Musicals Tonight! Announces Casting for Irene

MEL MILLER, Producer and Artistic Director of MUSICALS TONIGHT! is pleased to announce casting for IRENE, running April 17th through April 29th.  IRENE runs two weeks playing Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Wednesdays and Fridays at 2:00 pm and Sundays at 3:00 pm.  All performances are open for review.  All tickets are $20.00. For reservations, call (212) 868-4444 or visit www.smarttix.com. MUSICALS TONIGHT! performs at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre, 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street in Manhattan.

Irene O'Dare (JILLIAN LOUIS) is a hard-working girl from Ninth Avenue who falls in love with Donald Marshall, III (Patrick Porter) a Long Island swell.  Donald's ne'er-do-well cousin Ozzie (SELBY BROWN) needs help to jump start the fashion business of a French designer, so Irene and her best friends Helen McFudd (JENDI TARDE) and Jane Burke (KATHERINE MCCLAIN) are recruited to pose as society girls while modeling the gowns of Madame Lucy (JUSTIN SAYRE).  Needless-to-say, Irene's mother and Donald's mother don't see eye-to-eye at the beginning but become quite close at the end.  This slight-of-hand is easily accomplished because both women are played by Janet Carroll who has successfully dealt with a variety of children in her career, as well as having played the mother of Tom Cruise in Risky Business.  Joining in the musical fun are JODY COOK, MICHAEL JENNINGS MAHONEY, MICAH SHEPPARD, RICHARD BARTH, MARNIE BUCKNER, LAURA PAVELL, KELLIE DRINKHAHN and Jacque Carnahan.

IRENE (1973) ran for 670 performances originally (in 1919) and featured the song Alice Blue Gown. The revisal starred Debbie Reynolds (her Broadway debut) and ran for over 600 more. It includes the songs "You Made Me Love You," and "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows."

TOM MILLS will direct and BILL STANLEY is the music director.

THOMAS MILLS (Director) is in his seventh season with Musicals Tonight. Recently he choreographed the National Tour of IN THE MOOD, a 1940s revue with a 15-piece big band. Other projects include directing and choreographing industrials and choreographing WRONG WAY UP, a new musical. He directed A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC for the Utah Opera. Other credits: Director - Back-stage Bistro Awards (three years) working with Faith Prince, Sally Mayes, Cleo Lane and Donna McKecknie. Regionally: Director - 100 YEARS OF BROADWAY (Helen Hayes); director/choreographer - COMFORTABLY NUMB (Bristol Riverside); MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (choreographer) - Hampton Shakespeare; resident director/ choreographer for The Smithsonian - "American Song Series".

Additional MUSICALS TONIGHT! events include AT THIS PERFORMANCE where Broadway standbys and understudies are featured in solo performances April 22, 23 at 8:00 pm.  Tickets are $20.00.  BMI MUSICAL MONDAY presents new works from the BMI Theatre Workshop April 23 at 6:15 pm.  Tickets are $15.00.

The OBIE award-winning MUSICALS TONIGHT! founded by MEL MILLER in 1998 has revived 37 classic musicals staged concert form.  Nearly 50,000 people have seen these neglected representatives of America's most famous art form.   For more information visit www.musicalstonight.org.  For reservations, call (212) 868-4444 or visit www.smarttix.com.  All events performed at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre, 2162 Broadway, at 76th Street in Manhattan.