'Power of Change' Drew Star Victoria Clark to Garth Drabinsky's SOUSATZKA

As previously announced, the world premiere of the Garth Drabinsky production of Sousatzka, the new musical by three-time Tony Award-nominated book writer Craig Lucas and the legendary composing team of Tony Award winner Richard Maltby, Jr. (Lyrics) and Academy Award winner David Shire (Music), is headed to Broadway in 2017.

The show will star Tony Award winner for The Light in the Piazza Victoria Clark in the title role of Madame Sousatzka, a celebrated, eccentric, Polish-born piano teacher who was forced into exile. Today, Clark shared what drew her to the role in a post on the musical's Facebook page.

"I love the story of Sousatzka!" Clark said. "Even just the visual image of a middle agEd White woman sharing the stage with a young black man is very moving to me. Where do we EVER see that onstage today? And as these two people find their common ground and begin to heal one another, we see this story's potential to intercept our biases and change us in profound ways. Their connection ripples out into their families and communities and soon we are telling a story about the power of change with a sweeping kinetic multicultural backdrop which has never been more relevant than it is at this very moment."

Choreographed by ten-time Tony Award nominee Graciela Daniele and directed by Adrian Noble, Sousatzka will begin performances on February 25, 2017 at Toronto's historic Elgin Theatre (189 Yonge Street), and officially open on Thursday, March 23. Sousatzka's pre-Broadway strictly limited engagement is scheduled to run through April 9, 2017.

Sousatzka also stars Tony Award nominee Montego Glover, Tony Award winner Judy Kaye, and features the Broadway debut of Jordan Barrow.

Based on the original novel Madame Sousatzka by Bernice Rubens, Sousatzka, set in London, England in 1982, tells the story of a young musical prodigy torn between two powerful women from vastly different worlds: his mother, a political refugee and his piano teacher, a brilliant eccentric with a shattered past. These two proud, iconoclastic women must ultimately cross cultural and racial divides to find common ground, or else put the boy's destiny in jeopardy.

Sousatzka's creative and design dream team includes Tony Award winner Anthony Ward (Scenic Design), Tony Award winner Paul Tazwell (Costume Design), two-time Tony Award winner Howell Binkley (Lighting Design), Jonathan Driscoll (Projection Design), Grammy Award winner Martin Levan (Sound Design), Tony Award winner Jonathan Tunick (Orchestrations), David Caddick (Music Supervision), Brad Haak (Music Director), Lebo M. (Additional Music and Vocal Arrangements), and Marius de Vries (Additional Music Arrangements).