The Bridges of Madison County - the heartfelt, intimate musical by Jason Robert Brown (Parade, Honeymoon in Vegas, The Last Five Years) and Marsha Norman (The Color Purple) based on Robert James Waller's tender story of love, regrets and second chances - will open on Monday, March 11. Artistic Director Fred Anzevino will be stage director and Jeremy Ramey music director. The musical, which won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Score, will be the second show of Theo Ubique's first season in its new home at 721 Howard Street in Evanston. The Bridges of Madison County will preview from March 8-10 and play Thursdays through Sundays through April 21, 2019.
The cast will be led by Kelli Harrington, who won Jeff awards as leading actress in a musical for her roles in Theo Ubique's The Light in the Piazza and Aspects of Love, and last year earned raves for her Desiree in BoHo Theatre's A Little Night Music. Harrington will play Francesca Johnson, an Italian war bride living in rural Iowa in 1965 who meets and falls in love with a handsome globe-trotting photographer while her husband and children are out of town at a 4-H convention. Tommy Thurston, who this past fall was praised for his role of Bill Starbuck in BoHo's 110 in the Shade, will be the photographer Robert Kincaid. Carl Herzog, a hit with audiences and critics alike in Theo Ubique's My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra, will play Francesca's farmer husband, Bud Johnson.
Molly LeCaptain (of Theo Ubique's The Full Monty and a 2018 Jeff Award nominee for her multiple roles in Pride Films and Plays' YANK! A WWII Love Story), has the role of Kincaid's ex-wife Marian, seen in flashbacks. Kate Harris (Theo's The Full Monty) and Randolph Johnson (Jacques Brel's Lonesome Losers of the Night ) have been cast as Francesca's neighbors Charlie and Marge. Francesca and Bud's teenage children Michael and Carolyn will be played by Christopher Ratliff (BoHo's 110 in the Shade) and Peyton Shaffer (Jane Banks in Paramount's Mary Poppins). Completing the cast are Matt Frye (following his role as Jerry in The Full Monty) and Lizzie Cutrupi, making her Theo Ubique debut.
All performances will be staged in the new Howard Street Theatre, 721 Howard Street, Evanston. Single tickets and two-show season tickets are now on sale at www.Theo-u.com or by phone at 773-347-1109. ABOUT THEO UBIQUE
Theo Ubique was founded in 1997 by Artistic Director Fred Anzevino. Productions were first staged at the Heartland Studio Theatre, and from 2004 to May 2018, at No Exit Café, where the company began focusing on musicals and revues, reigniting the cabaret theatre trend in Chicago. The company moved to its own space in Evanston in fall 2018. Theo Ubique has produced more than 60 shows and received more than 60 Jeff Awards, having received more than 100 nominations. It has also received three After Dark Awards.
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