Pipe Dream's Full Casting Announced for Encores! Run

By Adam Hetrick
and Andrew Gans
13 Mar 2012

Laura Osnes
Laura Osnes
Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Complete casting has been announced for the New York City Center Encores! production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Pipe Dream, starring the previously announced Leslie Uggams, Will Chase and Laura Osnes. The concert staging will play March 28-April 1.

The ensemble will feature Matthew Bauman, Jack Doyle, Lora Lee Gayer, James Harkness, Jessica Hershberg, Emily Hsu, Cara Kjellman, Denis Lambert, Analisa Leaming, Jay Lusteck, Linda Mugleston, Shannon M. O’Bryan, Monica L. Patton, Richard Pruitt, Vincent Rodriguez III, Kelly Sheehan, Martín Solá, Charlie Sutton, Nicholas Ward and Victor James Wisehart.

As previously reported Uggams will play Fauna, the proprietress of the Bear Flag Café, the local brothel, with Chase as Doc opposite Osnes' Suzy. The principal cast also features James Clow, James Moye, Steve Routman, Stephen Wallem and Tom Wopat.

Marc Bruni directs the concert production that will have music direction by Rob Berman and choreography by Kelli Barclay. The score includes the rarities "All at Once You Love Her," "The Next Time It Happens" and the ballad "Everybody's Got a Home but Me."

"Outcasts living by their wits populate the bordellos and flophouses of a 1950s California seaside town in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Pipe Dream," according to Encores! notes. "The show features many of Steinbeck's Cannery Row characters and tells the story of the romance between Doc (Will Chase), a marine biologist, and Suzy (Laura Osnes), a young woman who hitchhikes into town looking for a better life. Doc's friends include Mac (Tom Wopat), Hazel (Stephen Wallem) and Fauna (Leslie Uggams), the owner of the local brothel."

Pipe Dream opened at the Shubert Theatre on Nov. 30, 1955, and ran for 246 performances. It was nominated for nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

Encores! notes indicate that Pipe Dream "has been virtually absent from the American stage for more than two decades, owing to a technicality involving the underlying rights. The Encores! presentation will also include the first hearing of the newly restored Robert Russell Bennett orchestrations, meticulously reconstructed by the Rodgers & Hammerstein office."

For tickets and information, call (212) 581-1212 or visit NYCityCenter.org.