Photo Flash: BROADWAY AND THE BARD Celebrates Its Opening Night

Tony® award-winning actor Len Cariou (Sweeney Todd, ALittle Night Music, Applause), in collaboration with Aruba Productions, proudly presents and stars in Broadway and the Bard: An Evening of Shakespeare &Song at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, previewing Wednesday, June 6 with a press opening Thursday, June 7 and closing Sunday, June 10, 2018.

Conceived by Len Cariou, Barry Kleinbort and Mark Janas, Broadway and the Bard made its Off-Broadway premiere in 2016 and opened to general acclaim. The New York Times raved, "Intelligent and eloquent... Mr. Cariou makes for jovial company and draws the audience into a comfortable intimacy with little effort." Curtain Up wrote, "It is a delicious confection of Shakespeare and Broadway songs, served a la Cariou." And Onstage also chimed in: "The iconic stage actor and his accompanist (Mark Janis), in collaboration with director Barry Kleinbort, triumph in achieving Mr. Cariou's idea of combining his two great loves - Shakespeare and the American Musical."

Although recognized for his presence on television for the past eight seasons (as Tom Selleck's dyspeptic father on the long running hit series "Blue Bloods,") Mr. Cariou has previously held a long and distinguished career in the theater, including originating male leads in two landmark Stephen Sondheim musicals. In Broadway and the Bard, he is able to give full voice to an idea that he has harbored since his first prophetic Broadway season when he appeared as Shakespeare's Henry V and then, the following spring, starred the musical, Applause; that is, combining his two great loves - Shakespeare and American Musical Comedy - into one rich and diverse tapestry; outfitting trenchant classical soliloquies and sonnets with inventive musical pairings from beloved writers of the Great White Way - the result is an eighty-minutemelding of superb soliloquy and memorable song by a one-of-a-kind master actor of exquisite vintage in what the Bard might refer to as "a most rare vision."
The creative team for Broadway and the Bard also includes Josh Iocavelli (sets) and Matt Berman
(lights and sound). The tour is produced by special arrangement with Aruba Productions, LLC and Starry Night Productions.

Len Cariou is a distinguished member of the Theatre Hall of Fame and a three-time Tony nominee, for Applause, A Little Night Music, and for his legendary performance as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, (Tony award-winner, Best Actor). His other Broadway credits include Nightwatch, Cold Storage,Teddy & Alice, Dance a Little Closer, The Speed of Darkness, Neil Simon's The Dinner Party, and Proof. Showing his range, he toured the U.S. as Cap'n Andy in Showboat, and as Nils Bohr in Copenhagen. He scored his most recent triumph in The Gate Theatre's definitive, hit production of "All My Sons," in Dublin, Ireland,reprising his role as Joe Keller, which he also won raves for at the Geffen Theatre in Los Angeles in 2007. In addition, he was recently lauded for his performance as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon at the Vancouver Playhouse and Canadian Stage. In2008 he directed a production of Glengarry Glen Ross (Manitoba Theatre Centre)which sold out its mid-winter run despite outside temperatures of 40 below zero. His classical stage repertoire is far ranging, encompassing the title roles in Oedipus theKing, Macbeth, Cyrano, Coriolanus, and two productions of King Lear, as well asIago, Petruchio, Prospero and many others. Off-Broadway, he is proud of his workas Ernest Hemingway in Papa, William O. Douglas in Mountain, and Joseph Stalinin Master Class. Regionally, he has starred in a multitude of productions attheatres throughout North America, including The Kennedy Centre, The Mark TaperForum, The Manitoba Theatre Centre, The Stratford Shakespeare Festivals in bothOntario and Connecticut, The Guthrie Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre and The OldGlobe. He is a former Artistic Director of the Manitoba Theatre Centre, and formerAssociate Director of the Guthrie Theatre. Several feature films include the popularThe Four Seasons, Executive Decision, Thirteen Days, and About Schmidt withJack Nicholson, as well as Secret Window with Johnny Depp, Flags of Our Fathers,and 1408.He was awarded a Genie, Canada's Oscar, for Best Actor in the film OneMan. On television, Mr. Cariou currently stars as Henry Reagan (Tom Selleck'sfather) on the hit CBS series "Blue Bloods." He spent two seasons as powerhousepolitical appointee Judd Fitzgerald in the Showtime series "Brotherhood" withDublin's own Fionnula Flanagan. He has guest starred on CSI:Las Vegas, The Practice, West Wing, Law & Order, The Outer Limits, Swift Justice, and Murder SheWrote, to name only a few. Myriad TV movies include Surviving, Man in the Attic,Who Will Save Our Children, There Were Times Dear (PBS), Miracle on Route 880,Killer in the Mirror, Hallmark Hall of Fame's The Summer of Ben Tyler, Nuremberg(TNT) and as Franklin Roosevelt in HBO's Into the Storm. Mr. Cariou is known forhis voice-over work in commercials, books-on-tape and film, especially on TheJonestown Flood, which won an Academy Award, and as Harry Bosch in MichaelConnolly's well-known novels.

Barry Kleinbort has earned the prestigious Edward Kleban Foundation Award for Lyric Writing, two Gilman-Gonzalez Musical Theatre Awards, the Second Stage Musicals Writers Award, the Jamie deRoy/ ASCAP award, two Back Stage Bistro awards and ten Manhattan Association of Cabarets (MAC) awards for his directorial and songwriting efforts. He wrote the book and lyrics for the musical, Was, (music by Joseph Thalken) which was the inaugural production of the American Musical Theater Project in Chicago. He co-wrote with David Levy Perfect Harmony, a musical play about the lives of the Barry Sisters, which ran for six months in South Florida. Asa composer/lyricist, he wrote music and lyrics for Metropolita(i)n, a bi-lingual musical revue, which has successfully played in Paris and New York. He provided scripts foreight PBS TV specials and most recently was an "artistic consultant for "Cathouse:The Musical" for HBO.

His newest musical 13 Things About Ed Carpolotti starring Penny Fuller had a successful off-Broadway run at 59E59 Theaters and made its regional theater debut last year at the Merrimack Rep in Lowell, Massachusetts,again with Ms. Fuller, and under Mr. Kleinbort's direction. He has directed and/or written material for Brent Barrett, Petula Clark, Marvin Hamlisch, Kaye Ballard, Regis Philbin, John Barrowman, Tony Roberts, Anita Gillette, Karen Mason, Sylvia McNair,Harolyn Blackwell, Heather MacRae, and many, many others. He has also directed topical revues and intimate theater productions, including Rita Gardner's "Try to Remember - A Look at Off-Broadway" and Kaye Ballard's off-Broadway revue, "Kaye Ballard- Working 42nd Street at Last!" He adapted and directed the New York premiere of Bob Merrill's musical, The Prince of Grand Street for the Jewish Rep and John Epperson's autobiographical one man outing, Show Trash at both the StudioTheater in Washington, D.C and off-Broadway as part of the acclaimed Lypsinkatrilogy at the Connelly Theater. A well- received revue of his theater songs, "Big City Rhythm," is available on Harbinger Records.

Mark Janas began his piano studies at age of three, composed a sonatina at 5, andby high school was conducting the Hammond Area Youth Orchestra. At Indiana University he studied with pianist Karen Shaw, composer Bernhard Heiden, and conductors Jan Harrington and Tibor Kozma, among others. While a senior at Indiana, he was chosen by Leonard Bernstein to conduct at Bernstein festivals in Israel and Austria. He was twice Bernstein's assistant, for concerts with the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony orchestras. After receiving a bachelor of music degree from Indiana University and a brief stint as associate conductor of Texas Opera Theatre, he acquired a master's degree in orchestral conducting at Rice University, while simultaneously founding and conducting a professional group,Orchestra Texas. In 1982, he was a conducting fellow at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, studying with Bernstein, Tilson Thomas, Hogwood, and Blomstedt. In 1984, he jumped the fence to musical theater, composing a score for a historical drama The Lone Star, later recorded in London with members of the LSO,and later conducted the Houston Symphony in a performance of a Suite from the work. Janas music directed the world's largest production of Hello, Dolly!, creating all-new arrangements for its star, Marilyn Maye.

He performed all over the United Statesas associate conductor for two national tours of Les Misérables, as well as music directing for the Yale Repertory Theatre, Hippodrome State Theatre, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, and New Dramatists, to name a few. He music directed the Chautauqua Opera Cabarets in 1998 and more recently has performed and released a CD with 2001 Best Debut BackStage Bistro and MAC award winner Julie Reyburn.Performances with Maree Johnson took him to Australia, and last summertwo New York readings of his original musical, PoeSCrypt, were very well received; a recording of the work is currently in process. Mr. Janas won the 2002 BackStage Bistro Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Direction, and, having taught before at Yale,Barnard, Concordia, and NYU, as well as his Acting the Song class with colleague Andy Gale.

Performances of Broadway at the Bard are as follows: Wednesday, June 6 at 8 p.m., Thursday, June 7 at 8 p.m., Friday, June 8 at 8 p.m., Saturday, June 9 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday, June 10 at 3 p.m. All tickets are $35. To purchase tickets, please visit http://www.stage773.com/show/broadwayandthebard or call (773) 327-5252.

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