THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY Tour to Kick Off in Des Moines; First Round of Dates Set!

The national tour of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, winner of the 2014 Tony Award for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations, will launch in Des Moines, IA at the Des Moines Performing Arts Civic Center with performances beginning Saturday, November 28th and an official opening on Tuesday, December 1st.

Based on one of the most romantic stories ever written, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY will travel to more than 15 cities in its first season, including Los Angeles, CA (Ahmanson Theatre); Washington, D.C. (The Kennedy Center); Dallas, TX (Music Hall at Fair Park); Pittsburgh, PA (Benedum Center); Minneapolis, MN (Orpheum Theatre); Las Vegas, NV (The Smith Center); Houston, TX (The Hobby Center); West Palm Beach, FL (Kravis Center); Fayetteville, AR (Walton Arts Center); and Dayton, OH (Schuster Center) with additional cities to be announced soon.

The critically acclaimed musical of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY features one of Broadway's most accomplished creative teams with music and lyrics by three-time Tony Award®-winning composer JASON ROBERT BROWN (Parade, The Last Five Years), book by Pulitzer Prize-winning writerMARSHA NORMAN (The Secret Garden, The Color Purple, 'night, Mother), and led by the Tony Award®-winning director BARTLETT SHER (South Pacific, The King and I, The Light in the Piazza).

The team also includes scenic design by two-time Tony Award®-winner MICHAEL YEARGAN (The Light in the Piazza, South Pacific), costume design by five-time Tony Award-winner CATHERINE ZUBER (South Pacific, The Light in the Piazza, The Coast of Utopia), lighting design by two-time Tony Award-winner DONALD HOLDER (South Pacific, The Lion King), sound design by JON WESTON, orchestrations by JASON ROBERT BROWN, and movement by DANNY MEFFORD.

Casting for the national tour of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY will be announced at a later date.

Featuring gorgeous, soulful music that draws upon the rich textures of Americana and folk and the sweeping balladry of classic Broadway, the musical is based on the best-selling novel by ROBERT JAMES WALLER. THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY tells the story of Iowa housewife Francesca Johnson and her life-changing, four-day whirlwind romance with traveling photographer Robert Kincaid. It's an unforgettable story of two people caught between decision and desire, as a chance encounter becomes a second chance at so much more.

The Original Broadway Cast Recording of THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, now available on Ghostlight Records, was released on April 15, 2014 and debuted as the #1 Cast Recording on the Billboard charts. For more information or to purchase the Cast Recording, visit www.sh-k-boom.com/bridgesofmadisoncounty.

For more information, visit www.BridgesMusical.com

BIOGRAPHIES:

MARSHA NORMAN (Book) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and co-chair of Playwriting at Juilliard. She won a Tony for The Secret Garden, and another nomination for The Color Purple. Her first play, Getting Out, received the John Gassner Playwriting Medallion, the Newsday Oppenheimer Award, and a citation from the American Critics Association. Other plays include The Laundromat, The Pool Hall, Loving Daniel Boone,Trudy Blue, and her newest play, Last Dance.

Published collections of her works include Four Plays, Collected Works of Marsha Norman, Vol. 1, and a novel, The Fortune Teller. She has also worked extensively in television and film and has an upcoming play for the UN about trafficking and violence toward women. She is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, a former advisory member of the Sewanee Writers Conference, and current vice president of The Dramatists Guild of America. She serves on the boards of the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Independent Committee for Arts Policy. Ms. Norman was elected to the Agnes Scott College Board of Trustees in 2003. She lives with her two children in Monterey, MA and New York City.

JASON ROBERT BROWN (Music, lyrics and Orchestrations) has won three Tony Awards for his groundbreaking work as a composer, lyricist, and orchestrator. His emotionally incisive, ferociously energetic, and deeply human scores for Honeymoon in Vegas, The Bridges of Madison County (Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations), Parade(Tony and Drama Desk Awards), The Last Five Years (Drama Desk Award), 13, and Songs for a New World have brought his unique voice and highly personal songs to stages all over the world. Other works include his "novel symphony," The Trumpet of the Swan (written with Marsha Norman), which he conducted with the National Symphony Orchestra. Jason also tours with his band The Caucasian Rhythm Kings, with whom he has recorded a CD, Wearing Someone Else's Clothes.

BARTLETT SHER (Director) is Resident Director of Lincoln Center Theater, where he is currently in rehearsals for the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I. Also for LCT, he directed Golden Boy by Clifford Odets (Tony Nomination), Blood and Gifts by J.T. Rogers, the new musicalWomen on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown by Jeffrey Lane and David Yazbek, August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Tony Award nomination), Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (2008 Tony Award, South Pacific went on to Australia where it was the most successful show in the history of the Sydney Opera House), Awake and Sing! by Clifford Odets (Tony Award nomination) and The Light in the Piazza by Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel (Tony Award nomination).

He has directed operas for the Metropolitan Opera (L'Elisir d'Amore, Le Comte Ory, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Roméo et Juliette for Salzburg Festival in 2008, and Seattle Opera/New York City Opera (Mourning Becomes Electra, 2003-2004). From 2000-2010, Mr. Sher was Artistic Director of Seattle's Intiman Theatre, where his credits include the world premieres of Prayer for My Enemy and Singing Forest by Craig Lucas and Nickel and Dimed, Joan Holden's adaptation of the nonfiction bestseller by Barbara Ehrenreich, and plays by Chekhov, Shakespeare, Goldoni and Tony Kushner, among other credits. His New York credits include the Theatre for a New Audience productions of Cymbeline, which premiered in England and was the first American Shakespeare production at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and for which he received the 2001 Callaway Award, and the American premiere of Harley Granville-Barker's Waste, winner of the 2000 Best Play Obie. He is a graduate of Holy Cross College and received his graduate training in a class of international theatre artists at the University of Leeds in England.