Tony Award-winner Donna McKechnie has been cast in the title role of Mame, which will serve up a banquet at the Barrington Stage Company from October 4th through 15th.
Diane J. Findlay will co-star as bosom buddy Vera Charles in the musical, which with all of the theatre's other shows, will be performed at BSC's new home at Pittsfield, MA's Berkshire Music Hall. Julianne Boyd, the artistic director of the theatre who previously worked with McKechnie on
Follies, will helm the
Jerry Herman-Jerome Lawrence-Robert E. Lee musical, which concerns the eccentric title character's rocky relationship with her nephew Patrick.
McKechnie won a Tony Award for her performance as Cassie in
A Chorus Line, and has also appeared on Broadway in
Company (both the original and revival),
On The Town, Promises, Promises, and
How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, among others. She played Carlotta in the Barrington Stage Company's production of
Follies; she had previously played Sally in the same show at Paper Mill Playhouse.
BSC's 2006 season will also include Mark St. Germain's
The Collyer Brothers at Home and
Period Piece (May 17th through 28th), the obscure
Galt MacDermot-William Dumaresque musical
The Human Comedy (directed by Boyd and running June 21st through July 15th), David Lindsay-Abaire's
Wonder of the World (directed by Rob Ruggiero and running from July 20th through August 5th), and
Carole Shelley (
Wicked) in the Christopher Fry-Jean Anouilh piece
Ring Around the Moon (directed by Boyd and running from August 10th through 27th).
Ella, a musical about the great jazz singer conceived by Ruggiero and Dyke Garrison, directed by Ruggiero, with a book by Jeffery Hatcher and starring
Tina Fabrique (
Ragtime), will conclude the season.
For more information, visit
www.barringtonstageco.org or call (413) 229-2076.
