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Michael McKean Steps Into The Pajama Game; Other Casting Announced Too

By: Nov. 10, 2005
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Michael McKean will join Harry Connick Jr. and Kelli O'Hara in the upcoming revival of The Pajama Game, according to Variety.

The musical, which will star Connick Jr. (composer/lyricist of Thou Shalt Not, South Pacific movie with Glenn Close) as Sid, O'Hara (The Light in the Piazza, Dracula) as Babe and McKean as Hines, will open at the American Airlines Theatre on February 23rd, after previews on January 19th. Casting has also been announced for other roles; The Pajama Game will also feature Megan Lawrence (Urinetown, Les Miserables) as Gladys, Joyce Chittick (Sweet Charity, Wonderful Town) as Mae, Peter Benson (Wonderful Town, Little Me) as Prez, Michael McCormick (Gypsy, Marie Christine) as Pop and Ganzenlicher, Richard Poe (Fiddler on the Roof, 1776), Roz Ryan (One Mo' Time, Chicago) as Mabel, and in the ensemble, Bridget Berger, Stephen Berger, Kate Chapman, Paula Leggett Chase, Jennifer Cody, David Eggers, Michael O'Donnell, Vince Pesce, Devin Richards, Jeffrey Schecter, Amber Stone, and Debra Walton. 

The Roundabout Theatre Company will produce the show with commercial producers, Jeffrey Richards, Scott Landis and James Fuld. Kathleen Marshall (Two Gentlemen of Verona, Wonderful Town, Kiss Me, Kate) is set to direct and choreograph the show.

The Pajama Game is to feature two new songs in its classic Richard Adler-Jerry Ross score, and the original book by George Abbott and Richard Bissell will be revised by Peter Ackerman. The Pajama Game is set during union disputes at the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory, and centers around a love story between two people representing opposing sides of the dispute.
 
Last year, McKean starred as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray; he had previously been seen on Broadway in Accomplice, as well as in the Actors' Fund benefit concert of Hair. He also appeared off-Broadway in A Second-Hand Memory. Known for his longtime association with writer/director Christopher Guest, his many film and TV credits include A Mighty Wind, My First Mister, Best in Show, Coneheads, This is Spinal Tap, "Tracey Takes On," "Saturday Night Live," and "Laverne and Shirley."

The Pajama Game was performed at Encores! in 2002; Brent Barrett and Karen Ziemba starred as the feuding lovers. The original production opened at the St. James Theatre on May 13th, 1954 to run for 1,063 performances; the show won Tonys for Best Musical, for Bob Fosse's choreography and for Carol Haney as Best Featured Actress in a Musical (understudy Shirley MacLaine would become a star by going on for her one night). The show, which was directed by Abbott and Jerome Robbins, features such hits in its score as "Hernando's Hideaway," "Steam Heat," "There Once Was a Man," and "Hey There." The Pajama Game became a 1957 film starring Doris Day and was revived once before in 1973.

For more information, and to purchase tickets - visit www.roundabouttheatre.org.

 




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