A spokesperson for the acclaimed Encores! series confirmed to Playbill.com that Nicholaw will direct and choreograph the Sondheim-James Goldman musical, which will play City Center Feb. 8-11, 2007. As previously announced, the cast will be headed by Tony Award-winning Light in the Piazza star Victoria Clark as former Follies-star Sally Durant Plummer.
No other casting has been announced for the production, which will feature musical direction by Paul Gemignani. Follies kicks off the 14th season of the Encores! series.
Follies, with songs by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Goldman, was originally directed by Harold Prince on Broadway in 1971. Since then, it has received a legendary star-filled concert at Lincoln Center in 1985, a Roundabout revival on Broadway directed by Matthew Warchus in 2001, and numerous regional mountings, including a Paper Mill Playhouse engagement that featured Donna McKechnie and the late Ann Miller. The classic Sondheim score also boasts such tunes as "I'm Still Here," "Broadway Baby," "Could I Leave You?," "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs" and "The Road You Didn't Take."
Casey Nicholaw received Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for his work on The Drowsy Chaperone as well as Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Choreography for Spamalot. He also choreographed the City Center Encores! production of Bye Bye Birdie and the New York Philharmonic staging of Candide as well as the Carnegie Hall presentation of South Pacific.
* A full-scale restoration of Face the Music, the 1932 Irving Berlin-Moss Hart musical, will follow Follies, playing March 29-April 1 at City Center. Originally directed by George S. Kaufman, Face the Music concerns "a desperate producer in New York trying to raise the money for his latest revue, Rhinestones of '32." The musical features such Berlin tunes as "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee" and "Soft Lights and Sweet Music." Rob Fisher will be the musical director for the second Encores! offering.
The season will conclude with Stairway to Paradise, an original revue created specially for the Encores! series. Playing May 10-14, the production, according to press notes, will be "a celebration of the very best material from a half century of Broadway revues, and will include numbers and sketches from Florenz Ziegfeld's shows and other legendary musicals and revues of the era." Paul Gemignani will be the musical director for this production as well.
Tickets for the upcoming season are available by visiting the New York City Center box office, which is located on West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues; by calling (212) 581-1212; or by logging on to www.nycitycenter.org. Tickets are priced $25, $50, $90 and $95.
