A Connecticut Yankee, the first musical of the 2001 Encores! series of musicals in concert, will star Judy Blazer and Christine Ebersole. The show's five performances will run Feb. 8-11. Susan H. Schulman will direct, with Rob Ashford as choreographer.
The cast will also include Steven Sutcliffe (as Martin Barrett), Henry Gibson (King Arthur), Peter Bartlett (Merlin), Sean Martin Hingston (Sir Galahad), Nancy Lemenager (Dame Evelyn), and Mark Lotito (Sir Kay).
Ebersole, who will play sorceress Morgan LeFay, was featured in last year's Encores! production of The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936. Since then, the actress has been on a roll. She appeared on Broadway in The Best Man last fall and will return to the Rialto this spring in 42nd Street.
Blazer's many credits include the recent The Torchbearers at the Drama Dept. Off-Broadway. She will play the role of Alisande. Bartlett has starred in many Paul Rudnick comedies, including Jeffrey, while Gibson is still perhaps best known for his stint on "Laugh-In."
A Connecticut Yankee is Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's 1927 tuner about a modern-day man who finds himself in King Arthur's Court. The show is based on Mark Twain's novel, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." *
The other Encores! Shows in the 2001 series are:
• Hair, the landmark 1968 rock musical about Vietnam, hippies and the '60s in general.
• Bloomer Girl, a little known 1944 Harold Arlen-E.Y. Harburg work about women's rights and abolition.
