Musicals Tonight's Irene — with Louis, Porter, Brown and McClain — Begins April 17

By Andrew Gans
17 Apr 2007

The Musicals Tonight! presentation of Irene begins performances at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre April 17. The limited engagement will play through April 29.

Directed by Tom Mills with musical direction by Bill Stanley, the company features Jillian Louis as Irene O'Dare, Patrick Porter as Donald Marshall III, Selby Brown as Ozzie, Jendi Tarde as Helen McFudd, Katherine McClain as Jane Burke, Justin Sayre as Madame Lucy and Janet Carroll as both Irene and Donald's mothers. The cast also includes Jody Cook, Michael Jennings Mahoney, Micah Sheppard, Richard Barth, Marnie Buckner, Laura Pavell, Kellie Drinkhahn and Jacque Carnahan.

Irene is described thusly: "Irene O'Dare is a hard-working girl from Ninth Avenue who falls in love with Donald Marshall III, a Long Island swell. Donald's ne'er-do-well cousin Ozzie needs help to jump start the fashion business of a French designer, so Irene and her best friends Helen McFudd and Jane Burke are recruited to pose as society girls while modeling the gowns of Madame Lucy. Needless to say, Irene's mother and Donald's mother don't see eye to eye at the beginning but become quite close at the end."

Irene was most recently seen on Broadway in 1973 with a cast led by Debbie Reynolds. The musical features music by Harry Tierney, lyrics by Joseph McCarthy and a book by Hugh Wheeler and Joseph Stein.

The McGinn/Cazale Theatre is located in Manhattan at 2162 Broadway at 76th Street. Tickets, priced at $20, are available by calling (212) 268-4444 or by visiting www.smarttix.com.

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Musicals Tonight!, which was founded by Mel Miller in 1998, has revived 37 classic musicals staged in concert form.