Butler, Robertson & Weygandt Lead WORKING for Broadway in Chicago in 2011

Broadway In Chicago and the producers of WORKING have announced casting for the upcoming production, which begins previews on February 15, 2011 at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place (175 E. Chestnut). WORKING will star Chicagoans E. Faye Butler, Barbara Robertson and Gene Weygandt. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

WORKING is a vital new musical based on the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Chicago's own Studs Terkel. Newly adapted by Stephen Schwartz (WICKED, PIPPIN and GODSPELL), WORKING is the working man's A CHORUS LINE. It is a musical exploration of 26 people from all walks of life, with songs by all-star composers Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Tony Award^TM winning Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mary Rodgers, Susan Birkenhead, Stephen Schwartz and Grammy Award^TM winning James Taylor. WORKING celebrates everyday people, fills you with hope and inspiration and is the perfect musical for anyone who has ever worked a day in their lives.

Produced by Jed Bernstein, DiAnne Fraser and Sheila Simon Geltzer, WORKING was adapted by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso. It is directed by Gordon Greenberg, with Scenic Design by Beowulf Boritt.

WORKING is a part of the 2011 Broadway In Chicago Spring Season Series. New subscribers can purchase tickets as part season subscription series, which is currently on sale. Tickets for WORKING are now on sale to groups of 15 or more by calling (312) 977-1710. Individual tickets for WORKING will be available at a later date to be announced.

For more information, visit www.BroadwayInChicago.com.

The cast will be led by Chicagoans:

E. Faye Butler (Woman 2): Winner of six Joseph Jefferson Awards, E. Faye's Chicago credits include Marriott's Lincolnshire Theatre - Little Shop Of Horrors; The Goodman Theatre - A Christmas Carol; Steppenwolf Theatre - Crumbs From The Table of Joy; Court Theatre - Caroline or Change; Chicago Shakespeare - Seussical The Musical; Victory Gardens Theatre - Blue Sonata. Broadway, Off Broadway Credits: Nunsense. National and Regional Tours: Mamma Mia!, Ain't Misbehavin'.

Barbara Robertson (Woman 3) played Madame Morrible in Wicked and has originated several roles. Chicago credits include: Goodman Theatre - The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?; Chicago Shakespeare - Kabuki Lady MacBeth; Court Theatre - House of Blue Leaves; Lookingglass - Hard Times; Steppenwolf - A Summer Remembered; Victory Gardens - Emma's Child and Marriott Lincolnshire - Chicago. National Tour Credits: Angels in America I & II. Several film and television credits, as well.

Gene Weygandt (Man 3) is perhaps best know as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the smash hit Wicked here in Chicago and on Broadway. Winner of three Joseph Jefferson Awards, theatre credits include The Music Man, Me and My Girl, The Light In The Piazza, Hairspray, The Drowsy Chaperone, Don't Dress for Dinner and Lend Me A Tenor. Films include The Birdcage, The Babe and The Pager. Television credits include Murphy Brown, Home Improvement, Drew Carey, Ellen, USA High, The Beast.

----

Studs Terkel (Author) The radio personality and author Louis Terkel was best known for his oral histories of ordinary Americans. These anthologies of interviews show how people felt about key historical events and everyday struggles and dreams. Initially a Chicago radio personality, in mid-career Studs Terkel acquired a national reputation as a people's historian through a series of books that relied on taped interviews to document the experiences, memories, dreams, and fears of a wide cross-section of Americans. Louis Terkel was born on May 16, 1912, in the Bronx, New York. In 1923 his family moved to Chicago, where his mother managed a hotel for blue-collar and skilled workers. Mr. Terkel often said that the characters he encountered and the disputations he witnessed at the Wells-Grand Hotel on the Near North Side were his real education. Though he graduated from college and law school at the University of Chicago, Terkel never practiced law. Instead, taking his nickname from a famous literary character of the day, Studs Lonigan, he succumbed to the lure of the stage, acting in radio and community Theater Productions and even in the exciting New Medium of television. From 1949 until 1951, he had his own weekly show on NBC, Studs' Place, an innovative, improvisational situation comedy about "regular folks." In 1951, anticommunist fever was rising, and Terkel's television career was cut short when NBC discovered he had signed leftist petitions seeking reform on such controversial issues as rent control and segregation. With his typical stubborn conviction, Terkel refused to renounce the petitions, and his show was canceled. His next step was to approach radio station WFMT with a proposal for an hour-long interview show. The station hired him and became Terkel's home for the next 45 years, until his retirement in 1997.Terkel produced a series of books that gave voice to the experience of the "regular folks," including Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel.

Stephen Schwartz (Adapter) has contributed music and/or lyrics to Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, Rags, Children of Eden and Wicked. For films, he collaborated with Alan Menken on the scores for Disney's Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the recent Disney musical Enchanted, and wrote the songs for the DreamWorks animated feature The Prince of Egypt. He has also written the scores for two musicals for children, Captain Louie and Geppetto & Son, contributed the title song for the play and movie Butterflies Are Free, and collaborated with Leonard Bernstein on the English texts for Bernstein's Mass. He has released two CDs of new songs, Reluctant Pilgrim and Uncharted Territory, available at www.stephenschwartz.com, and "Defying Gravity", a book about his professional career, was recently published by Applause Books. Mr. Schwartz is the artistic director of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshops and a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild. Awards include three Academy Awards, four Grammy Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a tiny handful of tennis trophies.

Nina Faso (Adapter) made her directorial debut with Peter Ustinov's, The Unknown Soldier and His Wife. Following a stint with the improvisational comedy group: The Committee, she became one of the creators of Godspell and directed most major productions of the show in America and Europe. She then took The Rocky Horror Show from Los Angeles to Broadway. She co-adapted and co-directed the musical, Working based on Studs Terkel's book, for the Goodman Theater in Chicago and for Broadway. She co-wrote the teleplay for Working for the PBS series American Playhouse. She is the author and director of the children's television special, The Fable Company, and the co-producer and co-director of a short film called Sing For Your Life. Among her other directing credits are the musicals Just Once and Is It Just Me, Or Is It Hot In Here? which enjoyed long runs in New York and Los Angeles, respectively.

Gordon Greenberg (Director) Credits include: The Off-Broadway revival of Jacques Brel... (Zipper Theatre - Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Award noms), Pirates! Or Gilbert and Sullivan Plunder'd (conceived with Nell Benjamin - Goodspeed, Paper Mill, Huntington), Band Geeks (also co-writer, Goodspeed), The Baker's Wife (by Stephen Schwartz and Joe Stein - Paper Mill, Goodspeed), Happy Days (by Garry Marshall and Paul Williams - Goodspeed, Paper Mill, National Tour), The Citizens Band (Spiegelworld), Edges (Capital Rep.), 1776 (Paper Mill), Barnum (Asolo), Half A Sixpence (Goodspeed), Cam Jansen (Lambs Theatre), Assisted Loving (Daryl Roth), O. Henry's Lovers (Goodspeed), Peter Pan (National Tour); Floyd Collins (Signature), Breaking Up is Hard To Do (by Neil Sedaka, Harbor Entertainment), Broadway Festival (New Amsterdam), The Velvet Vise with Janeane Garafalo (NY Performance Works), Immaculate Misconception (Hampstead New End), Song of Singapore (Capital Rep.), Jesus Christ, Superstar, Joseph..., Evita (Helen Hayes), Education: Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Stanford University, NYU Film, Lincoln Center Director's Lab.

Beowulf Boritt (Scenic Designer) Broadway: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Lovemusik, Jay Johnson: The Two and Only. off-broadway: More than 50 shows including The Last Five Years, Rock of Ages, Saint Lucy's Eyes, Hank Williams: Lost Highway, Miss Julie, Public, MTC, 2nd Stage, MCC, New Group, 2007 & 2008 Ringling Brothers Circus. Awards: Obie, Audelco, Barrymore, 3 Drama Desk nominations.