Cast Set for THE RABBIT QUEEN at The Broadwater Theatre Mainstage

The Rabbit Queen is a wild, irreverent, & true tale of a woman who convinced the world she could give birth to rabbits. The upcoming production of this new satirical musical has found its cast for the west coast premiere. Joanna Syiek will direct and choreograph the production, debuting this June at the Broadwater Mainstage as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

Bettina Bresnan stars as Mary Toft, who made history as the Mother of Rabbits. The cast features Sid Gonzales as Mary's sister, Margaret, Amy Anderson as Mary's mother, Ann, and Jack Little as Mary's husband, Joshua. Also starring in this production will be Richardson Cisneros-Jones as Dr. John Howard, Sawyer Maier as Prince Fred, Oliver Rotunno as Dr. Nathaniel St. Andre, Eliana Nunley as Alexa, and Josh Hillinger as Dr. Cyriacus Ahlers. The cast also includes Kaylee Jaye, Ramona Yates, Yu Tsutsumi, Tatiana Gomez, Jeff Buco, Steven Gonzalez, and Caleb Mills Stewart as the citizens of Godalming and more.

The Rabbit Queen features music and lyrics by Laura Watkins (credits include American Reunion (Universal), The Longest Ride (Fox), and The Newsroom (HBO) and musicals Comic-Con the Musical and Glass Ceilings the Musical), lyrics by Jaime Lyn Beatty (founding member of Team Starkid whose credits include off-Broadway, Google, Netflix, Nickelodeon, and The Superbowl), and a book by Ilana Gordon (whose writing has been featured in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Reductress, NPR's "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!", Jezebel, The A.V. Club, and more). The team recognizes that female and nonbinary playwrights are underrepresented in theatres across the US and internationally.The Rabbit Queen is proud to feature an all female writing team, along with a female director and producer.

This new musical is raucous, irreverent, comedic and fast-paced, with a story that is not afraid of tackling current issues from our not-so-distant past. It follows the true story of a poor, illiterate woman named Mary Toft who managed to fool the finest doctors, scientists, and nobles into believing she could give birth to rabbits. Delivering on that promise, Mary performed the mesmerizing spectacle 17 times over, securing her place in history as "The Rabbit Queen." The story of Mary's viral hoax and subsequent cancellation is one that touches on themes of bodily autonomy, women's reproductive freedom, gender and class roles, and the dangers of blindly trusting authority figures and the media.

This piece will be premiering at The Broadwater Theatre Mainstage as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival this summer. The Rabbit Queen was originally nurtured and developed by New Musicals Inc, who enlisted Color & Light Theatre Ensemble to bring this staging to life. Laura Watkins is music directing, costumes supervision will be by Katie DeShan, and Kim Iosue and Mitchell Webb are stage managing.

Shows run from June 8-June 29, 2024. Tickets are $15 and available at www.colorandlighttheatre.com/shows.

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