FREEZE FRAME: Jessie Mueller, Norm Lewis & More Rehearse for Kennedy Center's THE MUSIC MAN
By: Walter McBride Jan. 24, 2019
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will soon present the Broadway Center Stage production of Meredith Willson's The Music Man. It will star Norm Lewis (Porgy and Bess) as Harold Hill and Tony Award®-winning actress Jessie Mueller (Waitress, Carousel, Beautiful) as Marian Paroo in the starry semi-staged concert production directed by Marc Bruni (Beautiful, Broadway Center Stage: How to Succeed...) with choreography by Chris Bailey (Jerry Springer: The Opera, The New Yorkers at Encores!) and music direction by James Moore (Miss Saigon, the Kennedy Center's Follies and Ragtime).
Also starring are Rosie O'Donnell (Mrs. Paroo), Tony Award® nominee John Cariani (The Band's Visit, Something Rotten!) as Marcellus Washburn, Tony Award® nominee Veanne Cox (An American in Paris, Company) as Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn, Tony Award® nominee and Drama Desk winner David Pittu (The Front Page, Is He Dead?) as Charlie Cowell, Damon Gillespie (Aladdin, Newsies) as Tommy Djilas, Eloise Kropp (Cats, Dames at Sea) as Zaneeta Shinn, Sam Middleton (Les Miserables) as Winthrop Paroo, and Emmy Elizabeth Liu-Wang as Amaryllis. The cast of the classic American musical will also include Tessa Grady, Arlo Hill, Todd Horman, Denis Lambert, Liz McCartney, Hayley Podschun, Katerina Papacostas, Blakely Slaybaugh, Jimmy Smagula, Ryan Steele, Daryl Tofa, Diana Vaden, and Nicholas Ward.
Completing the creative team are set and projection designer Paul dePoo, costume designer Amy Clark (A Night With Janis Joplin, Chaplin), lighting designer Cory Pattak (Broadway Center Stage: In the Heights and Little Shop of Horrors), and Tony Award®-winning sound designer Kai Harada (The Band's Visit).
Due to popular demand, an eighth performance has been added on Monday, February 11, 2019 at 7 p.m. Presented as a part of Broadway Center Stage-a Kennedy Center-produced series of musicals in semi-staged concerts, conceived and executive produced by Jeffrey Finn-The Music Man will run February 6-11, 2019 in the Eisenhower Theater.
Winner of five Tony Awards® including Best Musical, this American musical favorite, with music, book, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, follows traveling salesman Harold Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa into buying uniforms for a boys' band that he vows to organize-despite the fact he doesn't know a trombone from a treble clef. His plans to skip town are foiled when he falls for Marian, the town librarian. The classic score features such standards as "76 Trombones," "'Till There Was You," and "Trouble."
The company just met the press and you can check out a sneak peek from rehearsals below!
Photo Credit: Walter McBride
Rosie O'Donnell, Norm Lewis and Jessie Mueller during "The Music Man" Media Day Rehearsal at the New 42nd Street Studios on January 24, 2019 in New York City.
Rosie O'Donnell, Norm Lewis and Jessie Mueller with the cast during "The Music Man" Media Day Rehearsal at the New 42nd Street Studios on January 24, 2019 in New York City.
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