Longer Workshop for Tale of 2 Cities After Bell Leaves
By: BWW News Desk Jul. 27, 2005
Bell left the show on account of immediate personal problems. In the meantime, Santoriello, who wrote the book, lyrics and music of the Broadway-bound show, will continue working with musical director Wendy Cavett and the cast of 33 while producers Barbra Russell, Ron Sharpe and Ron Phelps search for a replacement for Bell.
The opening of the
Chicago production has now been pushed back to the tentative date of February 9th; the show will play the Chicago Theatre. The pop opera was originally
slated for a Broadway run to begin previews in April, but now a later preview date is possible as well. A theatre has not yet been selected though the production will cost the producers at least $14
million.
The production's design team will boast Gregory Gale
(costumes)
and Jim Joy (sets), with orchestrations by Edward Kessel, and Barry Moss as the casting director.
An
announcement from last summer's concert described the plot thus: "Set
against the epic backdrop of the French Revolution and based on the
classic Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities
is a sweeping musical about injustice, vengeance and the redemptive
power of love. When Dr.
Manette is released from the French Bastille after 17 years, he must be
resurrected from the brink of madness by his daughter, Lucie. In
England they meet two very different men: the exiled French aristocrat,
Charles Darnay, whom Lucie marries, and the drunken cynic, Sydney
Carton. Soon family secrets and political intrigue combine to draw
Lucie and her family back to Paris. At the height of the Reign of
Terror, the musical finds an unlikely hero in Carton, inspired by love
to make an extraordinary sacrifice."
Further back in the musical's history, A Tale of Two Cities was a finalist in the Eugene O'Neill Center Musical Theatre Workshop
and received a symphonic concert in Indianapolis featuring
a 40-piece orchestra and a 50-voice chorale that was narrated by Man of La Mancha star
Richard Kiley. In addition, 56
vocalists including Bryce Dallas Howard, Paul Castree, J. Mark McVey,
Christiane Noll, Peter Samuel, Alex
Santoriello, Tim Shew, Natalie Toro and Nick Wyman leant their voices
to a 23-track concept recording of the musically-lush score that also
featured the Indianapolis Symphony and New Jersey Philharmonic
Orchestra.
