Aldredge, Gurwin, Harriell and More Join Encores!' Kismet, Feb. 9-12

By: Jan. 25, 2006
Get Access To Every Broadway Story

Unlock access to every one of the hundreds of articles published daily on BroadwayWorld by logging in with one click.




Existing user? Just click login.

Tom Aldredge, Danny Gurwin, Marcy Harriell, Randall Duk Kim, and Danny Rutigliano will enter mythical Baghdad alongside previously-announced stars Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie in the Encores! staged concert presentation of Kismet. The season opener of the popular series, it will run at City Center from February 9th through 12th.

Five-time Tony Award-nominee Aldredge (Twelve Angry Men, Passion, Into the Woods) will be seen as Jawan, Gurwin (Little Women, The Full Monty) will play the dashing Caliph, Harriell (Lennon, Rent) will play ingenue Marsineh, Kim (Flower Drum Song, Golden Child) will be seen as Omar and Rutigliano (The Lion King, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public) will portray the comical Wazir. They join Tony Award-winner Stokes Mitchell (Man of La Mancha, Kiss Me, Kate, Ragtime) as the poet Hajj and Tony-nominee Mazzie (Kiss Me, Kate, Ragtime, Passion) as the seductive Lalume.

Kismet will be directed by Lonny Price and will feature musical direction by Paul Gemignani. Tony Award-nominee Elizabeth Parkinson (Movin' Out), Solange Sandy (Chicago), Rachelle Rak (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), Roland Rusinek, Scott Watanabe and Michael X. Martin will be among the ensemble of 30 singers and dancers.

Kismet, based on a play by Edward Knoblock, boasts a score by Robert Wright and George Forrest (Song of Norway, Anya, Grand Hotel), who adapted the score from themes by Alexander Borodin. The book is by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis. The show is a lush operetta set in an Arabian Nights-esque Baghdad.

Kismet, which opened on December 3rd, 1953, received the 1954 Tony Award for Best Musical. Starring Alfred Drake, Richard Kiley and Dolores Gray, it ran for 583 performances. A 1955 MGM film version with Gray and Howard Keel followed, and in revised form, it ran on Broadway in 1978 with Eartha Kitt and Melba Moore. Renamed Timbuktu, it was set in Africa.

Kander and Ebb's 70, Girls, 70 and the Gershwins' Of Thee I Sing will follow Kismet at Encores!, which specializes in concert productions of shows that are not frequently produced (though Bye Bye Birdie and others have been exceptions to that general rule).

A three-show subscription package to the Encores! season is available at $270 for the Orchestra, Grand Tier, and Mid-mezzanine; and $120 for the Rear Mezzanine and Front Gallery. Single tickets can be purchased at $90 (Orchestra, Grand Tier, Mid-mezzanine), $50 (Rear Mezzanine, Front Gallery) and $25 (Rear Gallery).

Visit www.citycenter.org for more information.




 




Videos