Unexpected Songs: Alice Ripley Opens Kennedy Center Tell Me On a Sunday Dec. 17 | Playbill

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News Unexpected Songs: Alice Ripley Opens Kennedy Center Tell Me On a Sunday Dec. 17 Alice Ripley, who wowed audiences and critics this summer as Amy in the Kennedy Center's production of Stephen Sondheim's Company, returns to the D.C. theatre Dec. 17 when she begins a month-long engagement in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tell Me On a Sunday.

Ripley portrays Emma, an English hat designer, in the one-woman song cycle, which features a score by Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Richard Maltby, Jr. Marcia Milgrom Dodge directs the Kennedy Center production; the remainder of the creative team comprises Steve Marzullo (musical direction), Edward Pierce (scenic and lighting design), Robert Guy (costume design) and Kurt B. Fisher (sound design). Daryl Waters is the musical's orchestrator. Leslie Kritzer, who starred in the Paper Mill production of Funny Girl, is Ripley's standby.

Originally produced as a record album starring English musical theatre star Marti Webb, the show was combined with Lloyd Webber's "Variations" to form Song and Dance, a two-act concert for the London theatre. Marti Webb and Wayne Sleep starred in the initial London mounting. The show, in a revised form, opened on Broadway in 1985 starring Bernadette Peters, who won a Tony Award for her performance. Betty Buckley succeeded Peters in the role on Broadway. Others who have sung the score, which includes such tunes as "Tell Me On a Sunday," "Unexpected Song," "Take That Look Off Your Face" and "Come Back with the Same Look in Your Eyes," include Lulu, Sarah Brightman, Liz Robertson and Gemma Craven.

Alice Ripley earned a Tony nomination for her performance as conjoined twin Violet Hilton in the musical Side Show. She has also appeared on Broadway in The Rocky Horror Show, James Joyce's The Dead, Sunset Boulevard, The Who's Tommy, Les Misérables and in the City Center Encores! production of Li'l Abner as well as the concert run of King David. Ripley's non-show recordings include two discs with Side Show co-star Emily Skinner — "Duets" and "Unsuspecting Hearts" — and a recording of her own compositions, "Everything's Fine."

Marcia Milgrom Dodge directed Radio Gals at the John Houseman Theatre, choreographed Maltby and Shire's Closer Than Ever at the Cherry Lane and helmed Donald Margulies' The Loman Family Picnic for Manhattan Theatre Club. She was also the associate choreographer for Broadway's High Society and has numerous regional credits.

Tell Me On a Sunday will play The Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater through Jan. 12, 2003. For information, call (202) 467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

 
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