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Creatives Added to Deliver Lennon Score to Broadway-Bound Musical
By Ernio Hernandez
24 Mar 2005
More names have been added to create the melodious world of singer-songwriter John Lennon in the upcoming musical Lennon, now expected to open July 28 on Broadway.
Written and directed by Don Scardino (A Few Good Men), the new musical about the legendary music star will have its world premiere at San Francisco's Orpheum Theatre (April 12-May 14) and then play a stint at Boston's Colonial Theatre (May 31-June 25) before coming to Broadway's Broadhurst for a July 7 first preview.
Harold Wheeler (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Me) will provide orchestrations for the musical while Lon Hoyt (Hairspray, ) serves as music supervisor. Bobby Aitken (Mamma Mia!) will handle sound design.
They join the design team of Lennon includes John Arnone (scenic/projection), Jane Greenwood (costumes) and Natasha Katz (lighting). Joe Malone provides choreography.
Will Chase (Aida), Chuck Cooper (Caroline, or Change), Julie Danao (Rent, Aida tours), Mandy Gonzalez (Aida, Dance of the Vampires), Marcy Harriell (Lucky Duck, "Ed"), Chad Kimball (Into the Woods), Terrence Mann (Les Misérables), Julia Murney (The Wild Party) and Michael Potts (Twelfth Night) comprise the ensemble cast of the new Broadway musical.
Producers Allan McKeown, Edgar Lansbury, Clear Channel Entertainment and Jeff Sine present Lennon by arrangement with Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. The legendary singer-songwriter's widow recently gave permission for the production to use three unpublished Lennon songs "India, India," "I Don't Want to Lose You" and "Cookin' (In the Kitchen of Love)."
The musical will feature nine actors portraying John Lennon at various stages in his life backed by an onstage 10-piece band. 27 songs from the substantial Lennon oeuvre will be featured in the musical, among them "Imagine," "Instant Karma," "Give Peace a Chance," "(Just Like) Starting Over," and "Whatever Gets You Through the Night."
"I was after something that was very theatrical and that would, for the audience, really bring forward the real living idea of John Lennon," director Don Scardino previously told Playbill.com about his upcoming piece.
"The idea is basically as if an acting troupe walked on stage, unpacked their bags and said 'Tonight, we do John Lennon' just like the players in Hamlet [say] here's The Murder of Gonzago."
Scardino posed that Lennon will tell the tale of more than just a musician: "He always seemed to be ahead of the curve. Or, by example, the curve followed him. He was such a leader for a certain generation, particularly, that he's emblematic of the times he came through." He summed up the concept as "not only how his life defined the times, but how the times defined him."
For more information and an exclusive interview with Yoko Ono, visit www.lennonthemusical.com.
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