NewsPHOTO CALL: Violet, Starring Sutton Foster, Colin Donnell and Joshua Henry, Opens on Broadway; Red Carpet Arrivals, Curtain Call and Cast PartyThe Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway production of Violet, starring two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster, officially opened at the American Airlines Theatre April 20 following previews that began March 28.
By
Matthew Blank
April 21, 2014
Directed by Leigh Silverman and featuring music by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by Brian Crawley, Violet is based on Doris Betts' short story "The Ugliest Pilgrim."
0
of
Violet, Starring Sutton Foster, Colin Donnell and Joshua Henry, Opens on Broadway; Red Carpet Arrivals, Curtain Call and Cast Party
Donnell, whose stage credits include Anything Goes, Jersey Boysand Love's Labour's Lost, plays Monty. Henry returns to the role of Flick, which he played in the 2013 Encores! Off-Center production of Violet. Henry's stage work also includes The Scottsboro Boys,Porgy and BessandAmerican Idiot.
The Broadway premiere is based on the 2013 New York City Center Encores! Off-Center production, which starred Foster and was directed by Silverman. Violet premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 1997; it won the Obie Award, Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical.
"Violet tells the story of a young woman’s quest for beauty amidst the image-obsessed landscape of the 1960s," according to the Roundabout. "Facially disfigured in a childhood accident, Violet (Foster) dreams of a miraculous transformation through the power of faith. Convinced that a televangelist in Oklahoma can heal her, she hops a Greyhound bus and starts the journey of a lifetime. Along the way, Violet forms unlikely friendships with her fellow riders, who teach her about beauty, love, courage and what it means to be an outsider."
The production will include Bernstein’s incidental music for Lillian Hellman’s adaptation of The Lark, and Menotti’s The Unicorn, The Gorgon, and The Manticore.
Based on the novel and film by Frank Cottrell Boyce, the new musical will reunite Guettel with Tony-winning Light in the Piazza director Bartlett Sher.