Cooper, Breaker, Miller & Washington to Star in Encores! LOST IN THE STARS

Chuck Cooper, Daniel Breaker, Patina Miller, Sharon Washington, Daniel Gerroll, John Douglas Thompson and Sherry Boone have been cast in Lost in the Stars, the second Encores! production of the New York City Center season, running February 3 - 6 at City Center. Lost in the Stars has music by Kurt Weill and book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson. It will be directed by Gary Griffin and choreographed by Chase Brock, with music direction by Rob Berman.

Lost in the Stars, the second and final collaboration between Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson, was billed as a "musical tragedy" when it opened on Broadway in 1949. Based on Alan Paton's novel Cry, the Beloved Country, the show provides an uncompromising social indictment of apartheid South Africa through the story of two aging men, one black, one white, brought together by a shared grief. The score, one of Weill's most polystylistic, contains operatic arias, chorales, blues, folk music, and pop tunes, and makes abundant use of the chorus (representing the blacks and whites of Johannesburg) to comment upon the action and propel the story forward. It includes "Stay Well", "Trouble Man," and the haunting title song.

Lost in the Stars is the last work Weill completed before his death in 1950. It opened at the Music Box Theater on October 30, 1949, and played 281 performances. A Broadway revival in 1972 ran for 39 performances. This is the second production of Lost in the Stars to be staged at City Center: A 1958 City Opera production featured Shirley Verrett and Louis Gossett, Jr.

Weill and Anderson's collaborations are being celebrated in New York City this winter. In addition to the City Center production of Lost in the Stars, their 1938 musical comedy Knickerbocker Holiday, which introduced the famous "September Song," will be given a semi-staged production by Collegiate Chorale at Alice Tully Hall on January 25 and 26.

A symposium entitled "Kurt Weill + Maxwell Anderson: Collaboration in Musical Theatre" will be held on February 4, 2011, at 5 pm at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), presented by CUNY Graduate Center in association with the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. Stephen Hinton, Elmar Juchem and Kim H. Kowalke will serve as panelists; David Savran will moderate. Admission is free and open to the public.

The cast of Lost in the Stars features: Sherry Boone, Daniel Breaker, Kieran Campion, Chuck Cooper, Quentin Earl Darrington, Clifton Duncan, Mark Eland, Daniel Gerroll, Jeremy Gumbs, Chike Johnson, Stephen Kunken, Patina Miller, James Rebhorn, Ted Sutherland, John Douglas Thompson and Sharon Washington, with Adam Alexander, Andre Garner, Rosena Hill, Mary Illes, Amy Justman, Joy Lynn Matthews, Andrew McRae, Patricia Phillips, Devin Richards, Lindsay Roberts, Nathaniel Stampley, Eric van Hoven, Kevin Vortmann, J.D. Webster and Jorell Williams.

Sherry Boone (Irena) has appeared on Broadway in Marie Christine, Ragtime, Master Class and Jelly's Last Jam and off-Broadway and nationally in Phantom of the Opera, as Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel and as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. She has been a guest soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Hartford Symphony and at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival.

Daniel Breaker (Absalom Kumalo) has appeared on Broadway in Shrek: The Musical, Passing Strange (Tony Award nomination), Cymbeline and Well. His off-Broadway credits include Passing Strange, Fabulation and Pericles. He has been seen in the films The Dark Fields and Passing Strange (directed by Spike Lee).

Chuck Cooper (Stephen Kumalo) is a veteran of 10 Broadway plays and musicals and numerous television guest leads and film appearances. He won the 1996 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his portrayal of Memphis in The Life. Other Broadway credits include: Finian's Rainbow; Lennon; Caroline, or Change; Chicago; Passion; Someone to Watch Over Me; Rumors; Amen Corner and Getting Away with Murder. His off-Broadway credits include: Caroline, or Change, Thunder Knocking on the Door, Marco Polo Sings a Solo and Avenue X.

Daniel Gerroll (James Jarvis) has just completed playing Scrooge in the Guthrie Theater's new adaptation of A Christmas Carol. On Broadway he has appeared in Plenty, High Society and Enchanted April. He has been seen off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout, Second Stage and many others. His film and television credits include The Namesake, Big Business, "The Good Wife," "Ugly Betty," "The Starter Wife" and "Law and Order: Criminal Intent."

Patina Miller (Linda) was nominated for an Olivier Award for her performance as Deloris Van Cartier in the London production of Sister Act, a role she will reprise on Broadway this spring. She was last seen in New York as Dionne in The Public Theater's production of Hair in Central Park.
John Douglas Thompson (John Kumalo) appeared on Broadway in Cyrano de Bergerac and Julius Caesar. He won a 2009 Obie Award for his performance in the title role of Othello at Theater for a New Audience and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for his performance in the Irish Repertory Theater's production of The Emperor Jones. His other credits include Classic Stage Company's production of The Forest.
Sharon Washington (Grace Kumalo) was most recently seen on Broadway in The Scottsboro Boys. Her many off-Broadway credits include The Overwhelming, House and Garden, The Radical Mystique, Stuff Happens, Richard III and String of Pearls.

The 2010-11 Encores! season is made possible, in part, by the Stephanie and Fred Shuman Fund for Encores!

New York City Center gratefully acknowledges lead support from American Express, Stacey and Eric Mindich and the Newman's Own Foundation.

Lost in the Stars is funded, in part, by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., New York, NY.

Gary Griffin (Director) directed the Encores! productions of The New Moon, Pardon My English, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Apple Tree and Music in the Air. He directed The Color Purple and The Apple Tree on Broadway, Pacific Overtures in London (Olivier Award, Outstanding Musical Production, Olivier Nomination, Best Director), and West Side Story and Evita at Stratford Festival of Canada. Mr. Griffin is associate artistic director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater, where he directed Private Lives, Amadeus and A Little Night Music. Regionally, he has directed at The ALLIANCE THEATRE, The Old Globe, McCarter Theatre, Signature Theatre and Kansas City Repertory Theatre.

Chase Brock (Choreographer) is artistic director of The Chase Brock Experience, the Brooklyn-based contemporary dance company for which he has created 25 dances and commissioned six original scores. In addition, he is the choreographer of the bestselling Nintendo Wii video game Dance on Broadway, Mark Lamos's A Little Night Music, Jeff Calhoun's Shenandoah, Bartlett Sher's production of the opera Roméo et Juliette (Salzburg Festival), the film Clear Blue Tuesday and Broadway Under the Stars (CBS).

Rob Berman (Music Director) is in his fourth season as music director of the series, where he has conducted Bells Are Ringing, Anyone Can Whistle, Fanny, Finian's Rainbow, Music in the Air, Damn Yankees, Applause and Stairway to Paradise, as well as last season's gala concert celebrating Stephen Sondheim. Broadway conducting credits include Finian's Rainbow, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, The Pajama Game, The Apple Tree, Wonderful Town and Promises, Promises, among others. Mr. Berman is a two-time Emmy nominee for his work as music director of the Kennedy Center Honors and he won a Helen Hayes Award for Best Musical Direction for his work on the Kennedy Center's production of Sunday in the Park with George. Recently, he was music director for A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House.

New York City Center Encores! (Jack Viertel, Artistic Director; Rob Berman, Music Director) has, since 1994, celebrated the rarely heard works of America's most important composers and lyricists. Conceived as concert performances, Encores! gives these scores the chance to be heard as originally intended by their creators. Over the years, Encores! has presented the works of the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Kurt Weill, Bock and Harnick, Stephen Sondheim, Burt Bacharach, Kander and Ebb, Comden and Green, and many others. The program is the recipient of a special 2000 Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre, as well as an Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award and Jujamcyn Theaters Award.

NEW YORK City Center (Arlene Shuler, President & CEO) has played a defining role in the cultural life of the city for more than 60 years. It was Manhattan's first performing arts center, dedicated by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1943 with a mission to make the best in music, theater and dance accessible to all audiences. Today, City Center is home to many distinguished companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Manhattan Theatre Club; a roster of renowned national and international visiting artists; and its own critically acclaimed and popular programs. The Tony-honored Encores! musical theater series, now in its 18th season, has been hailed as "one of the very best reasons to be alive in New York." Dance has been integral to the theater's mission from the start, and dance programs, including the annual Fall for Dance Festival and a partnership with London's Sadler's Wells Theatre, remain central to City Center's identity. City Center is dedicated to providing educational opportunities to New York City students and teachers with programs such as Encores! In Schools and the Young People's Dance Series. Special workshops cater to families, seniors and other groups, while events such as the Fall for Dance DanceTalk series offer learning opportunities to the general public.

Tickets for Lost in the Stars are available at the New York City Center Box Office (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th avenues), through CityTix® at 212-581-1212, or online at www.NYCityCenter.org. Tickets for the Orchestra, Grand Tier and Mid-Mezzanine are $100; tickets for the Rear Mezzanine and Front Gallery are $50; tickets for the Rear Gallery are $25.