Cleale Returns To THE FANTASTICKS, McDaniel Joins On June 29th

Fresh from his acclaimed stint as Jordan "Bick" Benedict in the Signature Theatre's production of Michael John LaChiusa's Giant, Lewis Cleale has returned to the role of El Gallo in The Fantasticks. He previously played the role from September 2008 through March 2009. Addi McDaniel will join the cast as Luisa on Monday, June 29, 2009. They replace, respectively, Bradley Dean and Ramona Mallory.

Cleale's Broadway credits include Sir Galahad in Monty Python's Spamalot, Amour, Sir Harry in Once Upon a Mattress (with Sarah Jessica Parker) and Swinging on a Star, for which he earned a Drama Desk Nomination. He appeared Off Broadway in Time and Again (Manhattan Theater Club), A New Brain (Lincoln Center), Call Me Madam (opposite Tyne Daly at Encores!) and Big City Rhythm. National Tours include Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard (opposite Petula Clark) and Lt. Cable in South Pacific (with Robert Goulet). His regional credits include over thirty leading roles including Giorgio in Passion (Helen Hayes Award) and John Adams in 1776 for Ford's Theatre (Helen Hayes Nomination). His recordings include William Finn's Infinite Joy, Myths and Hymns, Sara Zahn: Witchcraft and the original cast recordings of Once Upon a Mattress, Swinging on a Star, Call Me Madam and Amour.

McDaniel has been seen as Gabriella in Disney's High School Musical at North Shore Music Theatre and in the world premiere of Little House on the Prairie at the Guthrie. She co-starred in the People's Choice Award-winning film Stripes 2.

The Fantasticks (music by Harvey Schmidt, book/lyrics/direction by Tom Jones) is a captivating and simple romantic comedy about a boy and girl who fall in and out of love at the hands of their meddling fathers. The audience uses its imagination to follow the narrator, El Gallo, as he creates a world of moonlight and magic until the boy and girl find their way back to one other. The score, which includes the hit songs "Try To Remember," "They Were You" and "Soon It's Gonna Rain," is as timeless as the story itself.

Having played a record-breaking 17,162 performances in its original run at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, The Fantasticks is now playing in the heart of Times Square at The Snapple Theater Center, located at 210 West 50th Street at Broadway. It is the longest-running musical in the world.

The Fantasticks company also includes Tom Flagg (Broadway's Will Rogers Follies, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Oklahoma), Gene Jones (No Country for Old Men, Broadway's Big River, Joe Turner's Come and Gone), Michael Nostrand, (A&E's Emmy Award-winning Peter Pan, national tours of Jelly's Last Jam, The Mystery of Edwin Drood), Evy Ortiz, Steve Routman (The Keen Company's The Conscientious Objector, Awake and Sing! at Arena Stage), Jonathan Schwartz, Douglas Ullman, Jr., John Thomas Waite (title role in Broadway's Amadeus) and Scott Willis (Broadway's Crazy for You and 42nd Street).

The Fantasticks performance schedule is as follows: Mondays at 8PM, Wednesdays at 2PM, Thursdays and Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 2PM & 8PM, and Sundays at 3PM & 7:15PM. Tickets are available by calling the box office at (212) 921-7862 or Ticketmaster.com at (212) 307-4100. Specially-priced $30 student tickets are also available at the box office.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.