Egan, Gearhart, Chase, Goble and Walton Join Revival, Complete 'BYE BYE BIRDIE' Casting Announced

After a 48 year absence, Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) will present the first new Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie as the inaugural production of the new Henry Miller's Theatre (124 West 43rd Street) beginning Thursday, September 10th, 2009 with an official opening on Thursday, October 15th, 2009. This will be a limited engagement through January 10th, 2010.

Bye Bye Birdie will star John Stamos (Albert Peterson), Gina Gershon (Rose Alvarez) & Bill Irwin (Mr. Harry MacAfee) with Jayne Houdyshell (Mrs. Mae Peterson) & Dee Hoty (Mrs. MacAfee). The cast will also feature Matt Doyle (Hugo Peabody), Molly Ephraim (Ursula Merkle), Jake Evan Schwencke (Randolph MacAfee), Allie Trimm (Kim MacAfee) and as "Conrad Birdie" Nolan Gerard Funk. Robert Longbottom will direct and choreograph Bye Bye Birdie with a book by Michael Stewart, music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams.

Additional cast members include Deanna Cipolla, Paula Leggett Chase, Riley Costello, John Treacy Egan, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Todd Gearheart, Patty Goble, Suzanne Grodner, Robert Hager, Nina Hennessey, Natalie Hill, Julia Knitel, Jess Le Protto, David McDonald, Jillian Mueller, Paul Pilcz, Daniel Quadrino, Devin Richards, Emma Rowley, Tim Shew, Allison Strong, Kevin Shotwell, Jim Walton, Brynn Williams, Branch Woodman

Roundabout is proud to welcome back six artists who have previously worked at the theatrical institution: John Stamos, Gina Gershon, Bill Irwin, Paula Leggett Chase, Colleen Fitzpatrick and Devin Richards.

Bye Bye Birdie's design team includes Andrew Jackness (Sets), Gregg Barnes (Costumes), Ken Billington (Lights), Tom Clark/Acme Sound (Sound), Howard Werner (Projections), David Holcenberg (Musical Director), Howard Joines (Musical Coordinator), David Brian Brown (Hair & Wigs), Jonathan Tunick (Orchestrations) and David Chase (Music Supervisor).

In Bye Bye Birdie, the exuberant rock n' roll musical comedy, it's 1960 and hip-swingin' teen idol superstar Conrad Birdie (Funk) has been drafted into the army. Birdie's manager Albert (Stamos) and his secretary Rosie (Gershon) have cooked up a plan to send him off with a swell new song and one last kiss from a lucky teenage fan... on "The Ed Sullivan Show"!

Bye Bye Birdie received the 1961 Tony Award® for Best Musical and features such beloved songs as "Put on A Happy Face," "Kids," "Spanish Rose," "The Telephone Hour" and "A Lot of Livin' To Do."

Major support provided by Bank of America. Lead support provided by Roundabout's Musical Theatre Production Fund partners: Perry and Marty Granoff, The Kaplen Foundation, Peter and Leni May, John and Gilda McGarry, Tom and Diane Tuft. Generous support also provided by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.

Tickets are available online at www.byebyebirdieonbroadway.com or by phone at (212)239-6200. Ticket prices range from $86.50 - $136.50. To become a Roundabout subscriber visit www.roundabouttheatre.org or call Roundabout Ticket Services (212)719-1300.

All tickets for the first preview performance on September 10th will be $10, made possible through the generous support of Bank of America. These tickets will only be available for purchase at the Henry Miller's Theatre box office, beginning at 12pm on Monday, August 10.

Bye Bye Birdie will play Tuesday through Saturday evening at 8:00PM with Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00PM.

The Durst Organization and Bank of America recently announced the completion of the Henry Miller's Theatre on West 43rd Street in Times Square. The 1,055-seat house inside the new 55-story Bank of America Tower will be New York's first LEED rated theatre. Henry Miller's Theatre is the first new Broadway theater built in over a decade and sets new standards for environmentally sustainable design and construction of performing arts venues. Henry Miller's Theatre sits behind the preserved and restored neo-Georgian façade of the original 1918 theater. The theater and the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park are an Empire State Development Corporation project and a joint venture of The Durst Organization Inc. and Bank of America, N.A.

By 1969, after being used as a Broadway theatre for 51 years Henry Miller's Theatre was abandoned as a legitimate theater. In 1998, Roundabout Theatre Company transformed, reopened and operated the venue as a Broadway theatre with their Tony award winning production of Kander & Ebb's Cabaret. Cabaret ran for nine months, closed because of a construction accident at an adjacent building, re-opened briefly, and transferred to Studio 54 for a five-year run.

The revitalization of Henry Miller's Theatre is consistent with Roundabout's history of bringing dilapidated, lost theatres back to life and programming the venues as viable, live performance spaces for the benefit of theater artists and audiences and managing them efficiently.

Henry Miller's Theatre serves the company's mission by providing more opportunities for artists as well as audiences. With Henry Miller's Theatre, Roundabout will create 80-100 new jobs each year for artists and theater staff through its activities. Beyond this project, the institution continues to employ hundreds of artists each year, including actors, designers, directors, playwrights, stage crew, front of house staff and administrators.

The new theater venue will also enable Roundabout to increase its educational outreach beyond the 6000 students currently served as well as provide a greater percentage of lower priced tickets to families and students. Education@Roundabout will be able to offer even more professional development workshops for educators and experiential learning opportunities for students through its partnerships with schools and onsite after school programs for teens.

Roundabout Theatre Company is one of the country's leading not-for-profit theatres. The company contributes invaluably to New York's cultural life by staging the highest quality revivals of classic plays and musicals as well as new plays by established writers. Roundabout consistently partners great artists with great works to bring a fresh and exciting interpretation that makes each production relevant and important to today's audiences.

Roundabout Theatre Company currently produces at three permanent homes each of which is designed specifically to enhance the needs of the Roundabout's mission. The off Broadway Theatre Center, Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre, with its simple sophisticated design is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays. The grandeur of its Broadway home on 42nd Street, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. Together these three distinctive venues serve to enhance the work on each of its stages.

Roundabout Theatre Company productions are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; New York State Council on the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts; and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company.

Roundabout Theatre Company's 2008-2009 season includes Christopher Hampton's The Philanthropist, starring Matthew Broderick, directed by David Grindley; Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, starring (in order of speaking) Nathan Lane, Bill Irwin, John Goodman, John Glover, directed by Anthony Page. Roundabout's sold out production of The 39 Steps made its second Broadway transfer to the Helen Hayes Theatre on January 21, 2009.

Roundabout Theatre Company's 2009-2010 season includes Mark Saltzman, Irving Berlin & Scott Joplin's The Tin Pan Alley Rag, directed by Stafford Arima; Patrick Marber's After Miss Julie, starring Sienna Miller & Jonny Lee Miller, directed by Mark Brokaw; Michael Stewart, Lee Adams and Charles Strouse's Bye Bye Birdie, starring John Stamos, Gina Gershon & Bill Irwin, directed and choreographed by Robert Longbottom; Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking, directed by Tony Taccone; and Noël Coward's Present Laughter starring Victor Garber, directed by Nicholas Martin.

 

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.