Crump, Evan, McLane Cast in Johnny Guitar; Begins March 4
By Robert Simonson
27 Jan 2004
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Steve Blanchard will play the title role in Johnny Guitar
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The full cast of Johnny Guitar, a new musical based on the cult classic western, has been announced.
Joining Steve Blanchard as the title hunk will be Judy McLane as Vienna (the Joan Crawford role), Ann Crumb as Emma (the Mercedes McCambridge part) and Robert Evan as the Dancin' Kid.
Johnny Guitarwill hang its hat at the Century Center for the Performing Arts Off-Broadway. Previews begin March 4. Opening is March 23.
Rounding out the ensemble are Ed Sala, David Sinkus, Rob Sapp and Jason Edwards.
Blanchard leaves his job at Beauty and the Beast on Feb. 12. McLane, who has worked extensively at the Paper Mill Playhouse, was in the original cast of Chess, as was Crumb, who is best known for her work in Aspects of Love and Anna Karenina. Evan played the title roles in Broadway's Jekyll & Hyde, and also appeared in Dance of the Vampires.
The show features a book by Nicholas van Hoogstraten, lyrics and music by Joel Higgins, and music by Martin Silvestri.
The production includes set design by Van Santfoord, lighting design by Ed McCarthy, costume design by Kaye Voyce and sound design by Laura Grace Brown.
The 1954 film, directed in blinding Technicolor by Nicholas Ray ("Rebel Without a Cause"), featured Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge in two notorious, over-the-top performances. Crawford is Vienna, the keeper of a saloon and gambling emporium on the edge of a frontier town. McCambridge is Emma Small, the shrill Puritanical leader of a gang of townies dead set on running Vienna and her pals out of town. Sterling Hayden is the title cowpoke, once Vienna's paramour, now her protector. The film featured Crawford at her most mannered and stands as one of the few westerns in which the men take a backseat to the female characters.
Bookwriter van Hoogstraten told Playbill On-Line the show is arch, but not camp. "You're gilding the lily if you make it camp." The songs, which include "Branded a Tramp," "Tell Me a Lie" and "Johnny Guitar," smack of the 1950s Hollywood western music sound of "Rawhide" and "Ghost Riders in the Sky."
This is the first musical for van Hoogstraten, who wrote the theatre history book, "Lost Broadway Theatres."
A November 2002 reading featured Michele Pawk as Vienna and Joanna Glushak was Emma. The company also included David Sinkus, Ed Sala, Carson Church, Kenny Brescia, Ray Kilday, Jim Mironchik and Jeff Potter.
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