New York… Patti
LuPone—with all the sensitivity and fight she’s
famous for—steps back into the role that led to her
Olivier Award (and being cast as the original Fantine in Les
Miz) on Monday, May
19 in The
Cradle Will Rock at 7pm at Broadway’s
Bernard Jacobs Theatre, 242 West 45th Street.
The one-night concert of Marc Blitzstein’s iconic
work will benefit The
Acting Company, which Patti founded
with
Kevin Kline, John Houseman and Margot
Harley. Lonny
Price (Lincoln
Center’s Sweeney
Todd, Lady
Day) will direct; Michael
Barrett (Caramoor, NY Festival of Song) is musical
director. Patti’s son Josh
Johnston and
cousin Johann
Carlo—also alums of The Acting Company—will join
Patti and a cast of Broadway regulars. Tickets from $52
are on sale through Telecharge.com 212-239-6200;
information on benefit tickets including dinner with Ms.
LuPone and the cast is available from 212-258-3111.
“Cradle is
an amazing and legendary piece of theater history that
is still relevant today,” said Ms. LuPone. “It’s
part Gilbert and Sullivan, part Brecht, part Weill.” It
was first developed by John
Houseman and
directed by Orson
Welles; Houseman directed Ms.
LuPone and
his beloved Acting Company in it in New York and at the
Old Vic in London in the 1980’s. “I can’t wait to get
back into it;” said Ms. LuPone, “it is so special and
means the world to me that Josh and Johann are part of
it.”
Joining Patti LuPone and Michael Barrett are
Acting Company Alumni spanning its 41 years. Randle
Mell, David Schramm (Finian’s
Rainbow, TV’s Wings), Tom
Alan Robbins (Newsies,
The Lion King), Brian
Reddy (Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof), Casey Biggs (TFANA’s Hamlet), Mary
Lou Rosato and
Denise Woods will return along with other Acting
Company Alums Derek
Smith (The
Dance of Death, The Lion King) ,Johann
Carlo, Fred
Arsenault (Born
Yesterday, The
Royal Family), Todd
Cerveris (War
Horse, South Pacific) and Suzy
Kohane, Grant Fletcher Prewitt and Josh Johnston who
will have just finished the Company’s 2013-14 tour.
“The
Cradle Will Rock, set in ‘Steeltown, USA’ focuses on
the efforts of the town's workers to combat a greedy
businessman,” said Margot
Harley, The Acting Company Producer and co-founder.
“It is first-rate theater and our cast of Broadway
regulars will find even richer meanings today.”
The Acting Company has
toured 138 productions to 49 states and 10 foreign
countries earning a TONY for Excellence in Theater,
Obies, Audelcos and Los Angeles Critics Circle Awards. Rainn
Wilson, Frances Conroy, Jeffrey Wright, Harriet Harris,
Keith David, Hamish
Linklater and Jesse
L. Martin are
but a handful of other performers who began their
careers on tour with The Acting Company.
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