Reprise! No Strings — with Bakula, Brown, Ashford and Williamson — Begins May 8

By Andrew Gans
08 May 2007

Scott Bakula
Scott Bakula

The Reprise! Broadway's Best production of No Strings — co-starring Scott Bakula and Sophina Brown — begins performances May 8 at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.

Bakula plays David, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, with Brown as Barbara, a successful Paris model.

Others in the cast include Matthew Ashford ("Days of Our Lives," "General Hospital") as Mike and Broadway veteran Ruth Williamson (La Cage aux Folles, The Music Man, Guys and Dolls) as Mollie. Joseph Culliton, Bets Malone, Brent Schindele and Carla Tassara are featured in the cast; the ensemble comprises Audrey Cain, Bradley Dodds, Cherish Hamutoff, Abby Hencmann, Todd Christian Hunter, Masad Kitamura, Monica Lee, Tracy Powell, Rebecca Rainboldt, Vanessa Ross, Kate Roth, Anna Schnaitter and John Todd.

No Strings will play UCLA's Freud Playhouse through May 20. Kay Cole directs the production, which features musical direction by Gerald Sternbach, choreography by Christine Kellogg and costume design by Bob Mackie and Joe McFate. The creative team also includes Bradley Kaye (set design), Steven Young (lighting design) and Phil Allen (sound design).

No Strings features a score by Richard Rodgers and a book by Samuel Taylor. The musical debuted on Broadway in March 1962 with a cast led by Diahann Carroll and Richard Kiley. The score features such tunes as "The Sweetest Sounds" and "Love Makes the World Go." It was Rodgers' first show following the death of his longtime lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. Rodgers wrote music and lyrics for the show.

The show, according to press notes, concerns a "successful high-fashion model [who] meets and falls in love with a writer in Paris. While this Pulitzer prize-winner has been trying to recover from a prolonged case of writer's block, he's assumed the dubious role of charming intellectual-in-residence at some of the Continent's more luxurious watering holes. As the model's work takes them on a whirlwind tour of the most exclusive European playgrounds, their romance develops into the first deeply-felt, honest relationship either has ever known. The model, however, ruefully comes to realize that the life-style demanded by her career is stifling the writer, and if he's ever to fulfill the promise of his earlier work, he must take responsibility for himself, go home, and write. Reluctantly, but with no strings, they part, each having discovered anew their capacity to love."

Stage and screen star Scott Bakula played Joe DiMaggio in Broadway's Marilyn: An American Fable and received a Tony nomination for his starring role in Romance/Romance. He also won a Golden Globe Award for his work on the TV series "Quantum Leap."

Sophina Brown, who can currently be seen on CBS' "Shark," played Nala in the Broadway production of The Lion King and Carmen in the tour of Fame—The Musical. She has also appeared in productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, As You Like It, Antigone and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

For tickets call the UCLA Central ticket office at (310) 825-2101. Visit www.reprise.org for more information.