Sandy Binion, whose powerful voice helped make Off-Broadway's Make Me a Song vocally exciting, stars as Alice Silverstein, the so-called "Oprah of Opera," who hits rock bottom when her crazed, abandoned son returns to moon her at the Kennedy Center Honors.
The "wild and zany love story that touches on the issues of abandonment and the price of fame" is "a unique fusion of traditional opera and rock" with music by Karen Hartman, and lyrics and book by Hartman & Phil Lebovits.
Performances play Dixon Place in the Lower East Side.
Binion also appeared in Broadway's Jane Eyre and the national tour of Sunset Boulevard.
"One of the exciting things for me in this piece is that I'm using a part of my voice that I haven't used in years," Binion told Playbill.com. "It's all that upper range that I used to use when I was doing opera. It's not the belty Binion that we had in Make Me a Song. It's been really fun to exercise that part of my voice." Also featured in the production are Cindy Benson, Danny Beiruti, Zachary Clause, Natalie Charlé Ellis (as the younger Alice), Jonathan Andrew Kline, Karla Mosley and Ronica V. Reddick.
The production team includes director Jeremy Dobrish (Off-Broadway's Election Day), music director and arranger Mark Hartman (Avenue Q), choreographer Vince Pesce (Cinderella starring Lea Salonga), executive producer Tom Smedes (Ace, the Musical), scenic designer Jonathan Collins, costume designer Brenda Abbandandolo, lighting designer Michael Gottlieb, sound designer Michael Eisenberg, props designer Eve Weinberg, casting by Mark Simon, production stage manager Andrea Jo Martin, general manager Michael Roderick, and associate director Amanda Haley.
Dixon Place is at 161A Chrystie Street (Rivington & Delancey Streets) on the Lower East Side.
Performer play Aug. 23 at noon, Aug. 24 at 9:30 PM, Aug. 26 at 10 PM, Aug. 27 at 10:30 PM and Aug. 29 at 10:30 PM.
For tickets, visit www.fringenyc.org. For more information, visit www.dancingwithabandon.com.
*
Dancing With Abandon is produced by Tom Smedes Productions, Small Pond Entertainment, & Mark Hess Productions.
