Broadway-Aimed Revival of You Can't Take It With You and John Doyle's Ten Cents a Dance To Play Williamstown | Playbill

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News Broadway-Aimed Revival of You Can't Take It With You and John Doyle's Ten Cents a Dance To Play Williamstown The Broadway-bound revival of You Can't Take It With You and the American premiere of Tony Award-winning director John Doyle's Rodgers and Hart musical Ten Cents a Dance will bow as part of Williamstown Theatre Festival's 2011 summer season.

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John Doyle Photo by Aubrey Reuben

The 2011 season, the first under the aegis of artistic director Jenny Gersten, will launch July 1 with the revival of Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's comedy You Can't Take It With You, under the direction of Tony-nominated Memphis and Xanadu director Christopher Ashley. The Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy about two families with opposing views who sit down for an uncomfortable dinner, will run through July 27 on the main stage in Williamstown, MA.

The revival was to originally make its way to Broadway via the Huntington Theatre Company under the direction of Tony-winning director Anna Shapiro in 2010. Producers Elizabeth Ireland McCann and Joey Parnes later delayed the production to 2011 and Shapiro took on other projects. A representative for the planned Broadway run told Playbill.com that the comedy will now open on Broadway Aug. 11 at a Shubert theatre to-be-announced.

Former Williamstown artistic director Nicholas Martin will helm Oliver Goldsmith's 18th-century comedy She Stoops to Conquer, which will run July 27-Aug. 7 on the main stage.

The cast will include Jonathan Patrick Walker (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at WTF, High Fidelity) as Charles Marlow, Tony Award nominee Brooks Ashmanskas (Promises, Promises; The Producers; She Loves Me at WTF) as Tony Lumpkin, Tony Award-nominee Paxton Whitehead (The Importance of Being Earnest, Home at WTF) as Mr. Hardcastle, and Drama Desk Award-nominee Kristine Nielsen (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Les Liaisons Dangereuses) as Mrs. Hardcastle.

Closing the main stage season will be the U.S. premiere of Ten Cents a Dance. Doyle (a Tony winner for Sweeney Todd) will take a fresh look at his earlier work that uses the songs of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, which first debuted at the U.K.'s Watermill Theatre in 2002. Running on the WTF main stage Aug. 11-28, Ten Cents a Dance will employ a cast of actor-musicians (a Doyle signature) including Tony Award-nominee Malcolm Gets (The Story of My Life, Amour) as Johnny, as well as Lauren Molina (Rock of Ages, Sweeney Todd) and Jane Pfitsch (Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Company).

Here's how WTF bills the premiere: "Crooner Johnny wistfully recalls his lifelong love affair of chorus girl Miss Jones, who is embodied by five women, each portraying a different stage of her life. As Johnny and Miss Jones take 'Manhattan' under a 'Blue Moon' while 'Falling in Love with Love,' you can't help but think 'Isn't it Romantic?' — even if sometimes 'The Lady is a Tramp.' These and so many other unforgettable songs — filled with infatuation, longing, and enchantment — will sparkle like a glass of champagne on a sexy summer evening. 'All you need is a ticket, come on big boy, ten cents a dance.'"

"The 2011 Main Stage Season consists of the kinds of shows I've loved doing and seeing at WTF — a big screwball comedy, a Restoration gem, and a new romantic musical with some of my favorite songs," Gersten said in a statement. "Each is challenging in its own way, and I believe they'll show the best of what Williamstown can do on our main stage. To that end, we have added additional performances for the first and final shows to allow them to be seen by as many folks as possible in the Berkshires and beyond."

Details of Williamstown's Nikos Stage season will be announced shortly.

Visit WilliamstownTheatreFestival.

 
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