Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba will star as preternaturally perky actress Eden Brent in the new Woody Allen-Susan Stroman musical Bullets Over Broadway, which begins performances March 11 at the St. James Theatre.
Ziemba (Chicago, Contact, Steel Pier) completes the principal casting that also includes Tony Award nominee Marin Mazzie (Passion, Ragtime, Next to Normal) as stage diva Helen Sinclair, Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee Zach Braff ("Scrubs," "Garden State") in his Broadway debut as playwright David Shayne, Brooks Ashmanskas (Promises, Promises; Present Laughter) as Warner Purcell, Nick Cordero (Rock of Ages) as Cheech, Betsy Wolfe (Last Five Years, Drood) as Ellen, Lenny Wolpe (The Drowsy Chaperone) as Julian Marx, Heléne Yorke (Grease) as Olive Neal and Vincent Pastore ("Sopranos") as gangster Nick Valenti.
Five-time Tony Award winner Stroman (The Scottsboro Boys, The Producers, Contact) directs and choreographs the musical that has been adapted by Allen from his 1994 film, which he co-wrote with Douglas McGrath. The musical incorporates pre-existing songs from the 1920's and 1930's for its score. It officially opens April 10.
Completing the ensemble are Preston Truman Boyd (Big Fish), Bryn Dowling (Big Fish), newcomer Kelcy Griffin, Dan Horn (Cinderella), Synthia Link (Big Fish) and Kevin Worley (Cinderella), who join the previously announced Clyde Alves (Nice Work if You Can Get It), Jim Borstelmann (Chaplin), Janet Dickinson (How The Grinch Stole Christmas), Kimberly Fauré (Anything Goes), Paige Faure (Cinderella), Casey Garvin (Bare), Sarah Lin Johnson (42nd Street), Andy Jones (Cinderella), Amanda Kloots-Larsen (Follies), Kevin Ligon (The Chosen), Brittany Marcin (Anything Goes), James Moye (Million Dollar Quartet), Beth Johnson Nicely (White Christmas) and Eric Santagata (Chaplin).
The design team includes Santo Loquasto (scenic design), William Ivey Long (costume design), Donald Holder (lighting design), Peter Hylenski (sound design), Paul Huntley (wig and hair design), William Berloni (animal training), Glen Kelly (music supervision and adaptation/additional lyrics), Doug Besterman (orchestrations) and Andy Einhorn (music direction/conductor/vocal arrangements).
"Bullets Over Broadway" centers on an aspiring playwright who finds out that his play God of Our Fathers is getting the Broadway treatment thanks to a wealthy gangster who has taken a sudden interest in producing. The only snag is that his dimwitted moll has to star in one of the leading roles. Thrown into the mix are a mafia thug with a real knack for playwrighting and a theatrical grand dame who gives Norma Desmond a run for her money.
Allen's numerous films include "Annie Hall," "Manhattan," "Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Husbands and Wives," "Love and Death," "Stardust Memories," "Crimes and Misdemeanors," "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and many more (about one a year since the 1970s). His plays include Don't Drink the Water (1966), Death Knocks (1968), Play It Again, Sam (1969), Death (1975), God (1975), The Query (1976), My Apology (1980), The Floating Light Bulb (1981), Death Defying Acts (1995), Writer's Block (2003) and A Second Hand Memory (2004).
The musical is produced by Letty Aronson and Julian Schlossberg and co-produced by Edward Walson, Leroy Schecter, Roy Furman, Broadway Across America, Just for Laughs Theatricals/Jacki Barlia Florin, Harold Newman and Jujamcyn Theaters and associate producer Don't Speak, LLC.
For tickets visit telecharge.com.
Visit bulletsoverbroadway.com.
