On
September 2nd, Aaron Lazar will replace Matthew Morrison as Fabrizio,
the young man who falls under the spell of inamorata Clara in the Tony
Award-winning Adam Guettel show. On September 13th, Chris Sarandon will
succeed Mark Harelik as Signor Naccarelli, Fabrizio's affable, tie
shop-owning father. Morrison and Harelik will play their final performances on August 28th, and September 11th, respectively; Fabrizio understudy David Burnham will go on from August 30th through September 1st.Lazar has previously appeared on Broadway in the 2002 revival of Oklahoma! and in The Phantom of the Opera, and would have starred in Barry Manilow's Harmony had it not been cancelled before going into tryouts. He played Gabey in the hit English National Opera production of On the Town, and has also appeared in productions of The Scarlet Pimpernel, Carousel and Chamberlain. Sarandon's Broadway credits include Nick and Nora (where he met wife Joanna Gleason), The Rothschilds, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Censored Scenes from Hong Kong. Off-Broadway, he has been seen in such shows as Marco Polo Sings a Solo and The Woods. As a film actor, Sarandon has starred in The Nightmare Before Christmas (as the voice of Jack Skellington), Slaves of New York, The Princess Bride, and Dog Day Afternoon (for which he was nominated for an Academy Award).
With a book by Craig Lucas (Reckless, Prelude to a Kiss), music and lyrics by Adam Guettel (Floyd Collins) and direction by Bartlett Sher, The Light in the Piazza won six 2005 Tony Awards including Best Score and Best Actress. The musical, based on the novella by Elizabeth Spencer, is set in the summer of 1953 and tells the story of a mother and daughter traveling through Italy, the daughter's romance with a handsome, high-spirited Florentine, and the mother's determined efforts to keep the two apart. The show opened at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre (150 W.
65th St.) on April 18th; its limited run has been extended twice, and
it will now close on January 1st, 2006.The performance schedule for The Light in the Piazza is Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8pm, with matinees Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm and Sundays at 3pm. Tickets, priced from $65 to $95, are available at the Lincoln Center Theater box office, by calling Tele-Charge at (212) 239-6200 or by visiting www.lct.org.
