Dee Roscioli to Play Leading Role in EVITA at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival

Broadway actress Dee Roscioli will star at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival this summer in the season opener, Evita.

Roscioli, an Easton native and DeSales University graduate is best known for her long run as Elphaba on Broadway, and in the Chicago, San Francisco, and national touring productions of the hit musical Wicked. She has the distinction of playing the role of Elphaba in more performances in North America than any other actress.

Roscioli returns to PSF following her recent Broadway performance of Fruma-Sarah in the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. She performed the leading role of Mrs. Lovett in the Festival's 2012 production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

In the musical Evita Roscioli will portray Eva Peron, an extraordinary woman who rose from abject poverty in rural Argentina to become the First Lady by the age of 27. "Eva is one of those parts that is like a pot of gold for an actress...I can't wait to know her." Roscioli says.

In December Roscioli performed in her home-town of Easton as a featured vocalist in the Broadway musical review, Wicked Divas, presented with the Pennsylvania Philharmonic at the State Theatre of Easton.

"Anytime I get the opportunity to work with PSF and return to my roots in the Lehigh Valley I take it," says Roscioli.

Evita will be directed by PSF's Associate Artistic Director Dennis Razze, who was lauded for the Festival's completely sold-out productions of West Side Story last summer and LES MISERABLES in 2015. Razze directed Roscioli in the Festival's 2012 production of Sweeney Todd.

"I am beyond thrilled that Dee Roscioli has accepted our offer to play Eva Peron in PSF's upcoming production of Evita," says director Razze. "She was a marvelous Mrs. Lovett in our production of Sweeney Todd, and I have no doubt her Eva will be magnificent. Dee is a terrific actress and possesses one of the best voices on Broadway."

"I've been working with Dennis Razze since I was a kid so we have a definite comfort level," Roscioli says. "We had such a great time doing Sweeney Todd together. I'm really looking forward to working with him on this show."

A seven-time Tony Award winning musical, with a dazzling score inspired by Latin, pop and jazz and filled with show-stopping numbers including the riveting anthem, "Don't Cry for me Argentina," Evita captures the complexity of an illegitimate child who came to be "the spiritual leader of the nation" and one of history's most tragic and dramatic figures.

The production previews June 14 and 15, opens June 16 and runs through July 2 on the Main Stage of the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of DeSales University in Center Valley.

The Festival anticipates most performances of Evita to sell-out.

Roscioli will also perform during Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's annual gala Luminosity on June 3. In addition, she will perform a one-night-only concert at PSF this summer on July 31.

The 26th season will also feature Shakespeare's As You Like It and Troilus and Cressida along with two world classics, The Three Musketeers and The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Subscription packages and single tickets will go on sale February 15 at www.pashakespeare.org and 610-282-WILL [9455]. Discounts are available for subscribers, youth, and military.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride