Exclusive: Emily Padgett on the Future of Richard Maltby Jr. & David Shire's WATERFALL- 'I Think Broadway is Always the Goal'

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, WATERFALL, an epic new Broadway musical love story, will have its US premiere at The Pasadena Playhouse, where preview performances begin June 2, 2015 with the official press opening on June 7, 2015. It will then play Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre in Fall 2015, prior to reaching Broadway in 2016.

In a recent interview with BroadwayWorld, Emily Padgett, who is currently in rehearsal for the new musical, chatted about the project. She told BWW: "It's based on a Thai novel. I'm the only Caucasian person in the show- everyone else is Asian. It's beautiful. It's very lush. It's about an American woman who marries an older Thai attache. He brings her to Japan and she ends up having a love affair with this younger Thai student, who is played by Bie Sukrit. He is this amazing superstar in Thailand. He's a recording artist and he does movies and TV shows. He's so lovely in helping me with pronouncing things and I'm trying to help him with his English. Our director is from Thailand as well, so it's very authentic with the culture. The music is so beautiful. I think it's going to be amazing."

She continued: "We're taking it to Pasadena for a little while and then to Seattle. And then hopefully back to New York. It's kinda like Side Show- we're doing two out-of-town's. I think Broadway is always the goal, but I think the project is so special for everyone that we're just digging in and playing to figure out what we've got."

Click here to read the full interview.

WATERFALL marks a groundbreaking collaboration between American and Asian theatrical artists. The musical, based on a contemporary classic Thai novel, Behind the Painting by Sriburapha, features book and lyrics by Tony Award-winner Richard Maltby Jr. (Ain't Misbehavin', Miss Saigon) and music by Oscar-winner and two-time Tony Award nominee, David Shire (Baby, Big, written in collaboration with Richard Maltby, Jr.) The production will be choreographed by Tony Award-nominee Dan Knechtges (Xanadu) and directed by Broadway and Thai theatrical impresario Tak Viravan.

Viravan is the leading figure of Thailand's burgeoning theatre scene, where he has directed 14 musicals and plays and has presented many international touring productions. WATERFALL is adapted from an earlier musical, Behind the Painting, which Viravan directed in Thailand. He has also been a producer for several Broadway musicals, including the Tony-nominated revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (2011) and Nice Work If You Can Get It. Viravan is one of the most prominent and influential figures of Thailand's entertainment industry, where he is also known as a television producer/director and for music and artist management.

WATERFALL is an epic love story, set in Bangkok and Tokyo between the turbulent years of 1933 and 1939, as a monarchy falls in Thailand and Japan is on the brink of war. A young Thai student falls in love with the American wife of a Thai diplomat, and the story of their forbidden love parallels history as the new democracy of Siam moves into the vortex of the increasingly anti-American Japan. With a gloriously romantic score, WATERFALL is a modern love story of timeless scale.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos

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