Kennedy Center Presents COME FLY AWAY, 4/18-29

The Kennedy Center presents Come Fly Away in the Eisenhower Theater from April 18–29, 2012. Conceived, choreographed, and directed by Tony Award^® winner and Kennedy Center Honoree Twyla Tharp (Movin' Out) and by special arrangement with the Frank Sinatra Family and Frank Sinatra Enterprises, Come Fly Away blends the legendary vocals of Frank Sinatra with a live on-stage big band and 14 of the world's finest dancers. The show's score combines classic and newly discovered vocal performances from the Sinatra archives, along with Sinatra's signature arrangements by Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Quincy Jones, among others, and brand new charts, for this fresh innovative musical. Press night will take place on Wednesday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m.

Come Fly Away follows four couples as they fall in and out of love during one song and dance-filled evening at a crowded nightclub and weaves an unparalleled hit parade of classics, including "Fly Me To The Moon," "My Way," and "That's Life," into a soaring musical fantasy of romance and seduction.

Direct from the original Broadway cast of Come Fly Away and the Las Vegas production of Sinatra Dance With Me are principal dancers Matthew Stockwell Dibble, Meredith Miles, and Ron Todorowski (Helen Hayes Award winner – Movin' Out). Also starring in the tour as principals are Ioana Alfonso, Anthony Burrell, Ashley Blair Fitzgerald, Stephen Hanna, Ramona Kelley, and Christopher Vo. The ensemble includes Mallauri Esquibel, Jeffery B. Hover, Jr., Marina Lazzaretto, Nathan Madden, Marceea Moreno, Candy Olsen, Julius Anthony Rubio, Amy Ruggiero, Justin Urso, Tanairi Sade Vazquez, Mindy Wallace, Chehon Wespi-Tschopp, and Michael Williams.

Come Fly Away premiered at the ALLIANCE THEATRE in Atlanta, Georgia in September 2009 and opened on Broadway in March 2010.  Twyla Tharp's creative relationship with the music of Frank Sinatra began in 1976 with the premiere of Once More Frank, a duet created for the American Ballet Theatre, performed by Ms. Tharp and Mikhail Baryshnikov.  The collaboration continued with Nine Sinatra Songs, Ms. Tharp's piece for fourteen dancers, which had its world premiere with Twyla Tharp Dance in 1982, and was followed by Sinatra Suite, a duet featuring Mr. Baryshnikov and Elaine Kudo, which had its world premiere in 1984 with American Ballet Theatre at the Kennedy Center.   Mr. Sinatra requested that Sinatra Suite be performed when he received his Kennedy Center Honors, citing it as one of the purest expressions of his body of work.

Twyla Tharp has created work in ballet, modern dance, and on Broadway, in addition to her successes in film and television. She is also the author of three books. Since graduating from Barnard College in 1963, Ms. Tharp has choreographed more than 135 dances, five Hollywood movies, and directed and choreographed four Broadway shows. She has received one Tony Award^®, two Emmy Awards, 19 honorary doctorates, the Vietnam Veterans of America President's Award, the 2004 National Medal of the Arts, the 2008 Jerome Robbins Prize, and a 2008 Kennedy Center Honors. Her many grants include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1965, Ms. Tharp founded her dance company Twyla Tharp Dance. In addition to choreographing for her own company, she has created dances for the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, Boston Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance, the Martha Graham Dance Company, Miami City Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Ms. Tharp's work first appeared on Broadway in 1980 with When We Were Very Young, followed in 1981 by her collaboration with David Byrne on The Catherine Wheel at the Winter Garden. Her 1985 production of Singin' in the Rain played at the Gershwin and was followed by an extensive national tour. In 2002, Ms. Tharp's award-winning dance musical Movin' Out, set to the music and lyrics of Billy Joel, premiered at the Richard Rodgers, where it ran for three years. A national tour opened in 2004 and also ran for three years. For Movin' Out, Ms. Tharp received the 2003 Tony Award^®, the 2003 Astaire Award, the Drama League Award for Sustained Achievement in Musical Theatre and both the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography. For the London production, Ms. Tharp won the Best Choreography (Musical Theatre) Award of the UK's Critics Circle National Dance Awards 2006. In 2006, Ms. Tharp worked with Bob Dylan's music and lyrics to create The Times They Are A-Changin' which played at the Brooks Atkinson. In film, Ms. Tharp has collaborated with director Milos Forman on Hair in 1978, Ragtime in 1980, and Amadeus in 1984; with Taylor Hackford on White Nights in 1985; and with James Brooks on I'll Do Anything in 1994. Her television credits include choreographing Sue's Leg for the inaugural episode of PBS' "Dance in America"; co-producing and directing "Making Television Dance," which won the Chicago International Film Festival Award; and directing "The Catherine Wheel" for BBC Television. Ms. Tharp co-directed the television special "Baryshnikov by Tharp," which won two Emmy Awards as well as the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Director Achievement. In 1992, Ms. Tharp wrote her autobiography, Push Comes to Shove. In 2003 she wrote The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life and in 2009 The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together, both of which were published by Simon and Schuster.

Frank Sinatra is one of the world's most recognizable, admired, and influential artists of all time, with a vast catalogue of music that is a soundtrack for our lives. More than a singer, he was an actor, recording artist, nightclub and concert star, radio and television personality and, on occasion, producer, director, and conductor. An entertainer for six decades, Sinatra earned three Oscars, three Golden Globes (including the Cecil B. DeMille Award), ten personal Grammys^® (and a total of 20 for his albums), an Emmy, a Peabody, and the Kennedy Center Honors. A generous charitable contributor, he was honored with the prestigious Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In addition, Sinatra was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor and the CongressionAl Gold Medal, Congress' highest civilian award. Besides recording nearly 1,500 songs, he starred in some 60 motion pictures. Frank Sinatra has been called the most popular entertainer of the 20th century.

Come Fly Away features scenic design by James Youmans, costume design by Katherine Roth, lighting design by Donald Holder, and sound design by Peter McBoyle.  Additional arrangements and orchestrations and music supervision are by Dave Pierce.

Come Fly Away is produced on tour by Nederlander Presentations, Inc., by special arrangement with the Frank Sinatra Family and Frank Sinatra Enterprises.

Musical Theater at the Kennedy Center is made possible through the generosity of the Adrienne Arsht Musical Theater Fund. 

For more information about the Kennedy Center, please visit kennedy-center.org.

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