Tony Yazbeck Joins World Premiere of PRINCE OF BROADWAY in Japan!

As BroadwayWorld reported last month, the World Premiere of Prince of Broadway, a new musical celebrating the extraordinary six decade Broadway career of producer-director Harold Prince, will play from October 23-November 22, 2015 at Tokyu Theatre Orb in Tokyo, Japan and November 28-December 10, 2015 at Umeda Arts Theater, Main Hall, in Osaka, Japan. Now according to the show's official website, 2015 Tony nominee Tony Yazbeck (On the Town, Gypsy Chicago, A Chourus Line) has joined the company.

Additional cast includes Shuler Hensley (Tony Award winner for Oklahoma!), Ramin Karimloo (Phantom of the Opera, Tony Award nominee for Les Miserables), Nancy Opel (Honeymoon in Vegas, Tony Award nominee for Urinetown), David Pittu (Tony Award nominee for Love Musik and Is He Dead?), Emily Skinner (Billy Elliot, Tony Award nominee for Side Show), Josh Grisetti (It Shoulda Been You), Mariand Torres (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, Wicked), Kaley Ann Voorhees (Phantom of the Opera) and Reon Yuzuki (former Top Star of the Takarazuka Revue Company's Star Troupe).

Prince of Broadway, which features words and music from many of the shows that have earned Hal Prince a record 21 Tony Awards, has a book by two-time Tony Award nominee David Thompson (The Scottsboro Boys, Steel Pier), co-direction and choreography by five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman (The Producers, Contact, Crazy for You) and direction by Mr. Prince.

Celebrating one of the most influential and successful careers in the American theatre of the past 60 years, Prince of Broadway will look at the circumstances and fortune, both good and bad, that led to Hal Prince creating some of the most enduring and beloved theatre of all time, including The Pajama Game, West Side Story, Fiorello!, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Evita, and The Phantom of the Opera, the longest-running show in Broadway history.

Mr. Prince directed the original productions of She Loves Me, It's a Bird...Superman, Cabaret, Zorba, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures,On the Twentieth Century, Sweeney Todd, Evita, Merrily We Roll Along, The Phantom of the Opera, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Parade and LoveMusik. He has also directed acclaimed revivals of Candide and Show Boat. Before becoming a director, Mr. Prince produced the original productions of The Pajama Game,Damn Yankees, New Girl in Town, West Side Story, Fiorello!, Tenderloin, Flora the Red Menace, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum andFiddler on the Roof. Among the plays he has directed are Hollywood Arms, The Visit, The Great God Brown, End of the World, Play Memory and his own play,Grandchild of Kings. His opera productions have been seen at Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Vienna Staatsoper and the Theater Colon in Buenos Aires. In 2006, he prepared a new version of Phantom which ran in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel for six years. His next musical, The Band's Visit, will open at the Atlantic Theatre Company in 2016. Mr. Prince is a trustee for the New York Public Library and previously served on the National Council on the Arts for the NEA. He is the recipient of 21 Tony Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center's Monte Cristo Award and a National Medal of the Arts from President Clinton for a career in which "he changed the nature of the American musical."

Prince of Broadway will feature set design by Tony Award winner Beowulf Boritt, costume design by six-time Tony Award winner William Ivey Long, lighting design by Sonoyo Nishikawa and sound design by Koichi Yamamoto. Wig design is by Paul Huntley. Musical supervisor and arrangements are by three-time Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown. Musical director is Fred Lassen. Casting is by Tara Rubin.

Tickets are now on sale for performances from October 23-November 22, 2015 at Tokyu Theatre Orb in Tokyo, Japan, and November 28-December 10, 2015 at Umeda Arts Theater, Main Hall, in Osaka, Japan.

Rehearsals for Prince of Broadway begin in New York on September 1.