McDonald, a six-time Tony Award winner for Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill and Porgy and Bess, among others, read for the title role, while Tony Award winner Alan Cumming (Cabaret, The Threepenny Opera) read the part of Molina, and Pasquale (The Bridges of Madison County, Reasons to Be Pretty) read for Valentin.

McDonald has been attached to the project for several seasons and participated in earlier private readings of the musical.

The original production of the musical, which features music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Terrence McNally, ran on Broadway from 1993-95. It won the Tony Awards for Best Musical, Book and Score, as well as Actress (Chita Rivera), Actor (Brent Carver) and Featured Actor (Anthony Crivello).

The reading was organized by the producer Tom Kirdahy (It's Only a Play) and directed by Tony Award winner John Tiffany (Once).

"I think everyone is interested in having further conversations, but there is no game plan for a production at this point," Kirdahy told the Times.

Kirdahy, who is married to McNally, is working with the Kander on the upcoming musical The Visit, which stars Rivera.

Inspired by the internationally best-selling novel by Manuel Puig, the musical follows an Argentine revolutionary sharing a prison cell with a gay man jailed on a morals charge who escapes from the terrifying reality of prison life into fantasies featuring a mysterious 1940s movie star.