LIDO DE PARIS Star Sabine Hettlich and Popular 'Chef' Kevin Kent to Star in LICENSE TO KISS

For the first production of 2009, the producers of Teatro ZinZanni are delighted to announce that German star Sabine Hettlich will appear in License to Kiss, a show steeped in would-be espionage and general mayhem, opening January 15. A recent headliner at the Lido de Paris, Hettlich took Paris by storm, and received the highest critical acclaim. Returning is the ever-popular "chef," Kevin Kent, who starred in the original show, and became an instant audience favorite.

Sabine Hettlich achieved stardom at the age of 19, in the original German production of Cats. She went on to pursue her love of jazz, winning Best Singer at the prestigious Deutsche Rock Prize, and was soon singing throughout Germany and Europe with a variety of Big Bands and Symphony orchestras. She was the German voice for Walt Disney's main characters in films like Aladdin, Hercules and Annie, and went on to become the lead in City Lights at Berlin's Friedrichstadtpalast (Europe's biggest Revue Theatre), later moving to New York to star in Pomp, Duck and Circumstance. Her performance at the Lido de Paris elicited the following: "A raw yet sensual voice" (Le Figaro), "1.77m of talent, endless legs, fantastic figure and a sensual voice which seems to make the auditorium vibrate" (L'Officiel des Spectacles), "Sabine Hettlich has set Paris alight with her verve," (Elle magazine). And while according to Reuters she has "a voice like Streisand and legs like Dietrich", for Focus magazine, she is quite simply the "Fräuleinwunder from Paris."

Improvisational performer, humorist and physical comedian Kevin Kent makes a welcome return to San Francisco. He recently appeared in Berlin opening a new spiegeltent with Evi und das Tier (Evi and the Beast) produced by Palazzo. An influential performer, director and producer, Kent is a founding member of the improv company, King's Elephant Theatre in Seattle, and was seen in many other Seattle venues. He played the highly acclaimed role of the morphing chef in the original production of Love, Chaos & Dinner, and has returned to the spiegeltent on the Embarcadero several times to the delight of audience members.

Also returning is all-round comic, acrobat, and juggler, the irrepressible Joel Salom, who has enjoyed an international career performing across the United States, in Europe and Asia. For two years, he played Ring Master, graced the flying trapeze and was also a juggler, clown and acrobat in Circus OZ. His high tech comedy theatre show Gadgets, which he performs with his satiric little robot dog named Erik, won the Innovation Award for 2008 at the National Drover Awards in Australia.

Other welcome returns will be made by San Francisco-based soprano Kristin Clayton, also an original Teatro ZinZanni cast member, as the divine operatic diva; and the amazing acrobatic duo Sam Payne (U.S.) and Sandra Feusi (Switzerland) known as Vertical Tango, with their astonishing, sensual pole act.

Two sensational acrobatic acts make their debuts in San Francisco -- Rui Ling and Fang Ming joined the Flag Circus of China when they were 10 and 11 years old, and traveled around the world. In 2000 they joined Cirque du Soleil's Dralion, and three years later began to develop their duo aerial straps act. The pair has appeared at international circus festivals in China, bringing home numerous prestigious awards including the gold medal at the Wuhan International Acrobatic Arts Festival. Equally adept, Ukrainian hand balancer Tatiana Gousarova has also performed with Cirque du Soleil in a number of productions, beginning with Quidam in 1996, in Varekai as a member of an acrobatic Pas de Deux, and most recently in Corteo.

Jack Fletcher and Ellen Moore who previously directed at Teatro ZinZanni in 2006, will take the directorial helm again, and Francine Landes will choreograph.

Teatro ZinZanni continues to enchant the public and critics alike with its bewitching blend of European cabaret, feats of skill and cirque artistry, original music, comedy and theatrical antics, all intertwined with a five-course gourmet dinner designed by Taste Catering.

The show is a project of One Reel, one of the Northwest's most innovative non-profit arts organizations, responsible for Seattle's Teatro ZinZanni: Dinner and Dreams and such public celebrations as Bumbershoot: the Seattle Arts Festival, Summer Nights at the Pier, and a variety of educational, environmental and literary projects.

The regular weekly schedule is Wednesday through Saturday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m., at which time the doors open to the luxuriously appointed lobby and no-host bar. Seating in the tent begins a half-hour later. The approximate running time of the show is three hours.

Tickets ($116 - $190) may be purchased at the on-site Box Office at Pier 29 on the Embarcadero daily from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., by phone at 415/438-2668, or online at www.zinzanni.org .