Patterson, Jennings, Cox, Roberts Cast in Julie Andrews-Directed Boyfriend | Playbill

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News Patterson, Jennings, Cox, Roberts Cast in Julie Andrews-Directed Boyfriend Meredith Patterson, Byron Jennings, Veanne Cox and Tony Roberts will all be doing the Charleston this summer. The four actors have been cast in the Bay Street Theater production of The Boy Friend, which will be directed by Julie Andrews.

Aug. 5-31 are the dates for Andrews' return to the 1954 Sandy Wilson musical that marked her Broadway debut. Bay Street is run in part by Emma Walton, who is Andrews' daughter. There are hopes that the musical will find its way to Broadway.

Andrews told Variety "I'm going places I never thought I'd go...The Boy Friend was the turning point in my career. I'm awed [at the prospect of directing], but I'm in friendly hands — it's a big family thing."

Patterson, a one-time Peggy Sawyer in Broadway's 42nd Street, will play the Andrews role of Miss Polly Browne. Also in the cast are Andrea Chamberlain, Delphi Harrington and Sean Palmer.

Jennings just came off an Off-Broadway run playing the title role in Moliere's Don Juan. Prior to that, he was part of the ensemble cast in Lincoln Center Theater's Dinner at Eight. Roberts recently spent a year on Broadway in Charles Busch's comedy The Tale of the Allergist's Wife. He worked with Andrews in the Broadway musical Victor/Victoria.

Cox's Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include The Dinner Party, Company, The Altruists, The Food Chain and House and Garden. *

Ben Gazzara opened the Bay Street season May 20 as baseball great Yogi Berra in Nobody Don't Like Yogi. Paul Linke Directs. The play runs through June 1.

Thomas Lysaght wrote the one-man work, which shows Berra stepping foot in Yankee Stadium, his old stomping ground, after a 14-year absence. Berra is the lovable one-time Yankee player and coach, and three time American League MVP, who is known for his nonsensical aphorisms as much as for his play on the field. Among his best remembered observations are "It ain't over til it's over," "It's deja vu all over again," "Nobody goes there anymore—it's too crowded," and "If the people don't want to come out to the ballpark, nobody's going to stop them."

The title of the play notwithstanding, Berra's absence from Yankee Stadium was due to a long feud with the team's owner, George Steinbrenner, who hired him to manage the Bronx Bombers in 1984 and fired him in 1985.

Gazzara, a stage and film veteran, has starred in "The Spanish Prisoner" and "The Big Lebowski" as well as the original Broadway productions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Hatful of Rain.

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The season is rounded out by Earth to Bucky, a new play by Vanities author Jack Heifer (July 8-27) and two plays directed by Daniel Gerroll: The Lover by Harold Pinter and Bacchanalia by Arthur Schnitzler (June 10-29).

 
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