CLO to Premiere 'I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change'

Pittsburgh CLO is proud to announce the cast and creative team for the Pittsburgh premiere of the acclaimed Off-Broadway musical I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, which runs Oct. 9, 2008, through Feb. 1, 2009, at the CLO Cabaret. This group comprised of almost entirely Pittsburghers is ready to provide its hip, funny and sexy interpretation of the second longest-running musical in Off-Broadway history.

About the Cast

Kristiann Menotiades (Woman One) most recently worked with Pittsburgh CLO in the CLO Cabaret production of Shear Madness. Prior to that, she was the stage manager and the female understudy for the CLO Gallery of Hero's production The Incredibly Innovative Innovators of Pittsburgh.  Her previous credits include Alice Miller in My Favorite Year and Paquette in Candide at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, Yorah in Children of Eden and Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors at the CCAC Boyce Campus, Madge in Enlightenment with the City Theater's Young Playwright's Festival, and Grandma Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof with Pittsburgh Musical Theater. Ms. Menotiades is a graduate of Point Park University and is currently an instructor at the Pittsburgh CLO Academy.

Joseph Domencic (Man One) returns to the CLO Cabaret, where he has performed in the long-running hit Forever Plaid, Plaid Tidings and Forbidden Broadway.  He toured the country as an actor and assistant music director with The Acting Company in O Pioneers! and The Comedy of Errors, and he has also performed in the Pittsburgh area with Pittsburgh CLO (A Musical Christmas Carol, 1776, Footprints on the Moon, Young Mark Twain), Pittsburgh Public Theater (The Comedy of Errors, Cabaret), Unseam'd Shakespeare (The Constant Prince) and Mountain Playhouse (Glorious).  Mr. Domencic has worked as a teacher and music director with area high school and college students for the past 13 years and currently teaches at Seton Hill University and ACT ONE Theatre School.  Most recently, he served as the music arranger for ACT ONE's 2008 production of Alice in Wonderland.  He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and The New Actors Workshop.  

Christine Laitta (Woman Two) last performed for Pittsburgh CLO as part of Forbidden Broadway: SVU. She has written and performed several cabarets, including Confessions from a Cruise Ship, as well as Chris Laitta's TV Tunes Sing-a-Long. In addition to Forbidden Broadway at the CLO Cabaret, Ms. Laitta's CLO credits include On the Town, Sound of Music and A Musical Christmas Carol. Her other favorite roles include Maria (The Sound of Music), Martha (The Secret Garden), Scout (To Kill a Mockingbird), Carrie (Carousel), Ms. Frizzle (The Magic School Bus Live! First National Tour), Patty Simcox (Grease!) and Joanne (Godspell). Ms.Laitta is the co-author of "The Dramatically Different Classroom" (Kagan Publishing), which documents how to incorporate drama and music into all types of classroom activities and focuses on the importance of teaching through multiple intelligences.

Ted Watts Jr. (Man Two) is making his first appearance on the CLO Cabaret stage. Mr. Watts has spent the last three years touring with the CLO's Gallery of Heroes program and has also been an instructor for the CLO Academy.  His most recent credits include Pittsburgh Musical Theatre's productions of West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof, and The Road To Washington at The Mountain Playhouse.

Mark Tinkey (Understudy) is a 2002 graduate of Point Park University with a musical theater major. He was most recently seen in Shear Madness at the CLO Cabaret and the 2007 production of A Musical Christmas Carol. His other credits include Pittsburgh CLO's Gallery of Heroes production of Young Washington, Forbidden Broadway: SVU at the CLO Cabaret, Incorruptible, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Crazy for You, Hello Dolly!, Ah, Wilderness! and FBI Girl. 

Caitlin Elizabeth Reilly (Understudy) was most recently seen on stage for Pittsburgh CLO in the 2007 production of A Musical Christmas Carol, which marked her 13th production with the CLO and her fifth season with A Musical Christmas Carol. She is an alumna of the CLO Academy and CLO Mini-Star program. Her recent credits include Millie in Picnic, Marty in Grease!, Winnie in Annie Get Your Gun with Andrea McCardle, and Lesly in The House of Yes.

About the Creative Team

James Brennan (Director) has directed productions of Crazy For You and The Sound of Music for Pittsburgh CLO and The MUNY in St. Louis and Call Me Madam at the Goodspeed Opera House, in addition to numerous productions for the Cape Playhouse on Cape Cod. He directed the Off-Broadway premieres of Ed Dixon's Fanny Hill and Richard Cory. Mr. Brennan was responsible for the first full production in the New York City area of A Wonderful Life, by Sheldon Harnick and Joe Raposo, as well as The New York Philharmonic's acclaimed production of My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center. He has also created several productions at Paper Mill Playhouse. On Broadway, he directed and choreographed the revivals of Cole Porter's Jubilee and Jerome Kerns' Sally. As an actor, he has performed in Pittsburgh CLO productions of Me and My Girl and La Cage aux Folles. On Broadway, he has appeared in Good News, Rodgers and Hart, So Long 174th Street, I Love My Wife, Little Me, 42nd Street, Singin' in the Rain, Me and My Girl, and Crazy For You. Mr. Brennan's National Tour credits include No, No, Nanette, Good News, Me and My Girl, Camelot, and Crazy For You. He has played Elyot Chase in Private Lives at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady in Philadelphia, Sacramento, Wichita and Winnipeg (and Alfred P. Doolittle in Portland and Dallas), Arthur in Camelot in San Diego, Sacramento, Philadelphia (Barrymore nomination) and at the Paper Mill Playhouse, John Adams in 1776 in Sacramento, Rochester, and Philadelphia (Barrymore Award), and the Devil in Damn Yankees and Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum both in Sacramento and Wichita. 

Deana Muro (Musical Director) is a CLO Cabaret veteran of more than 900 performances and  six productions since the theater's inception, including her most recent music direction of The Big Bang. Her performance credits include Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, Julie in A Perfect Wedding (Post-Gazette Best Supporting Actress list), Jan in Grease, Gilmer in Godspell and Maureen/Queenie/Dot in Honk!. Her additional music direction credits include Forever Plaid, Forbidden Broadway, Forbidden Broadway SVU, Always, Patsy Cline, Plaid Tidings, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Evita, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum., The Starmakers Gala, Marat Sade, Footloose, Working, My Name is Alice, And the World Goes Round, Dames at Sea, School House Rock Live!, Oliver, Annie, Jr., Once On This Island, A Chorus Line and Off the Record! She has music directed/accompanied for Pittsburgh CLO, Point Park University, Pittsburgh Musical Theater, City Theater, Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theater and The Theater Factory, and played keyboard for CLO's The Full Monty and Smokey Joe's Café.  Ms. Muro debuted her own one-woman Cabaret, So Far... under the direction of Jack Allison at the CLO Cabaret, and has served as music director for several late night acts. She is a graduate of Point Park University.

Andrew David Ostrowski (Lighting Designer) most recently designed Anthony Rapp's one-man show Without You at City Theater and Contact at North Shore Music Theatre. He also designed Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble's summer season.  Mr. Ostrowski has designed the lighting for the CLO Cabaret  productions of Shear Madness, Forever Plaid, the Forbidden Broadway Series, Always...Patsy Cline and Plaid Tidings. He has also been the Associate Lighting Designer on 50 plus CLO shows including Carousel, Hello, Dolly!, Funny Girl, My Fair Lady and A Musical Christmas Carol.  Mr. Ostrowski has designed for Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh Public Theater, City Theater, Quantum Theater, Pittsburgh Irish and Classical, Pittsburgh Musical Theater and many others. His upcoming projects include the world premiere of Long Story Short for City Theatre and the subsequent production for Theatre Works in Palo Alto, CA.

Andrea Shockling (Set Designer) has designed sets for the CLO Cabaret's Always...Patsy  Cline, Pittsburgh Public Theatre's The Crucible and Jewish Theater of Pittsburgh's Door to Door, among many others. She has been an instructor with City Theatre's Young Playwrights Program, and recently finished a two year stint at the Children's Museum creating professional development courses for visual and performing arts educators, in partnership with the Arts Education Collaborative. She is a consultant with Growing Theater Outreach, a mentorship program through the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University that brings educational theater experiences to middle school students in the region.

Barbara Anderson (Costume Designer) most recently designed the costumes for the CLO Cabaret's Shear Madness and The Big Bang.  She has designed and supervised costumes for productions at the Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, the National Repertory Theatre, Yale School of Drama, McCarter Theatre, the Dartmouth Professional Theatre, Theatre-By-The-Sea and the Carnegie Mellon Theatre Company. She designed the costumes for the premiere of the CLO musical, Casper, as well as five original musicals for the CLO Gallery of Heroes program. Credits in film and television include six feature films for George Romero. Her PBS costume design work included the American Playhouse film "The Silence At Bethany," the Emmy® Award-winning "Leatherstocking Tales," the 12-part "Decades of Decision," the five-part "John Marshall" series for the U.S. Supreme Court, the National Geographic "Shakespeare" series, productions for the "Wonderworks" and "Once Upon a Classic" series and "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." Locally she created historical costumes for the John Heinz Regional History Center.  She has also designed mascots such as dragons and dinosaurs, shows for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and academic regalia. She is the Anathan Professor of Drama at Carnegie Mellon and Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts.

Tim Brady (Stage Manager) returns to the CLO Cabaret after working as stage manager for Shear Madness, The Big Bang, Always... Patsy Cline, and Plaid Tidings and performing in Forbidden Broadway: SVU.  As an actor, he has appeared in 11 productions of Pittsburgh CLO's A Musical Christmas Carol, the 2008 Summer Season productions of Mame, Annie Get Your Gun and West Side Story and the 2004 summer productions of The Music Man (Charlie Cowell) and 1776 (Judge Wilson), in addition to appearing in Porgy and Bess, Evita, Casper and the CLO's Gallery of Heroes program for 10 years. Other local theaters that Mr. Brady has performed with include The Pittsburgh Pops, Starlight Productions, The New Pittsburgh Jewish Theatre, Stage Right and The Theater Factory. Mr. Brady was also the managing director of the Conley Inn Dinner Theater in Irwin for 17 years.

 

Tickets are available online at CLOcabaret.com, by calling (412) 456-6666 or at the Box Office at Theater Square. Groups of 10 or more can call the Group Sales Hotline at 412-325-1582 to learn more about special discounts and priority seating.

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change is part of the 2008-2009 CLO Cabaret Subscription Series.  This fun-filled series also includes Shear Madness and My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra.  Subscribers enjoy great benefits.  Visit CLOcabaret.com for more information. 

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