Studio Bulletin Board

I would like to congratulate Studio Member Casey Butler. Casey was just cast in "Finding Neverland" on Broadway.

BRAVO CASEY! You did it.....You deserve it....no doubt.

Casey Butler will be playing the role of George in the Broadway production of Finding Neverland The Musical at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater.

FINDING NEVERLAND is the new Broadway musical that tells the fascinating story of how Peter became Pan. Based on the Academy Award®-winning film of the same name, it has been brought to extraordinary life by the team behind Shakespeare in Love, Chicago and Pippin.

BOOK BY JAMES GRAHAMMUSIC AND LYRICS BY GARY BARLOW AND ELIOT KENNEDYCHOREOGRAPHED BY MIA MICHAELSDIRECTED BY DIANE PAULUS

Studio Bulletin Board

Brava! to studio member Shelley Keelor for her award winning performance in the musical "Carrie".

Craig





There's something to be said for chewing the scenery, for playing the loudest notes so powerfully and incessantly that everything, for a brief time, disappears, until that one performance is all that remains. In her opening scene as Margaret White, Carrie's fundamentalist wacko mom in Slow Burn's Carrie: The Musical, Keelor consumed everything — the set, the music, the title character — with her unquenchable hysteria. You hated her character as much as you'd ever hated anyone on a stage in that moment, but you were transfixed. You couldn't help but marvel at her acidic delivery of every biblical condemnation aimed at her newly menstruating offspring, every physically abusive overreaction. She was — and there's no better word for it — possessed. Act II was something else, however; unlike Piper Laurie's one-note, batshit performance in the 1976 movie adaptation, Keelor's Margaret earned your pity and sympathy with the most moving number in the show, bringing the emotional house down just before Carrie's oppressors showered it in blood.

shelleykeelor.com


http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/best-of/2015/arts-and-entertainment/best-supporting-actress-7038960

Congratulations to studio member

Erich Schuett.

Erich will be joining the National Touring Company of "The Sound of Music" starring in the role of Fredrick.

F O R I M M E D I A T E R E L E A S E

CAST ANNOUNCED

FOR NEW NATIONAL TOURING PRODUCTION OF


THE SOUND OF MUSIC

Music by RICHARD RODGERS

Lyrics by OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II

Book by HOWARD LINDSAY and RUSSEL CROUSE

Suggested by The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp

Directed by JACK O’BRIEN


North American Tour launches this September in Los Angeles, CA

Casting has been announced for the brand new production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, directed by three-time Tony Award®winner Jack O’Brien. This lavish new production will launch this September at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, under the auspices of the Center Theatre Group, and will then tour North America for multiple seasons, playing multi-week and week-long engagements. For more information, please visit www.TheSoundOfMusicOnTour.com.



BEN DAVIS (Broadway’s Violet, A Little Night Music, La Bohème) will play Captain Georg von Trapp and ASHLEY BROWN (Broadway’s Mary Poppins, NBC’s The Sound of Music) will play The Mother Abbess with MERWIN FOARD as Max Detweiler, TERI DALE HANSEN as Elsa Schraeder, DAN TRACY as Rolf and PAIGE SILVESTER as Liesl. The von Trapp children will be played by ERICH SCHUETT (Friedrich), MARIA KNASEL (Louisa), QUINN ERICKSON (Kurt), SVEA JOHNSON (Brigitta), MACKENZIE CURRIE (Marta) and ANDREY BENNETT (Gretl).

And introducing Jack O’Brien’s brand new discovery, KERSTIN ANDERSON as Maria Rainer. A current student at Pace University, Ms. Anderson won the coveted role from hundreds who auditioned. This will be her first national tour.

Director O’Brien had this to say about his leading lady, “in looking over a great American classic, like THE SOUND OF MUSIC, sometimes you stumble on something you wonder if anyone ever saw before. For instance, I was privileged to actually see Mary Martin in the original production — as I was myself just a junior at the University of Michigan. She was a great star, and she was giving a ‘great star’s’ performance. She was at the apex of her career, and she was both brilliant and 46 years old.

“But in reading it privately, something caught my eye: Maria is probably, as a postulant, no more than six or seven years older than Liesl! She may be many things — a country lass, a climber-of-trees, a young renegade, but she is clearly NOT an established star! How interesting!

“I’ve always believed Maria was a ‘star-making’ part, rather than the leading role we remember from the movies and our experience; so I went looking for someone with star-making magic. And in through the audition door one day walked Kerstin Anderson, still studying at Pace University in New York. She opened her mouth, she sang, and the tears welled up in my eyes.

“If ever there were an enchanting young woman standing on the brink of discovery — this was it! And now, the discovery is about to be all of ours! Please, as I do — welcome her!"

The ensemble includes Carey Rebecca Brown, Ron Brown, Caitlin Burke, Christopher Carl, Kyla Carter, Austin Colby, Daniella Dalli, Elisabeth Evans, Donna Garner, Meghan Hales, Adam Hill, Jenavene Hester, Jeremy Lanuti, Darren Matthias, Kelly McCormick, Julia Osborne, Andrea Ross, Brent Schindele and Jim Schubin.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC features music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, suggested by The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp. This new production is directed by Jack O’Brien (credits include: Hairspray, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Coast of Utopia), and choreographed by Danny Mefford (Fun Home, The Bridges of Madison Countyand Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson). The design and production team is comprised of Douglas Schmidt, Set Design (Tony Award® nominee: 42nd Street, Into the Woods); Jane Greenwood, Costume Design (2014 recipient of Special Tony Award ® for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), Natasha Katz, Lighting Design (Five-time Tony Award® winner: An American in Paris, Once, Aida, The Coast of Utopia, The Glass Menagerie) and Ken Travis, Sound Design (Aladdin, Newsies, Memphis).

Announced Cities, Dates and Venues for the 2015-16 Touring Season

Boise, ID Sept 14 – 16, 2015 Morrison Center– Tech rehearsals and tour previews

Los Angeles, CA Sept 20 – Oct 31 Ahmanson Theater – Official Tour Launch

Dallas, TX Nov 3 – 22 Music Hall

Charlotte, NC Nov 24 – 29 Blumenthal Performing Arts Center

Durham, NC Dec 1 – 6 Durham Performing Arts Center

Baltimore, MD Dec 8 – 13 Hippodrome Theatre

Knoxville, TN Dec 15 - 20 Tennessee Theatre

Tampa, FL Dec 22 – 27 Straz Center

Miami, FL Dec 29 – Jan 3, 2016 Arsht Center

Orlando, FL Jan 5 – 10 Dr. Phillips Center for the Perf. Arts

Ft. Myers, FL Jan 12 – 17 Barbara B. Mann PAH

Columbus, OH Jan 26 – 31 Ohio Theater

Madison, WI Feb 2 – 7 Overture Center

East Lansing, MI Feb 9 – 14 Wharton Center

Houston, TX Feb 16 – 21 The Hobby Center

Austin, TX Feb 23 – 28 Bass Hall

Atlanta, GA Mar 1 – 6 Fox Theatre

Providence, RI Mar 9 – 13 Providence Performing Arts Center

Philadelphia, PA Mar 15 – 20 Kimmel Center

Pittsburgh, PA Mar 22 – 27 Benedum Center

Boston, MA Mar 29 – Apr 10 Boston Opera House

Ottawa, ONT Apr 12 – 17 National Arts Centre

Greenville, SC Apr 20 – 24 Peace Center

St. Louis, MO Apr 26 – May 8 The Fabulous Fox

Detroit, MI May 10 – 22 Fisher Theatre

Denver, CO June 21 – 26 Buell Theatre

Costa Mesa, CA Jul 19 – 31 Segerstrom Center for the Arts

Fort Worth, TX Aug 17 – 21 Bass Performance Hall

Additional cities to be announced

According to director Jack O’Brien, “THE SOUND OF MUSIC has been in our ears for decades, as it deserves to be. But it might be time to look once more, and more closely, at this remarkable work which, I feel, begins to reveal itself as deeper, richer, and more powerful than ever. It’s no longer ‘your mother’s’ familiar SOUND OF MUSIC. We are tearing off the varnish of the past from one of the great glories of our theatergoing experience and making it fresh! This is an opportunity we’ve all longed to create!”


Producer Beth Williams (Grove Entertainment) said, “It’s a great privilege to bring this beloved Rodgers & Hammerstein musical to theaters across North America. We hope that people of all ages will continue to fall in love with it for the first time, or all over again, and that it will truly become one of their ‘favorite things.’ From our distinguished team led by the creative master Jack O’Brien, audiences can expect a truly magnificent production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC.”

In the words of Ted Chapin, President of Rodgers & Hammerstein, “THE SOUND OF MUSIC continues to be the world’s most beloved musical. When a major national tour was suggested, I not only agreed, but was willing to roll up my sleeves and do whatever I could to fashion a new stage production that would re-engage today’s theatergoing public. The show was originally created for Broadway, and seeing it on stage only reinforces the power of the story and the score. And with Jack O’Brien at the directorial helm – well, we simply couldn’t do better. Landing somewhere between The Coast of Utopia and Hairspray (shows for which Jack won the Tony®), his production will be smart, focused, and surprising. I can’t wait.”

THE SOUND OF MUSIC enjoyed extraordinary success as the first live television production of a musical in over 50 years when “The Sound of Music Live!” aired on NBC in December, 2013; 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the film version, which continues to be the most successful movie musical in history. The spirited, romantic and beloved musical story of Maria and the Von Trapp Family will once again thrill audiences with such songs as “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “Edelweiss” and the title song.



For more information, please visitwww.TheSoundOfMusicOnTour.com