Andrea McArdle Leads CRT's URINETOWN in April

Broadway, TV and Film actress Andrea McArdle will star in Connecticut Repertory Theatre's (CRT) production of the smash-hit Broadway Musical Urinetown, April 14 - 17 & 27 - 30, 2011 in the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre on the Storrs campus. 

Andrea McArdle first captured the hearts of theatergoers everywhere in 1977 when she originated the title role in the mega-musical Annie, based on the popular Harold Gray comic strip "Little Orphan Annie". Since then, she has starred in numerous Broadway musicals and appeared in theatres in New York, nationally and internationally. She has performed in concert halls from Carnegie Hall to the Hong Kong Philharmonic and in showrooms both Las Vegas and Atlantic City. She has honed her craft by working with some of the great legends of the entertainment industry including Ethel Merman, Liza Minnelli, Julie Andrews, Bob Hope, Liberace, Frank Sinatra, Steve Martin and Martin Short, to name a few, and was privileged to have appeared on television with Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin and Dinah Shore. As "Annie," Ms. McArdle became the youngest performer ever to be nominated for a Tony Award as Best Lead Actress in a Musical. She also received the Theater World and Outer Critics' Circle Awards for her performance and went on to star when the show was produced on London's West End with Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Coming full circle, Ms. McArdle was tapped by Academy Award-nominated director Rob Marshall to appear as "The Star to Be" in the Disney/ABC television production of ANNIE starring Kathy Bates and Victor Garber. And in the summer of 2010, she played, yes, Miss Hannigan in a production at the North Carolina Theatre and at Musical Theatre West in California.

Also on Broadway, Ms. McArdle starred in the Jerry Herman musical Jerry's Girls alongside Carol Channing and Leslie Uggams; she portrayed the sassy Smoking Car, Ashley, in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express; and starred as Margy Frake in State Fair; as Fantine in Les Miserables and, most recently as Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. She toured nationally starring as Sally Bowles in Cabaret and as Eponine in Les Miserables and appeared in The Vagina Monologues, which she appeared in Off-Broadway as well.

Other theatre appearances include starring as Esther, the Judy Garland role, in Meet Me In St. Louis; Sonia in They're Playing Our Song; Luisa in The Fantasticks; Eva Peron in Evita; Nancy in Oliver; the Narrator in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, Sandy in Grease and as Mama Rose in Gypsy.

In addition to Annie, Andrea's film and television credits include starring as Judy Garland in Rainbow, appearing in The Leading Ladies Of Broadway on PBS, All My Children on ABC and headlining her own PBS special Andrea McArdle On Broadway.

CRT is pleased to welcome Andrea McArdle to the professional producing arm of the Department of Dramatic Arts at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. CRT productions are directed, designed by, and cast with visiting professional artists, including Equity actors, faculty members, and the department's most advanced student artists. The synergy between professional and advanced student artists creates extraordinary theatre and a unique learning environment.

In this mythical town, scarce water is worth its weight in gold after a 20 year drought. Private toilets are illegal, and the monopoly on public bathrooms held by a malevolent corporation is driving up the costs. From the midst of these downtrodden people a hero emerges to lead a revolution to freedom! This satirical musical was a hit on Broadway, winning three Tony Awards and reinventing the very notion of what a Broadway musical can be. Urinetown takes a witty, irreverent, and uniquely "Musical" look at corporate greed, corruption and human survival. You'll leave the theatre humming these tunes about people who have to pay to pee!

Please call 860-486-4226 for tickets or for more information. Please call or visit the box office for specific show dates and times because performance schedules vary and are subject to change. Tickets available online at www.crt.uconn.edu.

 

Photo Credit: Monica Simoes