EVITA's Dee Roscioli to Return to Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival in Concert

Broadway actress Dee Roscioli returns to Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival for one night only in concert on July 31 at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of DeSales University.

"It's a fun cabaret with some of my favorite songs, pop hits, and Broadway," says Roscioli. She returns to PSF following her recent critically acclaimed performance as Eva Perón in the Festival's lauded and completely sold-out production of Evita: "Roscioli's powerful vocals and charisma light up the stage," says Daniel Friedman in his review for The Morning Call. "There is not a moment she's onstage that your eyes leave her."

Roscioli, an Easton native and DeSales University theatre graduate, is best known for her long run as Elphaba on Broadway, and in the Chicago, San Francisco, and national touring productions of the hit musical Wicked. She has the distinction of playing the role of Elphaba in more performances in North America than any other actress.

"We are thrilled to have her back for this one night only concert. Dee Roscioli was a magnificent Eva, is a terrific actress, and possesses one of the best voices on Broadway," says Dennis Razze who directed Roscioli in Evita and in the role of Mrs. Lovett in the Festival's 2012 production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

The concert is July 31, at 7:30pm on the Main Stage of the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of DeSales University in Center Valley. Tickets are $38.

The 26th season also features Ken Ludwig's swashbuckling romp The Three Musketeers playing in repertory with Shakespeare's popular comedy As You Like It; and PSF's "Extreme Shakespeare" production of Troilus and Cressida-not often produced and a must-see for the Shakespeare enthusiast. (Extreme Shakespeare: Actors arrive with their lines learned, rehearse and stage the play on their own, wear what they can find, and open in a matter of days.)

PSF also produces two original children's productions this season: The Ice Princess, a new adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen, and Shakespeare for Kids.

Single tickets start at $25; youth, senior citizen, military, and group discounts are available.

The Festival's 26th season: The Ice Princess (Now thru August 5); The Three Musketeers in repertory with As You Like It (Now thru Aug 6); Troilus and Cressida (July 26-August 6); and Shakespeare for Kids (July 26-August 5).

PSF is a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, and a member of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, the Shakespeare Theatre Association, the Lehigh Valley Arts Council, and Discover Lehigh Valley.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Dee Roscioli was most recently seen as Eva Peron in Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's Evita. Best known for her record-breaking run as Elphaba in Wicked where she played the role on Broadway and across the US. Other credits: John Kander's new musical KID VICTORY at the Vineyard Theatre directed by Liesl Tommy, Fiddler on the Roof (2015 Broadway revival), Circus in Winter (Goodspeed Musicals), Love/Sick (written by John Cariani) Rock and Roll Refugee (Royal Family), Little Miss Sunshine (Second Stage dir by James Lapine), Murder Ballad (MTC workshop and NYSF production dir by Trip Cullman), and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. Dee has also sung with various symphonies around the world including the Philly Pops.

Patrick Mulcahy (Producing Artistic Director) Since assuming leadership in 2003, Mulcahy has led PSF's return to artistic excellence and financial stability, built the professional company of artists, oversaw the quadrupling of the endowment, and achieved increasing national recognition for the Festival. Further accomplishments include PSF's first-ever awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and attracting a company of artists including winners and nominees of the Tony, Obie, Emmy, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Jefferson, and Barrymore awards to the Festival, growth in all income areas, a 75% increase in annual attendance, and the expansion of the number of Actors' Equity contracts per season. As a professional director, actor and fight director, credits include Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theatre, television, and radio. Mulcahy has acted with Angela Bassett, Peter MacNicol, HAl Holbrook, Joan Cusack, Don Cheadle, Anne Meara, Milo O'Shea, Cynthia Nixon, Tony Shaloub, Bradley Whitford, and others at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Hartford Stage, Roundabout Theatre Company, Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Syracuse Stage, and the Walnut St. He served as a fight director for Tom Hulse and Timothy Busfield in A Few Good Men on Broadway and for Off-Broadway productions starring John Savage, John Mahoney, Marcia Gay Harden, and Patrick Dempsey. He directed Oscar nominee Vera Farmiga in The Real Thing, and, for PSF, directed Julius Caesar (2016), Macbeth (2014), Hamlet (2011), Antony and Cleopatra (2009), The Winter's Tale (2007), Henry IV, Part I (2005), The Tempest (1999), and acted in and served as fight director for The Taming of the Shrew (1998) and Julius Caesar (1997). Also head of acting at DeSales, Patrick holds an MFA from Syracuse University.

DENNIS RAZZE (Associate Artistic Director) is the chairman of the theatre department of DeSales University, where he has been a faculty member for the last 33 years. He is also a founding member of PSF. This season, he directed Evita, and last summer, he directed PSF's critically acclaimed production of West Side Story. He has directed many of PSF's productions including Les Misérables, Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma!, Sweeney Todd, South Pacific, A Funny Thing...Forum, 1776, Cyrano de Bergerac, My Fair Lady, Amadeus, Man of La Mancha, Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and As You Like It. Mr. Razze also composed musical scores for PSF's Cyrano, The Tempest, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He recently received the Arts Ovation Award for Performing Arts from the Arts Commission of the city of Allentown.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride

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