McGrath is on the comic sidelines of a conceptual cocktail party populated by a jaded couple (Tony nominee Groener and Murray) and a younger, friskier pair (Scalera and Callaway).
The production, featuring hits and lesser-known treasures by Tony Award winner Sondheim (Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd), launches the SCR 2009-10 season and plays to Oct. 11 on the Segerstrom Stage in Costa Mesa, CA.
Nick DeGruccio directs and Dennis Castellano is musical director of Putting It Together.
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The show was devised by Stephen Sondheim and Julia McKenzie, and was first seen Off-Broadway and then (in a separately produced version) on Broadway. In the show, according to SCR, "a glamorous but slightly jaded couple, a starry-eyed younger couple and a savvy observer…sing more than 30 songs that reflect their lives, lifestyles and moods of the moment. Some of the songs will be familiar, some less so, a few were even cut from their original musical scores, but they are all sophisticated, smart and drop-dead droll. All, in other words, Sondheim."
The creative team for Putting It Together is composed of Thomas Buderwitz (set design), Soojin Lee (costume design), Steven Young (lighting design), Drew Dalzell (sound design), Linda Sullivan Baity (dramaturg) and Jamie A. Tucker (stage manager).
Callaway played Raoul in the Broadway national tour of The Phantom of the Opera, Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance at the Guthrie Theater, and William in the Broadway-aimed musical The Girl Who Would Be King.
Groener, a three-time Tony Award nominee (Oklahoma!, Crazy for You, Cats) was last seen at SCR in 1996 as Bluntschli in George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man and in 1989 as George in Sunday in the Park With George.
McGrath appeared previously at SCR in the Pacific Playwrights Festival reading of Doctor Cerberus, the NewSCRipts reading of House to Half and the productions of Ridiculous Fraud and Raised in Captivity. He most recently appeared in Bell, Book and Candle at Bay Street Theatre Festival and Caroline in Jersey at Williamstown Theatre Festival. On Broadway he appeared in Cabaret (Emcee) and A Streetcar Named Desire.
Murray recently appeared as Mrs. Lovett in Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd at Sacramento Music Circus. Her Broadway credits include Into the Woods as the Baker's Wife, Little Me for which she received a Tony Award nomination (Best Lead Actress), Footloose, Coastal Disturbances, The Robber Bridegroom, Grease and Play Me a Country Song. Off-Broadway, Murray was in the original casts of A My Name is Alice, The Knife and The Spitfire Grill.
Scalera, a native of Connecticut, began her career at age five, starring in national commercials and regional theatre. She made her Broadway debut at age 12 in Neil Simon's Jake's Women. Shortly after, she performed Off-Broadway in Richard Greenberg's Vanishing Act, at Long Wharf Theatre in Our Town with Hal Holbrook. She toured the country as the rebellious preacher's daughter, Ariel, in the Broadway musical Footloose. She was also an original company member of We Will Rock You at the Paris, Las Vegas. Her Broadway credits include Tarzan and Hairspray.
Tickets to Putting It Together may be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the SCR box office.
