragtime), as Jenny, are: Anthony Dean Griffey as Jim Mahoney, Robert Wörle as Fatty the Bookkeeper, John Easterlin as Jake (Jack) Schmidt, Mel Ulrich as Pennybank Bill, Donnie Ray Albert as Trinity Moses, Derek Taylor as Toby Higgins and Steven Humes as Alaska Wolf Joe.

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny concerns three on-the-lam criminals who decide to found a new city of hedonism and lawlessness. Mahagonny premiered in Leipzig in 1930; Weill's wife Lotte Lenya in a German production that followed. Banned by the Nazis, Mahoganny was not performed again in Germany until the 1950s. The jazz-flavored opera features in its score "Alabama Song," which was later famously covered by The Doors.

James Conlon will conduct the orchestra.  Mahagonny will feature sets by Mark Bailey, costumes by Ann Hould-Ward and lighting by Thomas C. Hase.

Visit www.losangelesopera.com for more information