Playbill.com has learned that the June 25-29 private workshop cast will include Nadia Dajani (Off-Broadway's Sophistry and Boys and Girls), David Josefsberg (Broadway's The Wedding Singer, Off-Broadway's Rated P for Parenthood) , Anne L. Nathan (the indelible Czech mother in Broadway's Once), Robert Petkoff (Broadway's Fiddler on the Roof and currently Anything Goes) and Donna Vivino (Wicked, Hairspray).
Gordon Greenberg (Band Geeks!, Working) will direct, Josh Rhodes will choreograph and Vadim Feichtner is musical director.
Stars of David, which has a Tony Award-winning commercial producer attached to a possible New York future, is a musical stage adaptation by Aaron Harnick of Abigail Pogrebin's acclaimed book "Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk about Being Jewish."
Here's how PTC bills the work: "It is a snapshot of Jewish identity through the interviews with some of America's most recognizable public figures, including: Gloria Steinem, Leonard Nimoy, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Edgar Bronfman, Sr., Joan Rivers, Norman Lear and Wendy Wasserstein."
With a book by Busch (The Tale of the Allergist's Wife), "the interviews will be transformed into songs" by composers and lyricists including William Finn (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), Marvin Hamlisch (A Chorus Line), Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof), Jeanine Tesori (Caroline, Or Change), Richard Maltby & David Shire (Closer Than Ever), Michael Friedman (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), Marilyn & Alan Bergman ("Yentl"), Amanda Green (High Fidelity), Nathan Tysen & Chris Miller (The Burnt Part Boys), Susan Birkenhead (Jelly's Last Jam) and others. Stars of David received a staged reading as part of PTC's two-week festival of new work, PTC@PLAY, which featured readings of new work from 13 writers and composers from around the country.
Sara Garonzik, PTC's producing artistic director, said in a statement, "The timing seems very right for Stars of David, which is reflective of the ongoing cultural conversation around faith and its role in contemporary life."
Stars of David joins the previously announced Seminar by Theresa Rebeck and The Mountaintop by Katori Hall comprising PTC's 2012-13 season. A fourth play will be announced shortly.
