Gettelfinger Temporarily Leaves Scoundrels to Join Starry Grey Gardens Cast 2006/01/03

Gettelfinger Temporarily Leaves Scoundrels to Join Starry Grey Gardens Cast

Tuesday, January 3, 2006; Posted: 04:01 PM - by BWW News Desk

Sara Gettelfinger, who created the role of 'Jolene Oakes' in the hit Broadway musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, will take a leave of absence from that role to create another - 'Young Edie' - in the upcoming Playwrights Horizons world premiere of Grey Gardens: A New Musical.

Grey Gardens: A New Musical, by librettist Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife), composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie, will also co-star Tony Award-winner Christine Ebersole (Steel Magnolias, 42nd Street) and Mary Louise Wilson (The Women, Cabaret). Matt Cavenaugh (Urban Cowboy), Sarah Hyland (Paper Mill Playhouse's Annie), six-time Tony Award-nominee John McMartin (Sweet Charity, Follies), Michael Potts (Lennon), two-time Tony Award-nominee Bob Stillman (Grand Hotel) and Audrey Twitchell also recently joined the cast. The musical was inspired by the cult film documentary about relatives of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy living in a squalid Long Island mansion.

"Grey Gardens concerns the deliciously eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who were once among the brightest names in the pre-Camelot social register, and are now East Hampton's most notorious recluses, living in a dilapidated 28-room mansion. Facing an uncertain future, Edith Bouvier Beale and her adult daughter, 'Little' Edie, are forced to revisit their storied past and come to terms with it � for better, and for worse," according to Playwrights Horizons notes. The musical will run from March 5th through March 26th, but a commercial future is also likely if the show is a hit.

Mylinda Hull (Sweet Charity, 42nd Street) will take over for Gettelfinger on Tuesday, January 17, 2005 and continue in the role through Sunday, March 26, 2006. Gettelfinger, who has also appeared on Broadway in Nine, The Boys From Syracuse and Seussical, will return to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on Tuesday, March 28, 2006.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels won the 2005 Drama League Award as Best Musical, and was nominated for 11 Tony Awards. With a book by Jeffrey Lane and music and lyrics by David Yazbek (The Full Monty), the musical about two rival con men on the loose on the French Riviera also stars Norbert Leo Butz, Joanna Gleason and Gregory Jbara. The production is directed by two-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell.

As previously announced, two-time Tony Award-winner, Jonathan Pryce (Miss Saigon) will also begin performances as Lawrence Jameson on January 17, 2006. On February 5th, Rachel York (City of Angels, Dessa Rose) will step in for Sherie Rene Scott, who will be performing in Landscape of the Body. Scott will return on June 20th.

For more information on Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, visit www.dirtyrottenscoundrelsthemusical.com. For tickets (which go on sale January 13th) and more information on Grey Gardens, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200, or visit www.playwrightshorizons.org.