Tony Award winners Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald and Michael Cerveris will head the cast as, respectively, Fosca, Clara and Giorgio. They will be joined onstage by Allen Fitzpatrick as Colonel Ricci, Richard Easton as Doctor Tambourri, Alexander Gemignani as Lieutenant Torasso, Timothy Gulan as Sergeant Lombardi, Devin Richards as Lieutenant Barri, James Clow as Major Rizzolli, John Sloman as Lieutenant Augenti, Gina Ferrall as Fosca's Mother, John Cunningham as Fosca's Father, George Dvorsky as Ludovic and Kate Baldwin as the Mistress.
LuPone, McDonald and Cerveris — who all starred in the Sondheim-James Lapine musical at Chicago's Ravinia Festival — will re-create their performances for Lincoln Center audiences March 30-April 1. The threesome, directed by Lonny Price, will be backed by the 35-piece American Theater Orchestra under the direction of Paul Gemignani.
The creative team for the limited engagement of Passion comprises James Noone (set design), Gail Brassard (costume design), Alan Adelman (lighting design) and Tom Clark (sound design).
Based on Ettore Scola's Italian film "Passion d'Amore," Passion opened on Broadway on May 9, 1994, with a cast that featured Jere Shea (Giorgio), Marin Mazzie (Clara) and Donna Murphy (Fosca). The tale of obsessive love includes such Sondheim tunes as "Happiness," "I Read," "I Wish I Could Forget You," "Loving You" and "No One Has Ever Loved Me." The original Broadway production received the 1994 Tony Award for Best Musical; Donna Murphy also garnered her first Tony for Best Actress in a Musical, and Sondheim and Lapine were awarded prizes for, respectively, Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical.
The Frederick P. Rose Hall is located within the Time Warner Center at Broadway at 60th Street. Visit www.lincolncenter.org for more information. *
"Live from Lincoln Center," the Emmy-winning television series that offers live broadcasts of various arts events, will telecast the March 31 performance of Passion. "60 Minutes" co-editor Leslie Stahl will host the 8 PM broadcast, which will feature interviews with Sondheim, Lapine, LuPone, McDonald and Cerveris.
