Reed has bowed out of the production "due to illness," according to a press statement.
Directed by Marc Bruni and choreographed by Lorin Latarro, the cast also features Elena Shaddow in the title role with Fred Applegate as Panisse, Tony Award winner George Hearn as Cesar, David Patrick Kelly as The Admiral, Michael McCormick as Escartifique, James Snyder as Marius and Ted Sutherland as Cesario.
Fanny features music and lyrics by Harold Rome and book by S.N. Behrman and Joshua Logan.
Fanny will be the 50th Encores! production presented by City Center since 1994. The season will conclude with Anyone Can Whistle, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents' 1964 musical, starting April 8.
Fanny (1954), based on Marcel Pagnol's trilogy "Marius," "Fanny" and "Cesar," is set in Marseille. The love story is "a tale of a young girl's passion for a young man so in love with the sea that he leaves her, little realizing that she is pregnant with his child. Her marriage of convenience to a wealthy older man desperate to have an heir is complicated by the sailor's return years later." Joshua Logan and S.N. Behrman penned the book, and Harold Rome wrote music and lyrics — flirting with operatic heights (including the title song). The original production starred Florence Henderson, Ezio Pinza and Walter Slezak (who won a Tony award for Best Actor in a Musical). Priscilla Lopez won a Best Featured Actress in a Musical Tony Award for her performance in A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine and was also nominated for her work in the original cast of A Chorus Line. Lopez's other Broadway credits include In the Heights, Anna in the Tropics; Breakfast at Tiffany's; Henry, Sweet Henry; Her First Roman; Company; Pippin; Lysistrata; Nine; and The Sisters Rosensweig. She received a Drama Desk nomination for her performance Off-Broadway in Class Mothers '68 and is a recipient of the Rita Moreno HOLA Award for Excellence.
Tickets to the Encores! season are available at the New York City Center Box Office (W. 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues), through CityTix at (212) 581-1212, or online at www.nycitycenter.org.
Tickets for the Orchestra, Grand Tier and Mid-Mezzanine tickets are $95; tickets for the Rear Mezzanine and Front Gallery are $50; tickets for the Rear Gallery are $25.
