Princesses, Matthew Wilder and David Zippel's Broadway-bound musical, will receive a private industry reading in Manhattan on March 9th.
Directed by Christopher Ashley (All Shook Up), the reading will feature the musical in its current version; changes have been made since earlier developmental productions at Connecticut's Goodspeed Musicals and at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre (which were both helmed by Zippel).
With music by Wilder and a book by Cheri and Bill Steinkeller (producers of "Cheers," writers of "Teacher's Pet"), Princesses features lyrics by Zippel (City of Angels, The Woman in White), who also created the show's concept. In the show, "a group of jaded private school girls reluctantly stage a production of the beloved Victorian novel A Little Princess"
by Frances Hodgson Burnett. "The show is a disaster until America's
hottest action hero arrives on the scene to direct it. The boy-crazy
teens are wild for him, except for one--his daughter. Will she finally
have her father back, or will he rush off to Hollywood when he gets a
better offer? The fresh, hip score blends contemporary pop and
traditional theater tunes in this innovative musical-within-a-musical,"
according to production notes. The show, in its previous productions, was choreographed by Tony
Award-winner Rob Ashford (Thoroughly Modern Millie).
Donna English (Forbidden Broadway, Ruthless) and Jenny Fellner (Mamma Mia!), both of whom have been involved with Princesses since its 2004 Goodspeed production, will join Tom Hewitt (The Rocky Horror Show, Dracula) and Celia Keenan-Bolger (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) for the reading. Sierra Bogess, Andrew Call,
Patrick Garner,
Trisha Jeffrey, Sarah Jayne
Jenson,
Anne Letscher, Courtney Laine Mazza,
Moeisha McGill, Lindsay Mendez, Patti Murin,
Anisha Nagarajan, Olivia
Oguma, Marissa Perry, Jaqui Polk, and Kelly Stensland will also be featured.
The reading will also feature orchestrations are by
Bruce Coughlin, vocal arrangements and additional
orchestrations by Wilder, musical direction by Lynne
Shankel, dance arrangements by
David Chase, as well as incidental music,
song and additional vocal arrangements by Shankel.
Dates and a theatre for
Princesses' upcoming Broadway berth has not yet been announced for the musical.
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