Richard Maltby To Direct A Starry Cast Of NOBLE FAMILY

Richard Maltby will direct a starry cast of NOBLE FAMILY. Telly Leung, Lianah Sta. Ana, and Joan Almedilla lead a cast of Broadway veterans in the upcoming concert presentation of Noble Family at the Cutting Room in NYC. The performance is set for March 3, 2022.

Noble Family was written by Cecilia Lin (music), David Zellnik (lyrics), and Susan Dillalo/YouYang Lyu (book), based on the best-selling Chinese novel "The Story of a Noble Family," which also premiered as a 40-episode TV series.

Noble Family tells a love story set in 1926 China between the Prime Minister's son named Yanxi, a young man from an influential family in Beijing, and Leng Qingqiu, a girl from a poor but scholarly background. Noble Family is a romantic and sweeping drama about surmounting class differences and holding an unwavering hope in the magic of possibility.

The concert will be directed by Richard Maltby (Miss Saigon, Baby, Fosse). Music director Andrew Gerleleads an orchestra of 15 musicians. Cast members include Telly Leung, Lianah Sta. Ana, Joan Almedilla, Julia Abueva, Alan Ariano, Xiaoqing Zhang, Ellis Gage, Fang Du, Irene Lo, and Zoe Siegel. Noble Family is set to open in Beijing in 2022 en route to a production in the United States.

Richard Maltby (Director) is a lyricist, director, book and screenplay writer, producer, creative consultant, and all-round theatrical idea-man. He is also a formidable award-winner: he conceived and directed the only two musical revues ever to win the Tony Award for Best Musical: Ain't Misbehavin' (1978) and Fosse (1999). Mr. Maltby was co-lyricist for Miss Saigon and Song & Dance, as well as lyricist for Big and Closer Than Ever. He wrote the screenplay for the 2007 film Miss Potter, starring Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger. Alongside all of the theatrical and screenplay work Maltby is also known for creating fiendish crossword puzzles for Harpers Magazine and New York Magazine.

Cecilia Lin (Composer) is a Royal College of Music alumna, and four-time China Music Award winner for best composer of the year. Her composer career started at the age of 15. Ever since then, Ms. Lin has written over a hundred pieces of pop music for various Asian pop stars. Twenty-one songs that she wrote reached #1 on Chinese Music Radio (Chinese Billboard). Ms.Lin's film and TV credits include composing for the Disney movie High School Musical. In 2015, Ms. Lin signed on with the Paris Symphony Orchestra as its first Asian composer. Concurrently, Cecilia started a career in the Broadway theatre industry and has earned multiple awards as a co-producer for various shows, including the Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical (Desperate Measures) and Mrs. Doubtfire on Broadway.

David Zellink (Lyricist) is thrilled to be collaborating across cultures with composer Cecilia Lin on their first musical. Previously, he wrote the book and lyrics for Yank! with composer Joseph Zellnik (Off Broadway 2010, 7 Drama Desk nominations; 2017 productions West End, Rio de Janeiro; Chicago 2018, Brisbane 2019). With composer Eric Svejcar, his comedy with songs The F#@%king Wright Brothers was part of FringeNYC in October 2018, and their episodic podcast musical Loveville High has been downloaded over 60k times and will soon be recorded in Portuguese. David's plays include The Letters, The Udmurts, Serendib, and Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom.