Klea Blackhurst & Stephen Bogardus to Lead the York's PANAMA HATTIE

Celebrating Broadway's legendary Cole Porter, The York Theatre Company continues their 50th Anniversary Season with its acclaimed Musicals in Mufti series celebrating the legendary Broadway composer.

Closing out the 2019 Fall Mufti series is the 1940's hit musical Panama Hattie, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and book by Herbert Fields and B.G. DeSylva. Cole Porter and Ethel Merman teamed up for their fourth hit with 1940's Panama Hattie, in which a brassy nightclub owner must bid for the approval of her fiancé's family-a task only made more complicated when she discovers a plan to blow up the Panama Canal. With a raucous book about sailors and singers in the Panama Canal Zone and a snappy Porter score that includes "Let's Be Buddies," "I've Still Got My Health," and "Make It Another Old-Fashioned, Please," Panama Hattie was a smash in its day; Brooks Atkinson in The New York Times stated, "if the Navy ever hears about Panama Hattie, it will be hard to keep the fleet in the Pacific. As far as that goes, it is going to be hard to keep New Yorkers at home in the evenings this winter." Performances begin Saturday afternoon, October 26, 2019 and will continue for 11 performances only through November 3, 2019 at The York Theatre Company at Saint Peter's (entrance on East 54th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue). Opening Night is Sunday evening, October 27, 2019 at 7:00 p.m.

Directed by Michael Montel (Dear World, A Time for Singing, and 20 other Muftis!) and with music direction by Deniz Cordell (Lolita, My Love), the cast will feature Klea Blackhurst, who returns to The York to star in the title role of Hattie Maloney, having previously paid tribute to Ethel Merman in the Mufti presentation of Happy Hunting and in her acclaimed solo show Everything the Traffic Will Allow, as well as Stephen Bogardus (Bright Star) as Nick Bullett and Simon Jones (Farinelli and The King) as Vivian Budd, with David Green (Smiling the Boy Fell Dead at The York), Jay Aubrey Jones (Lolita, My Love at The York), Lael Van Keuren (Finding Neverland), Kylie Kuioka (The King and I), Garen McRoberts (Little House on the Prairie), Casey Shuler (Legally Blonde), Gordon Stanley (Dear World at The York), Joe Veale (Enter Laughing at The York), Zuri Washington (Sister Act), and Anita Welch (Little Rock).

The York Theatre Company's acclaimed Musicals in Mufti series of musical theatre gems, performed in a simply-staged, book-in-hand concert format, is currently in its twenty-sixth historic year of presenting shows from the past that deserve a second look. Mufti means "in street clothes, without the trappings of a full production."

The production team includes Production Manager George Xenos, Production Stage Manager Kimothy Cruse, and Assistant Stage Manager Kirsten Leigh Williams. Casting for Panama Hattie is by Binder Casting: Chad Eric Murnane, CSA.

For additional information, please visit www.yorktheatre.org