Ziemba, McKechnie, McCarthy, Nixon and Others Announced for Barrington Follies

Tony award winners Karen Ziemba and Donna McKechnie, Urinetown's Jeff McCarthy, City of Angels's Leslie Denniston, and Tony-nominated Lara Teeter will star in Barrington Stage Company's production of James Goldman's and Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece Follies. Broadway veteran Marni Nixon will also be featured. Artistic Director Julianne Boyd will direct and Lara Teeter will choreograph. Follies, presented in celebration of Sondheim's 75th birthday, will run from June 23 through July 16 at the Consolati Performing Arts Center, Sheffield, MA.

Karen Ziemba, who won a Tony Award portraying the Wife in Susan Stroman's Contact, will play Sally in BSC's production. Other Broadway credits include Never Gonna Dance, Chicago, Steel Pier, Crazy for You and 42nd Street. Off Broadway she won a Drama Desk Award for her performance in And the World Goes 'Round . Other Off Broadway credits include I Do! I Do! and for the NYCO, 110 in the Shade and Most Happy Fella.

Best known for her Tony-winning performance as Cassie in the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line, Donna McKechnie will play Carlotta. McKechnie has appeared in many musicals on and Off-Broadway, including How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Company, State Fair, Can-Can, Annie Get Your Gun, I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road, State Fair and Promises, Promises. She is presently performing her new, critically acclaimed cabaret act, Gypsy in my Soul, throughout the country.

Jeff McCarthy, who starred in BSC's 1999 award-winning production of Mack and Mabel, returns to play Ben Stone. His Broadway credits include Urinetown (Drama Desk nomination), Side Show, Beauty and the Beast, Smile and Zorba. He has appeared Off-Broadway in Gifts of the Magi, On the 20th Century, and Dream True. Most recently McCarthy played opposite Karen Ziemba in Opposite of Sex in San Francisco.

Leslie Denniston, who starred in BSC's critically acclaimed production of A Little Night Music, returns to play the role of Phyllis. Her Broadway credits include City of Angels, Copperfield, To Grandmother's House We Go, and Happy New Year. Denniston has also performed in numerous regional productions, and TV and film roles.

Lara Teeter, the Tony-nominated lead in On Your Toes, will play the role of Buddy. Teeter appeared on Broadway in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, in the NYCO production of Most Happy Fella with Karen Ziemba, and played the Scarecrow in the Madison Square Garden production of The Wizard of Oz.

Marni Nixon, a Broadway veteran and long-time performer at BSC, will play Heidi. Nixon is best known as the singing voice behind stars such as Audrey Hepburn, Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood and Jeanne Crain. She has also sung opera and classical song and has appeared on Broadway in the recent revival of Nine, Follies at the Roundabout and James Joyce's The Dead.

Young Ben will be played by Eric Ulloa, Young Buddy by John Patrick,Young Phyllis by Nili Bassman and Young Sally by Elise Molinelli. Also featured are Diane Findley as Stella, Diane Houghton as Hattie, Gordon Stanley as Dmitri, Natalie Mosco as Emily Whitman and David Young as Theodore Whitman.

Julianne Boyd conceived and directed the Broadway musical Eubie!, a show based on the music of Eubie Blake which starred Gregory Hines and garnered 3 Tony nominations. She also co-conceived and directed (with Joan Micklin Silver) the award-winning Off-Broadway musical revue A…My Name Is Alice (Outer Critics' Award) and its sequel A…My Name Is Still Alice. At BSC she directed the world premiere of The Game, a musical based on Les Liaisons Dangereuses starring Sara Ramirez and Christopher Innvar, Mack and Mabel, starring Jeff McCarthy, and the critically acclaimed Cabaret, which won seven Boston Theatre Critics awards and later moved to Boston for an extended run.

The press opening is Sunday, June 26th at 5pm. Follies will be followed on the MainStage by Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest from July 21-August 7 and William Finn's Elegies from August 11-28.

Barrington Stage, co-founded in 1995 by Artistic Director Julianne Boyd, produced the world premiere of William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin's critically acclaimed musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee last summer. Spelling Bee will begin previews on Broadway on April 15 and open on May 2nd.

For tickets or information on the full 2005 season, please call the BSC box office at 413 528-8888 or visit the website at www.barringtonstageco.org.