DOCTOR ZHIVAGO Cancels Tonight's Preview; Tam Mutu Out Due to Illness

Broadway World has just learned that tonight's preview performance new Broadway musical Doctor Zhivago has been cancelled. A show representative confirmed: "Tam Mutu is out of the show due to illness. With less than a week of preview performances to date, there has not been time to prepare the understudy. Performances will resume tomorrow, Friday, April 3rd at 8pm. Tickets for tonight's performance can be exchanged at point of purchase."

The new musical will officially open on Tuesday, April 21 at the Broadway Theatre (1681 Broadway).

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, based on Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize-winning 20th-century epic Russian masterpiece, is directed by two-time Tony Award winner Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys), with a book by Academy Award nominee Michael Weller (Ragtime), music by two-time Grammy Award winner and Tony Award nomineeLucy Simon (The Secret Garden), lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie(Grey Gardens) and Emmy Award nominee Amy Powers (Ella Enchanted), and choreography by Tony Award nominee Kelly Devine (Rocky).

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO stars Tam Mutu (Donmar Warehouse's City of Angels) making his Broadway debut as the passionate Doctor and poet Yurii Zhivago, Kelli Barrett (Wicked) as the alluring Lara Guishar, Tony Award nominee Tom Hewitt (Rocky Horror Show) as the cynical bourgeois magistrate Viktor Komarovsky, Paul Alexander Nolan (Jesus Chris Superstar) as political radical Pasha Antipov, and Lora Lee Gayer as Tonia Gromeko, Zhivago's devoted wife. Doctor Zhivago features Jamie Jackson, Jacqueline Antaramian, Jonah Halperin, Sophia Gennusa and Ava-Riley Miles, with Wendi Bergamini, Heather Botts, Ashley Brooke, Melody Butiu, Josh Canfield, Briana Carlson-Goodman,Julian Cihi, Bradley Dean, Michael Brian Dunn, Drew Foster, Kira Guloien, Robert Hager, Ericka Hunter, Denis Lambert, David McDonald, Joseph Medeiros, Pilar Millhollen, Gary Milner, Spencer Moses, Julius Sermonia, Jacob Smith and Jesse Wildman in a cast of 32.

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO will feature scenic design by Michael Scott-Mitchell (Wagner's Ring Cycle), costume design by five-time Tony Award nominee Paul Tazewell(Memphis), lighting design by Tony Award winner Howell Binkley (Jersey Boys), sound design by Tony Award winner SCK Sound Design (700 Sundays), projection design by Sean Nieuwenhuis (Jesus Christ Superstar), hair & wig design by Charles G. LaPointe, special effects design by Greg Meeh, fight directions by Steve Rankin, orchestrations by Danny Troob, music arrangements by Eric Stern, with musical direction and supervision by Ron Melrose. Doctor Zhivago will be produced on Broadway by Anita Waxman,Tom Dokton, Latitude Link, Ted Hartley/RKO Stage and Chunsoo Shin, with Margo & Roger Coleman, Corcoran Productions, J. Todd Harris, The Pelican Group, Chase Mishkin, Ahmos Hassan, Conrad Prebys & Debbie Turner,Adam Silberman, The Goldiner Group/Caroline Lieberman and Bruce D. Long. Junkyard Dog Productions is the executive producer of Doctor Zhivago.

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO is an epic romance, revolving around the search for love during the final days of Czarist Russia, the First World War and the chaos of the Russian revolution. Raised as an aristocrat, Zhivago is a political idealist, physician and poet whose life is tossed by the tides of history as he is torn between a life with his devoted wife, Tonia Gromeko and the passionate and mysterious Lara Guishar. Zhivago however, is not alone in his yearnings for Lara, and must compete with both revolutionaries and aristocracy alike to win the heart of the woman he cannot live without. Doctor Zhivago celebrates the strength of love and art, in the face of political oppression and revolution.

Photo Credit: Jason Bell