TOOTSIE to Launch National Tour in 2020; West End, Australia, and Japan Productions Announced!

The 11-Time Tony Award-nominated musical, Tootsie, will launch a North American Tour at Shea's Buffalo Theater in Buffalo, New York, in Fall 2020, announced producers Scott Sanders and Carol Fineman. Casting, exact dates and additional cities will be announced at a later date.

Additionally, today the Tootsie producers have confirmed several international productions.

-Scott Sanders Productions and Carol Fineman will partner with Michael Harrison and David Ian to bring the acclaimed musical to the West End in 2021.

-An Australian production of Tootsie, in partnership with Benjamin Lowy Productions, is confirmed. The production will also play in New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

-A Japanese-language production of Tootsie, produced by TOHO Co., Ltd., will premiere in Tokyo and will subsequently tour to several other major cities across Japan. Exact timing will be announced in the coming months.

"We are thrilled that audiences and critics alike have fallen in love with Tootsie -- from our world premiere engagement in Chicago to Broadway - and we are very excited to share the laughs with audiences across the country and globe," said lead producers Scott Sanders and Carol Fineman.

"TOOTSIE is a classic musical comedy in the grand Broadway tradition and we cannot wait to launch the National Tour in Fall 2020," said President of Shea's Performing Arts Center Michael G. Murphy and Co-Presenter of Broadway productions at Shea's Buffalo Theatre, Albert Nocciolino. "TOOTSIE delivers comedy with a capital "C" and we know our audiences will embrace this hilarious new American musical as much as Broadway theatergoers have."

TOOTSIE received the 2019 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical. It has been nominated for 11 Tony Awards and 12 Drama Desk Awards, including Best Musical. Tootsie is a two-time Outer Critics Circle Award winner for Best Actor in a Musical for Santino Fontana and Best Book of a Musical.

TOOTSIE tells the story of a talented but difficult actor who struggles to find work until one show-stopping act of desperation lands him the role of a lifetime - as the star of a new Broadway musical.

TOOTSIE features an original score by Tony Award-winner David Yazbek (The Band's Visit, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), a book by Robert Horn (13; Dame Edna, Back with a Vengeance), choreography by Tony Award nominee Denis Jones (Holiday Inn, Honeymoon in Vegas), and music direction by Andrea Grody (The Band's Visit). Tootsie is directed by eight-time Tony Award nominee and Olivier Award winner Scott Ellis (She Loves Me, On the Twentieth Century).

The Broadway company is led by Tony Award nominee Santino Fontana as Michael Dorsey, Tony Award nominee Lilli Cooper as Julie Nichols, Tony Award nominee Sarah Stiles as Sandy Lester, John Behlmann as Max Van Horn, Tony Award nominee Andy Grotelueschen as Jeff Slater, Julie Halston as Rita Marshall, Tony Award winner Michael McGrath as Stan Fields, and Tony Award nominee Reg Rogers as Ron Carlisle.

The company also includes Sissy Bell, Barry Busby, Paula Leggett Chase, Britney Coleman, Leslie Donna Flesner, Jenifer Foote, John Arthur Greene, Drew King, Jeff Kready, Harris Milgrim, Adam Monley, Shina Ann Morris, James Moye, Katerina Papacostas, Nick Spangler, Diana Vaden, and Anthony Wayne.

The design team for Tootsie includes scenic designer David Rockwell, costume designer William Ivey Long, lighting designerDonald Holder, sound designer Brian Ronan, hair and wig design by Paul Huntley, make-up design by Angelina Avallone. Casting is by Jim Carnahan C.S.A. Music supervision is by Andrea Grody & Dean Sharenow, vocal & incidental arrangements by Andrea Grody, dance arrangements by David Chase, orchestrations by Simon Hale, and music coordination by Dean Sharenow.

TOOTSIE is based on the story by Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart and the Columbia Pictures Motion Picture produced by Punch Productions and starring Dustin Hoffman.

Tickets for Tootsie are now available at the Marquis Theatre box office and at www.Ticketmaster.com or by calling 877-250-2929. Tickets range from $79-$169.