On The Town Rehearsals To Begin Sept. 8; Full Cast Announced | Playbill

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News On The Town Rehearsals To Begin Sept. 8; Full Cast Announced Lea DeLaria, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Robert Montano will reprise the roles they created in the 1997 Public Theatre revival of On the Town when the show begins performances at Broadway's Gershwin Theatre on Oct. 20. New additions to the cast are Tai Jimenez, Sarah Knowlton and Perry Laylon Ojeda.

Lea DeLaria, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Robert Montano will reprise the roles they created in the 1997 Public Theatre revival of On the Town when the show begins performances at Broadway's Gershwin Theatre on Oct. 20. New additions to the cast are Tai Jimenez, Sarah Knowlton and Perry Laylon Ojeda.

The George C. Wolfe-directed revival of Town is set to open Nov. 19 at Broadway's Gershwin Theatre.

DeLaria, Ferguson and Montano, will play the randy cab driver Hildy, naive sailor Chip, and Chip's goofy pal Ozzie, respectively. Together, the make up half of the Leonard Bernstein-Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical1s three romantic pairings. The other three roles are filled by newcomers. Perry Laylon Ojeda, whose credits include Blood Brothers, will play Gabey, the sailor who falls in love with and then searches for "Miss Turnstiles." Tai Jimenez, a principal dancer with Dance Theater of Harlem, will be Ivy Smith, the object of Gabey's longings. And Sarah Knowlton, who appeared on Broadway in Skylight, will fill the role of man-hungry anthropologist Claire DeLoone.

Also set to repeat their 1997 performances are Jonathan Freeman (She Loves Me) as Pitkin W. Bridgework; Annie Golden (Saturn Returns) as Lucy Schmeeler; Mary Testa (A New Brain) as Madame Maude P. Dilly; and Nora Cole (Jelly1s Last Jam) as Diana Dream/Dolores Dolores.

Adrianne Lobel (set), Paul Tazewell (costumes), Paul Gallo (lighting) and Jon Weston (sound) will repeat their duties. This revival of On the Town was first staged at Central Park's Delacorte Theatre in 1997 under the auspices of the New York Shakespeare Festival. Comedienne DeLaria won raves for her performance.

Keith Young, a former Twyla Tharp principal dancer, will make his Broadway debut choreographing this nearly through-danced show, based on the ballet Fancy Free. Original choreographer Eliot Feld withdrew from the proposed revival after reviewers questioned his work. Christopher d'Amboise was hired to replace him but soon left the project owing to "genuine creative differences concerning the dance sequences that could not be resolved," between Wolfe and d'Amboise. The dispute was blamed for postponing the planned Broadway transfer of the successful summer revival last fall.

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The 1944 classic concerns three sailors who try to cram a lifetime of New York experience into a single 24-hour leave. All three fall in love during the day's span of madcap adventures, and all must say bittersweet farewells as their day in Manhattan ends, and a new day starts for another trio.

The score, with music by Leonard Bernstein and book/lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green, includes "New York, New York (A Helluva Town)," "Lonely Town," "Another Time," "I Can Cook, Too," "Ya Got Me," and "I Get Carried Away."

 
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