Joe Cassidy, Kelly McCormick and More Lead Pioneer Theatre's LES MISERABLES, Beg. Tonight

Pioneer Theatre Company presents the epic musical LES MISERABLES. Due to popular demand, the production's run has been extended by two weeks. Performances take place tonight, May 3 through June 1, 2013.

The musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's timeless novel has been thrilling and inspiring its audiences-from London to Broadway, from Asia to Australia-for over twenty-five years. Critics have hailed it as "one of the best musicals of all time," and no less than "a certified phenomenon; a marvel of musical theatre."

LES MISERABLES follows Jean Valjean as he is pursued by the implacable Inspector Javert through some of the most tumultuous years in French history. The musical has won over 50 major theatre awards, including eight Tony Awards and a Grammy. It is the longest running musical in London's West End, and the third longest running in Broadway history. It sold out for ten straight weeks when PTC produced it the country's regional theatre premiere in 2007.

Former PTC Artistic Director Charles Morey returns to direct the production, with current PTC Artistic Director Karen Azenberg providing musical staging. The production features Joe Cassidy as Jean Valjean, Josh Davis as Javert, Kelly McCormick as Fantine, Melissa Mitchell as Cosette, Manna Nichols as Eponine, Dale Hensley and Christianne Tisdale as Monsieur and Madame Thénardier, and Perry Sherman and Kevin Vortmann as the revolutionaries Marius and Enjolras, respectively.

The thirty-four member cast also includes young local actors ZACHARY BROWN and BRIGHAM INKLEY as the fledging revolutionary Gavroche, ZOE HEIDEN and MAGGIE SCOTT as Young Cosette, and ABIGAIL SCOTT as Young Eponine.

Featured in the ensemble are J. Michael Bailey, Ginger Bess, CHAD COUDRIET, MARY FANNING DRIGGS, Dara Hartman, JUSTIN IVIE, Michael D. Jablonski, Sarah Killough, ANNE STEWART MARK, DANIEL T. SIMONS, David Spencer, Jeffrey Scott Stevens and Matt Stokes.

Rounding out the ensemble are local actors ERIK AGLE, DUSTIN BOLT, Ashley Gardner CARLSON, TIA GALANIS, LINDSEA GARSIDE, Billy Hagee and MATTHEW JAY ROMRIELL.

Joe Cassidy plays the repentant prisoner Jean Valjean. Cassidy has performed the role of Jean Valjean on Broadway. His other Broadway credits include the roles of Hanratty in Catch Me If You Can, Freddy in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Rutledge in 1776, Ravenal in Show Boat, Young Scrooge in A Christmas Carol: The Musical, and Dr. Madden and Dr. Fine in Next to Normal. Off-Broadway roles include Working (59E59th), Black Snow; Listen to My Heart (Studio 54), Joe Cassidy, Rockstar (Joe's Pub & Ars Nova) and Grind (The York), and he has appeared on Law & Order and in the films Brando and Freefall. This is his PTC debut.

Josh Davis plays the relentless police inspector Javert. Davis' New York and regional theater credits include Disney's Beauty and The Beast, White's Lies, My First Time, The Last Five Years, Guys and Dolls and One Red Flower. TV and film credits include Law & Order, The Beautiful Life, As the World Turns, Guiding Light, One Life to Live and the web series, Empire. He produced and acted in the feature film The Graduates and currently is the voice for TRESemmé. He has also voiced numerous commercials, and the audiobooks Miracle in the Andes, Dexter the Tough and Cockroach Cooties. He returns to PTC after appearing in the company's 2007 production of LES MISERABLES.

Kelly McCormick, playing Fantine, appeared off-Broadway in The Extraordinary Ordinary and Her Song, and in the national tours of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and LES MISERABLES. Some other regional theatre credits include Guys and Dolls at North Shore Music Theatre, Hello! My Baby at the Goodspeed, 1776 at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and Children of Eden at Ford's Theatre, among many others. She reprises the role of Fantine from PTC's 2007 production of LES MISERABLES.

Melissa Mitchell, who plays Cosette, appeared off-Broadway in Giant at The Public Theater. Her regional credits include the world premiere of Summer of Love, Annie at Musical Theatre West, the title role in Cinderella at Cabrillo Music Theatre, Bye Bye Birdie and others. Her film credits include Anger Management and Holes, and on TV she has appeared in Unsolved Mysteries and Star Search.

Manna Nichols plays Eponine. She appeared in NYC as Sachiko in Tokio Confidential at Atlantic Theatre Co., Laurey in Oklahoma! with NAAP, and Hortense in Frog Kiss with NYMF. Other regional credits include Eliza in My Fair Lady at Arena Stage, Kim in Miss Saigon at Fulton Theatre, Tuptim in The King & I at both North Shore Music Theatre and Walnut Street Theatre, and Mulan in the premiere of Disney's Mulan at Imagination Stage. This is her PTC debut.

Dale Hensley plays the dishonest innkeeper Thénardier. He has appeared on Broadway in the 2005 and 2010 revivals of La Cage aux Folles, and in The Drowsy Chaperone, Sunset Boulevard, Guys and Dolls, Cats and Anything Goes. He has toured in La Cage, The Drowsy Chaperone, The Full Monty, Big, The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sugar Babies, and was in the Vegas company of Hairspray. He has sung with Patti LuPone at Carnegie Hall, with the NY Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall, on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion at Town Hall, and has appeared in 10 City Center Encores. On TV, Dale has been on Law & Order: SVU, Guiding Light and All My Children. He returns to PTC after appearing as Roger DeBris in The Producers.

Christianne Tisdale plays Madame Thénardier. Tisdale's Broadway and West End credits include Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast and the occasional Leonide in Triumph of Love. She played Caroline Neville in the First National Tour of Titanic. Off-Broadway theatres at which she has appeared include MTC, 2^nd Stage, The York, and Playwrights Horizons. Regionally, her credits include The Drowsy Chaperone (Stages St. Louis, Kevin Kline Award); Titanic (Hangar Theatre); Mornings at Seven (Berkshire Theatre Festival) and Mormons, Mothers and Monsters (Barrington Stage). Television/film: The popular web series Wallflowers.tv, 30 Rock, David Letterman, Law & Order: CI and A Tale of Cinderella. She returns to PTC after playing Cinderella in Into the Woods.

Perry Sherman, playing the love-struck Marius, appeared in the First National Tours of Next to Normal and Spring Awakening. His regional theatre credits include Avenue Q as Princeton/Rod; Avenue Q puppet designer Rick Lyon directed that production. Most recently he appeared at the York Theatre as Dove in Walk on the Wild Side. This marks his PTC debut.

The brave barricade revolutionary, Enjolras, is played by Kevin Vortmann. Vortmann appeared on Broadway in A Little Night Music and off-Broadway in Death Takes a Holiday, On the Town, Applause, Face the Music, Fiorello, Lost in the Stars, Stairway to Paradise, Juno and For Lovers Only. A featured symphony soloist, Vortmann has appeared at Carnegie Hall in Leonard Bernstein's Mass, Showboat and Mother Russia, and with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Omaha Symphony. This is his PTC debut.

Former PTC Artistic Director CHARLES MOREY directs the production. Morey has directed over eighty productions for PTC since he joined the theatre in 1984, including the world premieres of Touch(ed) and In, and the first regional productions of LES MISERABLES, The Producers and The Vertical Hour. He is the author of ten plays, including the critically acclaimed Figaro, which premiered off-Broadway at The Pearl Theatre last fall. He is also Fellow of the MacDowell Colony. This is the first time Morey has returned to PTC as a guest artist since his retirement last year.

Current PTC Artistic Director Karen Azenberg provides musical staging for the production. Originally from New York, her work there includes Lyrics and Lyricists (92^nd St. Y), Blocks (a collaboration with Jonathan Larson), Prom Queens Unchained, and choreography for Richard Greenberg's The Dazzle (Roundabout). Other credits include National Tours of Carousel and Brigadoon, Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor (Regional Theatre Premiere at Geva), West Side Story (over 15 productions; Dramalogue Award for Outstanding Choreography), and others. Azenberg is on the board of the New York Musical Theatre Festival and is the President of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Darren R. Cohen will serve as Musical Director and Conductor for the production through the May 20^th performance. Cohen's credits include Broadway productions and National Tours such as A Chorus Line, Grease, Chicago and others. Off-Broadway: Make Me a Song (New World Stages, original cast recording), Zombie Prom (Variety Arts Theatre, original cast recording), The York Theatre's production of Carnival (Outer Critics Circle Award Best Revival), Ann E. Wrecksick (Ars Nova), Salute to Women Songwriters (Carnegie Hall w/Michael Feinstein and Roslyn Kind), Anyone Can Whistle (47th Street Theatre), A...My Name is Still Alice (Second Stage), The Fantasticks (Sullivan St. Playhouse), And the World Goes 'Round (West Side Arts), Karen Ziemba and Friends (w/Marin Mazzie, David Garrison and James Brennan), Evening of Jule Styne (w/Victoria Clark and Phyllis Newman), Show Me Where the Good Times Are (Jewish Rep). PTC debut.

STEVEN BARLOW will succeed Cohen as Musical Director beginning on May 20^th. Barlow began his musical career 22 years ago at Pioneer Theatre Company and has been a part of over 40 productions as pianist, as well as conductor for PTC's productions of Smokey Joe's Café and James Joyce's The Dead. He also music-directed last season's production of Man of La Mancha. He has served as musical director for Egyptian Theatre Company (Urinetown; Little Me; La Cage aux Folles; Ruthless!; I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change; Beehive), CenterPoint Legacy Theatre (Pirated! Lucky Stiff) and Weber State University (Urinetown; Light in the Piazza; Musical of Musicals). Barlow has also performed at Sundance Summer Theatre, Grand Theatre, and the Broadway Valentine concerts for the Ogden Symphony Ballet Association.

Scenic design is by PTC resident artist George Maxwell. Some of Maxwell's PTC designs include A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Next to Normal, Rent, Sunset Boulevard, Chicago, LES MISERABLES (in 2007), The Importance of Being Earnest, West Side Story, Proof, Peter Pan and Miss Saigon. He has designed the sets for Utah Opera Company's The Coronation of Poppea and The Ballad of Baby Doe, productions for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and 21 productions for the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Maxwell is a member of United Scenic Artists.

K.L. ALBERTS designs costumes for this production. Alberts' previous designs at PTC include White Christmas, 42^nd Street, Miss Saigon, The Producers and LES MISERABLES in 2007, among many others. Alberts has also designed for the University of Utah's Babcock Theatre, Salt Lake Acting Company, Meat & Potato Theatre Company, and Ah! Wilderness, Hay Fever, The Matchmaker, Fiddler on the Roof, Great Expectations: A New Musical and LES MISERABLES for the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

Lighting design is by guest designer KARL E. HAAS,whopreviously designed Laughing Stock, Miss Saigon, The Producers, LES MISERABLES, West Side Story and South Pacific among many others at PTC. His New York design credits include productions at Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Brooklyn Academy Of Music, and Julliard. Haas has been Lighting Supervisor/Designer for the Bolshoi Ballet/Opera, the Kirov Ballet, the Spanish National Ballet, and the Joffrey Ballet. Haasis currently the Architectural Western Regional Manager for Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC).

Hair and makeup design is by PTC resident designer AMANDA FRENCH. Sound design is by PTC resident designer MATTHEW TIBBS.