Casting is now complete for the upcoming production of Showtune: The Jerry Herman Songbook, the new musical revue that will debut at Nyack's Helen Hayes Theatre Company Oct. 12.
As previously announced, Tony Award winner Donna McKechnie and former Baby star Martin Vidnovic will headline the production. The duo will be joined by Paul Harman, who was in the original companies of Les Misérables and Chess; Tom Korbee, a recent graduate of the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music; Russell Arden Koplin, who appeared on Broadway in Les Misérables and James Joyce's The Dead; and Sandy Binion, a former back-up singer for Tammy Faye Baker who has performed several times in Nyack's Broadway Concert Series. Seven-time MAC Award winner Bobby Peaco will be the show's pianist.
The revue, showcasing tunes from such Herman musicals as Hello, Dolly!; Mame; La Cage aux Folles; Mack and Mabel; and Dear World, will play the Hayes from Oct. 12-27. Conceived by Paul Gilger, Showtune will be directed and choreographed by Smokey Joe's Cafe's Joey McKneely with musical direction by James Followell.
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Best known for her Tony-winning performance as Cassie in the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line, Donna McKechnie has appeared in a plethora of musicals both on and Off-Broadway, some of which include How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Company, State Fair, Can-Can, Annie Get Your Gun, I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road, State Fair and Promises, Promises. Her one-woman musical celebration, "Inside the Music," was recently released on the Fynsworth Alley label and includes such tunes as "Everybody Says Don't," "Where Do You Start?," "Lies of Handsome Men" and "The Music and the Mirror." A 1981 Tony nominee for his work in Brigadoon, Martin Vidnovic has appeared on Broadway in Home Sweet Homer, The King and I, Oklahoma!, Baby, Guys and Dolls, A Grand for Singing and King David.
The Helen Hayes Theatre Company is located at 117 Main Street in Nyack, N.Y. Tickets, priced between $32.50 and $55, are available by calling (845) 358-6333 for information. For more information, go to www.hhtco.org.
—By Andrew Gans
