NextStop Theatre Company Announces CITY OF ANGELS Cast

NextStop Theatre Company's third professional season comes to a close in May 2016 with the DC area regional professional premiere of the film noir jazz musical, City of Angels. NextStop's production will open May 12 and run through June 5, 2016.

Most of the 14-person cast will play two roles, one from the real world, and one from the "reel" world of the film noir. The cast will be led by Bobby Libby as Stine and Ryan Burke as Stone, the novelist and his private detective character. Libby was last seen at NextStop in this fall's Kiss Me Kate, and last spring's The Secret Garden. Burke returns to NextStop after playing half of the dynamic duo behind Gutenberg, the Musical in NextStop's second season. His other half, John Loughney, returns for City of Angels as well, playing the egotistical film producer Buddy Fidler/Irwin. Loughney is a longtime NextStop artist, having also appeared in last spring's The Secret Garden and Into the Woods in the inaugural season.

Other returning performers include Katie Keyser (The Secret Garden, Beautiful Music) as Bobbi/Gabby, Katie McManus (Seussical, The Divine Miss McM, Into the Woods, Side Show) as Donna/Oolie, Mark Hidalgo (Side Show) as Munoz/Vargas, Scott Harrison (Into the Woods; Good, Good Trouble on Bad, Bad Island) as Jimmy Powers, and Shaina Murphy (Kiss Me Kate; America's Composers; Love, Loss, and What I Wore; Caroline, or Change) as part of the Angel City 4 vocal jazz ensemble.

The cast also includes: Zac Brightbill (Angel City 4), Carolyn Burke (Angel City 4), Teresa Danskey (Alaura/Carla), Ward Ferguson (Angel City 4), Mackenzie Newbury (Mallory/Sonny), and Grant Saunders (Big Six). They will be accompanied by a seven-piece jazz band, led by Music Director Elisa Rosman.

Set in the glamorous, seductive Hollywood of the 40's, the world of film studios and flimsy negligees, City of Angels chronicles the misadventures of Stine, a young novelist, attempting a screenplay for movie producer/director, Buddy Fidler. While Fidler professes to be a fan of Stine's work, his gargantuan ego forces Stine to make endless compromises in the script he's writing. The script is an adaptation of one of Stine's novels which features his Raymond Chandler-esque hero, a private investigator named Stone. Every movie scene that Stine writes is acted out onstage by a group of characters whose costumes are limited to various shades of black and white. The same is true of the sets in which they appear and the props that they use. With music scored in the genre, we are, in fact, treated to a live version of a 1940's private eye film. It is a tale of decadence and homicide with a liberal sprinkling of femmes fatale, all backed by an award-winning jazz score.

The creative team behind the production includes Evan Hoffmann (director & co-scenic designer), Elisa Rosman (music director), Alisa Claire (choreographer), Jack Golden (co-scenic designer), AnnMarie Castrigno (lighting design), Kristina Martin (costume design), Nick Upchurch (sound design), and Amanda Srok (properties design). Laura Moody serves as the Production Stage Manager