Wayne Bennett Joins the Cast of AUDREY: The New Musical Off-Broadway

Green Light Group Productions has announced that Helen Hayes Award Winner Wayne Bennett will join the cast of the July 2022 Off-Broadway premiere of the Audrey Hepburn biomusical Audrey: The New Musical, directed and choreographed by Kelli-Ann Paterwic.

Bennett, who won the 2015 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play for his performance as Canewell in No Rules Theatre Company's Seven Guitars at Signature Theatre, will portray the role of Hollywood icon Fred Astaire. Astaire and Hepburn co-starred together in the Paris-set 1957 movie musical Funny Face.

Bennett's casting strengthens the new musical's existing ties to the DC theatre scene, as Audrey was previously developed at the Helen Hayes Award-Winning theatre company Creative Cauldron as part of their Bold New Musical Voices initiative.

As previously announced, the cast will also feature newcomer Marina Yiannouris (Milburn Stone Theatre's The Wizard of Oz) as Academy Award Winner Audrey Hepburn, Brenton Cosier (Comedy Central's Ronny Chieng, International Student) as Academy Award Winner Bill Holden, Charlotte Odusanya (Rent 25th Anniversary Farewell Tour) as Grammy Award Winner Ella Fitzgerald and Academy Award-winning costume designer Edith Head, and Bradley Lewis (IFC Films' Resurrection) as Academy Award Winner Gregory Peck.

Additional casting includes Sam Asa Brownstein (Syracuse Stage's Matilda) as fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy, Hannah Beemer as Young Audrey, Lara Strong as Young Audrey Alternate, Christopher Cheng (Super Secret Arts' Super Secret Cabaret) as Academy Award Winner Humphrey Bogart, James C. Harris (Philadelphia Theatre Company's Play Brawl Gala) as Academy Award Nominee Mel Ferrer, Tiffany Furicchia (Grosse Pointe PAC's Hairspray) as Marilyn Monroe, and Sasha Spitz (The Carnegie's Little Shop of Horrors) as Female Swing.

Performances will begin Thursday, July 28, 2022, at The Players Theatre (115 MacDougal Street, New York, NY). The production will run through Sunday, August 28, 2022.

Winning both the Tony and the Oscar in her first year on the American scene, Audrey Hepburn commanded the screen opposite the likes of nearly every leading man of her day. Her own life, however, was far less charmed than that of the lucky-in-love heroines she so poignantly portrayed. From her days as a ballerina-turned-spy in Nazi-occupied Holland, to her heartbreaking attempts, with multiple men, to create the family of which the war robbed her, through her accidental revolution of style and singledom for generations of women, Audrey re-examines the life of a legend through song, dance, and the technicolor lens of her most iconic screen performances.

Written by Danielle E. Moore (Crossover: A New Pop Musical), with direction and choreography by Kelli-Ann Paterwic (8 At the Table) and music direction by Sara Linger (GATSBY: A New Musical), Audrey arrives this summer at the historic Players Theatre, whose MacDougal Street counterpart Cafe Wha played host to '50s and '60s luminaries ranging from Bob Dylan to Lenny Bruce, as part of the theater's Production Residency Program. The musical was previously developed with support from the East Broadway Theater Project (Artistic Director: Gail Kriegel), and was a 2020 Bold New Musical Voices honoree from Helen Hayes Award-Winning theater company Creative Cauldron.

Tickets start at $39 and may be purchased at The Players Theatre Box Office at 115 MacDougal Street, or online at www.greenlightgroupproductions.com/audrey-musical.

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