Husband-and-wife Broadway actors Jason Danieley and Marin Mazzie will head the cast of three semi-staged concerts of Candide this summer in San Francisco.
Joining Danieley and Mazzie in the concerts of Leonard Bernstein's Broadway classic are Tony winners George Hearn and Rita Moreno as well as Jennifer Welch Babidge, who will play the role of Cunegonde. The July 18-20 concerts are part of "Summer in the City," the annual series presented by the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Arts Commission at Davies Symphony Hall. Danieley, who starred in the most recent Broadway revival of Candide, will reprise his title role; Mazzie will portray Paquette, Hearn will star as Dr. Voltaire/Pangloss and Moreno will play the role of the Old Lady.
Stafford Arima — associate director of Broadway's Seussical and A Class Act —will helm the concerts, which feature the Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Symphony. San Francisco Opera Principal Patrick Summers will be the symphony's guest conductor for the weekend of concerts.
Based on Voltaire's novel, Candide premiered on Broadway in 1956 at the Martin Beck Theatre. Although it boasted music by Leonard Bernstein, a book by Lillian Hellman and additional lyrics by John La Touche, Dorothy Parker and Richard Wilbur, the musical ran a brief 73 performances. The 1997 revival at the Gershwin Theatre featured a cast led by Jim Dale and current Oklahoma! star Andrea Martin.
Jason Danieley was most recently on Broadway as Malcolm MacGregor in The Full Monty, a role he repeated in the London production. Mazzie was also on the London stage in Kiss Me, Kate, reprising her Tony nominated role in the revival of the Cole Porter musical. Broadway veteran George Hearn appeared in the Stephen Sondheim revue Putting It Together and won a Tony for his work in La Cage aux Folles. Moreno, a Grammy, Emmy, Tony and Oscar winner, nabbed her Tony for her work in The Ritz. Jennifer-Welch Babidge is a soprano who has performed at several acclaimed venues, including the Metropolitan Opera. Davies Symphony Hall is located in San Francisco, CA at 201 Van Ness Avenue. Tickets — ranging from $28 to $75 — will be available May 1 by calling (415) 864-6000; for more information, go to www.sfsymphony.org.
