Victoria Clark Stars in Encores! 'Juno'

Victoria Clark will star in Marc Blitzstein and Joseph Stein's Juno, the second Encores! production of New York City Center's 2008 season.  Directed by Tony Award winner Garry Hynes, with guest music direction by Eric Stern and musical staging by Warren Carlyle, Juno will play for five performances, from March 27 – 30, at New York City Center (West 55th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues). This will be the first production since the original Broadway staging in 1959 to use the original orchestration by Blitzstein, Hershey Kay and Robert Russell Bennett.

Juno, with music and lyrics by Marc Blitzstein and book by Joseph Stein is based on the 1924 play Juno and Paycock by Sean O'Casey.  It originally opened on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theater on March 9, 1959, starring Shirley Booth and Melvyn Douglas and played a total of 16 performances. Songs include "I Wish It So," "We're Alive," and "One Kind World."

"Juno chronicles the disintegration of an Irish family in Dublin in the early 1920s during the confrontation between the Irish Republican Army and the British.  Juno Boyle is the hardworking matriarch who struggles heroically to hold her family together in the face of war, betrayal, and her husband's drinking," explain press notes.

Victoria Clark won the Tony Award for her performance in The Light in the Piazza by Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel. Clark's previous work includes the Broadway musicals How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Cabaret, Urinetown, Titanic. Clark portrayed Sally in last season's acclaimed Encores! production of Follies.

Garry Hynes (Director) received a Tony Award for Best Director in 1998 for Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane, and has the distinction of being the first woman ever to win a Tony for directing. The following year she received a Tony nomination for her direction of Mr. McDonagh's The Lonesome West. Her additional Broadway credits include Translations and Sixteen Wounded. She co-founded Ireland's Druid Theatre Company, the first professional company established in Ireland outside Dublin, and served as Artistic Director of the company between 1975 and 1990, and again since 1994. The company quickly came to the forefront of Irish theatre in the 1980s. In 1990, Hynes was appointed Artistic Director of The Abbey Theatre.  She has also directed for the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-on-Avon and London, The Royal Court Theatre (London) and The Gate Theatre (Dublin). 

Eric Stern (Guest Music Director) is a veteran Broadway conductor and arranger with over 15 Broadway musicals and 30 albums to his credit. His Broadway credits include Xanadu, Follies, Parade, Candide, Once Upon a Mattress, The King And I, Carousel, The Will Rogers Follies, and Legs Diamond. Stern's albums include the Grammy-award winning "Will Rogers Follies," "Leonard Bernstein's New York," and three complete Gershwin musicals: "Lady Be Good," "Pardon My English," and "Oh, Kay!" Stern was awarded an Emmy for his work with PBS and is the recipient of numerous Gramaphone awards. He was guest musical director of last season's Encores! production of Follies.

Juno performances are scheduled for Thursday March 27 at 8PM; Friday March 28 at 8PM; Saturday March 29 at 2PM & 8PM; and Sunday March 30 at 6:30PM

Tickets for the 2008 Encores! season are available at the New York City Center Box Office (West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues), through CityTix at 212-581-1212, or online at www.nycitycenter.org.  Tickets for the Orchestra, Grand Tier and Mid-Mezzanine are $95; tickets for the Rear Mezzanine and Front Gallery are $50; tickets for the Rear Gallery are $25.

Victoria Clark: Photo by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd