Murphy is just one of the many actors who will join the previously announced Victoria Clark (as Sally Durant Plummer) for the Feb. 8-11, 2007, concert staging of the acclaimed Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical.
Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, the cast — which is still in formation — will also feature Michael McGrath as Buddy Plummer, Philip Bosco as Dimitri Weismann, Robert Fitch as Theodore Whitman, Christine Baranski as Carlotta Campion, Lucine Amara as Heidi Schiller, Joanne Worley as Stella Deems, Gerry Vichi as Max Deems, Arthur Rubin as Roscoe, Yvonne Constant as Solange, Leena Chopra as Young Heidi, Dorothy Stanley as Dee Dee West and Diane J. Findlay as Sandra Cranes.
Eric Stern will be the guest music director for Follies, which kicks off the 2007 season of Encores! John Lee Beatty will be the scenic consultant.
Donna Murphy received Tony Awards for her performances in Stephen Sondheim's Passion and the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I. Her other Broadway credits include Wonderful Town, They're Playing Our Song, The Human Comedy and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Murphy's screen credits include "Murder One," "The Day Lincoln Was Shot," "Star Trek: Insurrection," "Hack" and "The Last Debate."
Follies, with songs by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Goldman, was originally directed by Harold Prince on Broadway in 1971. Since then, it has received a legendary star-filled concert at Lincoln Center in 1985, a Roundabout revival on Broadway directed by Matthew Warchus in 2001, and numerous regional mountings, including a Paper Mill Playhouse engagement that featured Donna McKechnie and the late Ann Miller. The classic Sondheim score also boasts such tunes as "I'm Still Here," "Broadway Baby," "Could I Leave You?," "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs" and "The Road You Didn't Take." *
A full-scale restoration of Face the Music, the 1932 Irving Berlin Moss Hart musical, will follow Follies, playing March 29-April 1 at City Center. Originally directed by George S. Kaufman, Face the Music concerns "a desperate producer in New York trying to raise the money for his latest revue, Rhinestones of '32." The musical features such Berlin tunes as "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee" and "Soft Lights and Sweet Music." Rob Fisher will be the musical director for the second Encores! offering.
The season will conclude with Stairway to Paradise, an original revue created specially for the Encores! series. Playing May 10-14, the production, according to press notes, will be "a celebration of the very best material from a half century of Broadway revues, and will include numbers and sketches from Florenz Ziegfeld's shows and other legendary musicals and revues of the era." Paul Gemignani will be the musical director for this production as well.
Tickets for the upcoming season are available by visiting the New York City Center box office, which is located on West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues; by calling (212) 581-1212; or by logging on to www.nycitycenter.org. Tickets are priced $25, $50, $90 and $95.
