A spokesperson for the production told Playbill.com that Kudisch — who will also be seen as the Pirate King in New York City Opera's The Pirates of Penzance (March 3-31) — will play Darryl Van Horne, the role originated on the London stage by Ian McShane. Eastwick will mark Kudisch's second appearance at the Signature — he previously played Vincent van Gogh in the world premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's The Highest Yellow.
Further casting is expected shortly.
The Witches of Eastwick will be directed by Signature artistic director Eric Schaeffer, who directed the show's world premiere in London's West End at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and Prince of Wales.
The musical comedy will play June 5–July 15 in The MAX, the 299-seat double-height black-box space located in Signature's new two-theatre complex.
Schaeffer originally developed The Witches of Eastwick, based on the novel by John Updike and the Warner Bros. motion picture, with book writer and lyricist John Dempsey, composer Dana P. Rowe, and producer Cameron Mackintosh — the same creative team behind the American premiere of The Fix, presented at Signature in 1998. "The Witches of Eastwick — despite its various English, Russian, Japanese, and Australian productions — is an American musical," stated collaborators Dempsey and Rowe. "How wonderful it is then to be bringing it to American soil at long last. In deciding upon a national premiere, we could think of no greater launching pad than the Signature Theatre, having had such a wickedly good time there doing The Fix a few seasons back. We hope the Signature audiences enjoy dancing with the devil as much as we enjoyed dreaming up the dance."
According to Signature, "In the tiny New England town of Eastwick, Rhode Island, three unhappy women innocently plot and conjure for their perfect man over a heady brew of brownies and weak martinis. When their longings are made flesh in the arrival of one Darryl Van Horne, all hell breaks loose. Quite literally."
For more information, visit www.signature-theatre.org.
