Chenoweth & Bart to Star in Encores! Stairway to Paradise

Kristin Chenoweth and Roger Bart will headline "Stairway to Paradise: An Original Encores! Production: 50 Years of Revues in Review." 

The stars, previously onstage together in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, will perform in the show at New York City Center from May 10th through 14th, according to the Playbill of Chenoweth's recent Metropolitan Opera concert.

"This first-ever specially created Encores! production will be a celebration of the very best material from a half century of Broadway revues, and will include numbers and sketches from Florenz Ziegfeld's shows and other legendary musicals and revues of the era," stated previous Encores! notes.

"Between 1900 and 1950, while Broadway book musicals were morphing from operetta to musical comedy to the musical plays of Rodgers and Hammerstein, there existed an equally thrilling profusion of Broadway revues – plotless, bookless, sketch-driven shows featuring girls, gags, star comedians like Bert Lahr and Fanny Brice, and some of the finest popular songs ever written. Ziegfeld was the king of the revue, but hundreds of imitators and emulators followed his lead.

Revues were conceived as topical, disposable entertainment, mixing political and social satire with popular song and dance crazes. In Ziegfeld's shows the comedians delivered short sketches, star vocalists appeared in fabulous gowns. and gorgeous showgirls paraded across a series of spectacular stage designs. Competing with the opulence of Ziegfeld's Follies were a series of smaller, slyer, more biting political revues with more serious, if often satirical points of view. Virtually all of the great songwriters of Broadway, from Irving Berlin and the Gershwins to Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Harold Rome, Schwartz and Dietz, Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg provided the songs, which included immortal classics such as 'Brother Can You Spare A Dime?,' 'Every Time We Say Goodbye,' 'Stairway to Paradise,' 'Manhattan' and 'Dancing in the Dark.'

The 2007 Encores! season will blow the dust off these long-forgotten gems, cull the very best from the era, and match the results with Berlin's and Sondheim's own fascination with the form. These three shows provide a unique opportunity to explore and enjoy a treasure trove of great American songs and sketches, performed in their original contexts by Broadway's finest actors, singers and comedians."

Chenoweth, who was nominated for a Tony for her performance as Glinda in Wicked and who won for her Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, plays the roles of Eve, Barbara and Passionella in The Apple Tree.  She has also been seen in Scapin, A New Brain, Steel Pier, Epic Proportions, in the Lincoln Center concert production of Candide, and the Encores! productions of Strike Up the Band, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and The Apple Tree. "As I Am" and "Let Yourself Go" are her two solo CDs. She also played Annabeth Schott on TV's "The West Wing."  Film credits include Running with Scissors, Stranger Than Fiction, Deck the Halls, R.V., Bewitched, and The Pink Panther.

Bart currently stars as Leo Bloom in The Producers.  He originated the role of Carmen Ghia and received a Tony nomination for his performance (he reprised his work in the film version).  Bart received 1999 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Featured Actor in a Musical as Snoopy in the revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.  Other Broadway and first national touring credits include: The Frogs, Triumph of Love, King David, How to Succeed in Business…, The Secret Garden, Big River, and The Who's Tommy.   He was recently seen as George on ABC's "Desperate Housewives," for which he received the SAG Award for Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Film credits include The Insider, The Stepford Wives, and Doubting Thomas. 

Encores!, in its season-long celebration of the American revue, will also present Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's Follies from February 8th through 12th and Irving Berlin and Moss Hart's Face the Music from March 29th through April 1st.