BroadwayWorld has a first look at the The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' Broadway Center Stage production of Meredith Willson's The Music Man starring Tony Award® nominee Norm Lewis (Porgy and Bess) as Harold Hill, Tony Award®-winning actress Jessie Mueller (Waitress, Carousel, Beautiful) as Marian Paroo, and Broadway, film, and television star Rosie O'Donnell as Mrs. Paroo. The semi-staged concert production is directed by Marc Bruni (Beautiful, Broadway Center Stage: How to Succeed...) with choreography by Chris Bailey (Jerry Springer: The Opera, The New Yorkers at Encores!) and music direction by James Moore (Miss Saigon, the Kennedy Center's Follies and Ragtime).
The starry cast features Tony Award® nominee John Cariani (The Band's Visit, Something Rotten!) as Marcellus Washburn, Tony Award® nominee Veanne Cox (An American in Paris, Company) as Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn, Mark Linn-Baker (On the Twentieth Century, You Can't Take it With You) as Mayor Shinn, Tony Award® nominee and Drama Desk winner David Pittu (The Front Page, Is He Dead?) as Charlie Cowell, Damon J. Gillespie (Aladdin, Newsies) as Tommy Djilas, Eloise Kropp (Cats, Dames at Sea) as Zaneeta Shinn, Sam Middleton (Les Miserables) as Winthrop Paroo, and Emmy Elizabeth Liu-Wang as Amaryllis. The cast of the classic American musical also includes Malcom Fuller, Tessa Grady, Arlo Hill, Todd Horman, Denis Lambert, Liz McCartney, Katerina Papacostas, Hayley Podschun, Vivian Poe, Noelle Robinson, Blakely Slaybaugh, Jimmy Smagula, Ryan Steele, Owen Tabaka, Daryl Tofa, Diana Vaden, Nicholas Ward, and Jessica Wu.
Completing the creative team are set and projection designer Paul DePoo, costume designer Amy Clark (A Night With Janis Joplin, Chaplin), lighting designer Cory Pattak (Broadway Center Stage: In the Heights and Little Shop of Horrors), and Tony Award®-winning sound designer Kai Harada (The Band's Visit).
Due to popular demand, an eighth performance has been added on Monday, February 11, 2019 at 7 p.m. Presented as a part of Broadway Center Stage-a Kennedy Center-produced series of musicals in semi-staged concerts, conceived and executive produced by Jeffrey Finn-The Music Man will run February 6-11, 2019 in the Eisenhower Theater.
Winner of five Tony Awards® including Best Musical, this American musical favorite, with music, book, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, follows traveling salesman Harold Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa into buying uniforms for a boys' band that he vows to organize-despite the fact he doesn't know a trombone from a treble clef. His plans to skip town are foiled when he falls for Marian, the town librarian. The classic score features such standards as "76 Trombones," "'Till There Was You," and "Trouble."
Tickets for all performances are on sale through at the Kennedy Center box office, the website, or by calling (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324.
After sell-out performances of an inaugural season that included star-studded Kennedy Center productions of Chess, In the Heights, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the 2018-2019 Broadway Center Stage season opened with a rapturously received production of Little Shop of Horrors and will close with the Tony Award®-winning musical The Who's Tommy.
Broadway Center Stage: The Music Man will be performed Wednesday, February 6-Sunday, February 10, 2019 at 8 p.m. with matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturday, February 9 and Sunday, February 10. The performance on Monday, February 11 will be performed at 7 p.m. For more information please visit the Kennedy Center website, in-person at the Kennedy Center box office, or call (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324.
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