Schramm (The Beard of Avon, La Terrasse) — who was to play Johann Christoph Graupner in the work — leaves the show due to a scheduling conflict, according to a production spokesperson.
Weems (The Green Bird, Cymbeline) joins Broadway stage veterans Boyd Gaines, Richard Easton and Jeffrey Carlson in the ensemble. Pam MacKinnon directs the New York run of the work to begin previews Oct. 28 and open Nov. 14 at the downtown stage for a run through Dec. 18.
Moses pens this farce set in 1722's Germany which finds six organists pitted against their title contemporary and each other to get the best gig in town: organmaster at Leipzig. The musicians handle the keys as easily as their manipulations in the work inspired by actual events.
Bach at Leipzig made its premieres at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater last season. Faber & Faber will publish the work Oct. 25, with a preface by scribe Tom Stoppard, to coincide with the NYTW production.
The starry cast now features Jeffrey Carlson (Manuscript, Taboo) as Johann Martin Steindorf, Richard Easton (The Rivals, Noises Off) as Georg Friedrich Kaufmann, Michael Emerson (Hedda Gabler, Gross Indecency) as Georg Balthasar Schott, Boyd Gaines (Twelve Angry Men, Contact) as Johann Friedrich Fasch, Reg Rogers (Miss Julie, The Dazzle) as Georg Lenck and Andrew Weems (The Green Bird, Cymbeline) as Johann Christoph Graupner. The design team includes David Zinn (scenic), Mathew J. LeFebvre (costumes), David Lander (lighting) and John Gromada (sound). C.A. Clark serves as production stage management.
Playwright Moses has also authored the plays Outrage, Celebrity Row, The Four of Us and is currently at work on commissions for Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Wilma Theater and Manhattan Theatre Club.
Director MacKinnon staged the world premiere of Edward Albee's Peter and Jerry: Homelife and The Zoo Story at Hartford Stage and has directed his The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? (at the Alley Theatre and Vienna's English Theatre), The Play About the Baby (Goodman Theatre and Philadelphia Theater Company). She has previously directed workshops of Bach at Leipzig at New York Stage and Film as well as New York Theatre Workshop and a workshop of Moses' The Four of Us at San Francisco's A.C.T.
Tickets to Bach at Leipzig at New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, (between Second Avenue and Bowery), can be purchased, starting Oct. 1, by calling (212) 239-6200. For more information, visit www.nytw.org.
