Brent Carver, the Tony Award-winning star of the serious-minded Broadway musicals Kiss of the Spider Woman and Parade, will play the title character in a Nov. 15-25 Canadian workshop of new musical, Larry's Party, based on the novel by Carol Shields.

Book and lyrics are by Richard Ouzounian, with a score by Marek Norman, who both collaborated on the Stratford Festival's popular 1999 staging of the musical, Dracula. They also wrote the hit musical adaptation of "Emily of New Moon," called Emily, staged in 1999 at the Charlottetown Theatre Festival on Prince Edward Island.

Canadian Stage commissioned the workshop and reading of Larry's Party. Ouzounian will direct. Carver plays a 50-year-old designer of garden mazes who looks back on his past 25 years and throws a party for the people in his life.

Ouzounian told Playbill On-Line the show's score reflects the musical styles of the decades Larry passes through.

The private workshop cast includes Barbara Barsky, Elizabeth Beeler, Benedict Campbell, David Keeley, Monique Lund, Judy Marshak, Mike Nadajewski and Paula Wolfson. There is talk Carver may return to his Canadian artistic home, the Stratford Festival, where he performed prior to his gigs on Broadway.

-- By Kenneth Jones