As previously reported by Playbill On-Line, Rebecca Luker and Patrick Cassidy will head the cast at the UCLA Freud Playhouse March 18-30. Cassidy will re-create the role of Steven Kodaly that won his father — Jack Cassidy — a 1964 Tony Award. Luker will take on her second Barbara Cook role — she also starred in the Broadway revival of The Music Man as Marian the Librarian — playing Parfumerie worker Amalia Balash.
She Loves Me will be directed by Gordon Hunt with choreography by Dan Mojica. Gerald Sternbach will serve as the show's musical director.
Kaitlin Hopkins was recently on Broadway in Noises Off, and she received a Drama Desk nomination for her work in the Off-Broadway production of Bat Boy—The Musical. Scott Waara garnered a 1992 Tony Award for his work in the revival of The Most Happy Fella and recently starred in the Deaf West/Mark Taper Forum production of Big River as Mark Twain.
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She Loves Me boasts a book by Joe Masteroff, music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. The classic score includes such tunes as "Will He Like Me?," "Tonight at Eight," "Dear Friend," "Vanilla Ice Cream" and "She Loves Me." The original She Loves Me production opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre April 23, 1963, playing 302 performances before closing Jan. 11, 1964. Directed by Harold Prince — with musical staging by Carol Haney — the cast included Barbara Baxley, Jack Cassidy, Barbara Cook, Daniel Massey, Ludwig Donath, Nathaniel Frey and Ralph Williams. The 1993 revival for the Roundabout Theatre Company began life at the Criterion Center/Stage Right before transferring to the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Directed by Scott Ellis with musical staging by Rob Marshall, the cast included Jonathan Freeman, Boyd Gaines, Brad Kane, Judy Kuhn, Sally Mayes, Howard McGillin, Lee Wilkof and Louis Zorich.
Rebecca Luker was most recently on The Great White Way in the acclaimed revival of Meredith Willson's The Music Man, garnering Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for her role as Marian. This past summer she starred opposite Michael Cerveris as Clara in the Kennedy Center production of Stephen Sondheim's Passion, and her other theatrical credits include roles in The Sound of Music, Show Boat, The Secret Garden and The Phantom of the Opera. Patrick Cassidy's Broadway credits include The Pirates of Penzance, Leader of the Pack, Annie Get Your Gun and Aida as well as the City Center Encores! mounting of Lady in the Dark. Off-Broadway, Cassidy starred as the Balladeer in the original cast of Sondheim's Assassins at Playwright's Horizons.
She Loves Me will play UCLA's Freud Playhouse, located within Macgowan Hall. Tickets are available by calling (310) 825-2101. Reprise! is on the web at http://www.reprise.org.
