TheatreZone Announces GRAND HOTEL Cast

 In 1928 Berlin, the world is between wars and the stock market is booming. The center of the action is the illustrious Grand Hotel, through whose revolving doors pass a cavalcade of desperate, ambitious characters, all yearning for one last, glorious chance at a better future. 

         Today, TheatreZone artistic director Mark Danni unveiled his cast selections for the musical production that follows six guests at the Grand Hotel: a handsome impoverished Baron Felix von Gaigern (Larry Alexander), turned thief but too noble to make a success of it; an aging Russian ballerina Elizaveta Grushinkskaya (Victoria Regan), despairing over her waning physical prowess and trapped by her ego until freed by love; a dying and disillusioned Otto Kringelein (Byron DeMent), who's devoted his life to his employer and family, but is now determined to live his last days for himself; a gruelingly poor but pretty secretary Flaemmchen, (Megan Jimenez), who wants to be a Hollywood star and abandons her morals for a little money and a good time; a bankrupt businessman Hermann Preysing (Allan Baker), who's forced to compromise his scruples in order to save the business in which he's invested so much of his life; and the mutilated Dr. Otterernschlag (Robert Hildreth), a World War I field surgeon living now only on his cynicism and his morphine, serves as a Greek chorus.

         Playing the duplicitous Baron who genuinely falls for Grushinskaya, Broadway veteran and TheatreZone favorite Larry Alexander will lend his soaring tenor to another portrait of callowness that builds to a riveting breakdown number in the Baron's climactic “Roses at the Station.”  U.S. Ballroom Dance Champion and Broadway actress Victoria Regan, who played the role of the Countess in the original Broadway company and its two year national tour, then replaced Cyd Charisse (who made her belated Broadway debut in 1992 replacing Tony nominated Liliane Montevecchi) in the leading role of the famous aging ballerina, reprises Grushinskaya in TheatreZone’s production.

         Casting also includes Susan Dohan as Grushinskaya’s companion Raffaela; Dawn Lebrecht as lavatory attendant Madame Peepee; Daniel Schwab as front desk operator Erik; Gerritt VanderMeer as hotel general manager Rohna; Aaron Reeder and Gaston Edmond as the two Jimmy’s – the two black American entertainers; Jake Hanson as a bell hop; Dan Lamey as Berlin attorney Zinnowitz; and telephone operators Kara Konken (courtesan Tintinabula in Forum) and Community School of Naples graduate and NYU student Juliet Jewett.

         Grand Hotel - The Musical is an uninterrupted one hour and 45 minutes of continuous movement, directed by Mark Danni with choreography by Karen Molnar and music direction by Charles Fornara. Titled sponsored by Capital Wealth Advisors, Grand Hotel will be performed January 10, 11, 12, 17, 18 and 19 at 8 pm and Sundays, January 13 and 20 at 2 pm and 7:30 pm. Tickets cost $43 and $48 plus a $2 per ticket fee.

         TheatreZone’s Season 8 continues with the powerful musical Next to Normal (March 7 - 17, 2013) and concludes with 110 in the Shade (May 2- 12, 2013).