Director David Warren Enters Good Vibrations Camp
By Robert Simonson
11 Jan 2005
Experienced New York director David Warren has been brought in to assist in the staging of the new Beach Boys musical Good Vibrations, currently in previews at Broadway's Eugene O'Neill Theatre, according to sources close to the production.
Warren has reportedly been at work at the O'Neill since Thursday, Jan. 6. John Carrafa is the official director and choreographer on the project, which began previews on Dec. 20, 2004, and is expected to open on Jan. 27. A press representative for the show had no comment on Warren, but said that Carrafa remained director, choreographer and co-writer of the musical.
Typically, when show doctors are drafted to assist on Broadway shows, their involvement is not proclaimed for the official record. The troubled 2000 musical Seussical, for instance, invited Rob Marshall on board as a new pair of eyes. However, Kathleen Marshall and Frank Galati remained the choreographer and director of record, and Rob Marshall's name did not appear on the Playbill.
Warren has a long list of play credits behind him, including several works by Nicky Silver and Richard Greenberg, and the Broadway plays Holiday and Summer and Smoke. Like Carrafa, however, he has not directed a musical on Broadway, though his production of Barry Manilow's Harmony very nearly reached Broadway before plans were scrapped due to a fallout in the budget. (He remains attached to the project.)
Good Vibrations uses more than 30 songs written by Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. The plot is not a biographical tale of the blond-mopped California band that celebrated cars, girls and surfing in the 1960s. Instead, it follows a group of high school pals desperate to escape their one-factory, New England town and drive to California. Problem is: no car. So, knowing that the mousy, less-than-popular—and car-owning—valedictorian has a crush on one of the guys in question, they invite her along. Presto. They have a car.
"The show is this kind of fantasy of California. When it's February and you're snowbound in New England, that's what you want to think about, an endless summer," said the show's book writer, Richard Dresser.
Heading the ensemble will be Tituss Burgess as Eddie, David Larsen as Bobby, Kate Reinders as Caroline, Brandon Wardell as Dave and Jessica-Snow Wilson as Marcella.
Rounding out the cast are Sebastian Arcelus, Tracee Beazer, Heath Calvert, Janet Dacal, Tom Deckman, Sarah Glendening, Milena Govich, Chad Kimball, Amanda Kloots, John Jeffrey Martin, Jesse Nager, David Reiser, Jackie Seiden, Allison Spratt, Carlos L. Encinias, Vasthy Mompoint, Steve Morgan and Krysta Rodriguez.
Producers for the Broadway production include NCJ
Productions (Nina Keneally, Cathleen Murphy, Jamie Lightstone) with Michael Watt and Dodger Stage Holding.
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