With direction and choreography by Barrymore Award winner Richard Stafford, the show with a score by John Kander and Fred Ebb, and a book by Rupert Holmes and Peter Stone, will officially open Sept. 15.

Hess appeared in WST's Born Yesterday and Grand Hotel and Broadway's Sweeney Todd.

The original musical comedy is set in Boston in 1959. A murder in the company of a Broadway-bound musical arouses the interest of a detective who loves musicals. David Hyde Pierce won a Tony Award for his work in the Broadway show.

The cast of Curtains also includes WST vets Joey Abramowicz, J. David Anderson, Maggie Anderson, Anne Connors, Jeffrey Coon, Ben Dibble, Mindy Dougherty, Dann Dunn, David Elder (Broadway's 42nd Street), Laurent Giroux, Mollie Hall, Fran Prisco, Kerri Rose, Peter Schmitz, Jonathan Stahl, Ryan James Stauffer, Bill Van Horn, Denise Whelan and Toni Elizabeth White, plus WST newcomers Julie Reiber as Niki Harris and Nancy Lemenager (Broadway's Never Gonna Dance) as Georgia Hendricks. Ensemble members making their Walnut debut include Drew Franklin, Jena Vanelslander and Kimberly Wolff.

The creative team includes music and vocal director Douglass G. Lutz, scenic designer Robert Andrew Kovach, lighting designer Paul Black, costume designer Colleen Grady and sound designer David Temby.

For tickets and information, call (215) 574-3550 or (800) 982-2787 or visit www.WalnutStreetTheatre.org or Ticketmaster.