Jeff Blumenkrantz, Donna Bullock, Patrick Quinn and Sara Ramirez will step into the Broadway staging of A Class Act, playing the songwriting pals of late composer-lyricist Ed Kleban, who is the focus of the biographical musical.

A spokesman for the tuner said Nancy Kathryn Anderson, Randy Graff, David Hibbard and Lonny Price, who all appeared in the Off-Broadway world premiere of the show in fall 2000, are returning to its Broadway transfer. Performances begin Feb. 14 at the Ambassador Theatre, with an opening slated for March 12.

Marty Bell, Chase Mishkin and Arielle Tepper are the producers behind Broadway's A Class Act. Price plays Kleban, the songwriter best known as lyricist for A Chorus Line. The show tells of the story of cranky, difficult but charming Kleban and his wish to be known as both a composer and lyricist, and how that dream is cut short when he dies of cancer. The score is made up of tunes he willed to his friends, including the work's co-librettist, Linda Kline. Price directs and co-wrote the book. Marguerite Derricks is choreographer.

Newcomer Blumenkrantz is himself a songwriter, a member of the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, a group that is prominently featured in the new musical.

Bullock was a late-run Mother in Ragtime, Actors' Equity prexy Quinn has appeared in Beauty and the Beast and many other shows, Ramirez was featured in The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm and The Capeman and Blumenkrantz was Bud Frump in the recent How to Succeed in Business... revival. Ray Wills (replaced by Blumenkrantz), Carolee Carmello (Bullock) and Jonathan Freeman (Quinn), who all appeared in the Manhattan Theatre Club world premiere, had other commitments and did not transfer. However, their Class work is preserved on a cast recording, expected in February.