Transport Group has added a few more "Beautiful Girls" (and guys) to the star-studded lineup for its upcoming concert performance of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's Follies. The concert, which sold out the day tickets went on sale last month, is set to play Carnegie Hall June 20, a one-night-only benefit for the Off-Broadway company.
Newly joining the company are Kate Baldwin, Lauren Blackman, Julianna Brown, Jessica Chambers, Mamie Duncan-Gibbs, Hannah Elless, Ruth Gottschall, Christian Mark Gibbs, Candice Katakeyama, JoAnn M. Hunter, Marc Kudisch, Beth Leavel, Alicia Lundgren, Abby Matsusaka, Dana Moore, Erin N. Moore, Michele Pawk, and Margo Sappington.
The previously announced cast includes Julie Benko, Mikaela Bennett, Michael Berresse, Alexandra Billings, Klea Blackhurst, Harolyn Blackwell, Stephen Bogardus, Len Cariou, Carolee Carmello, Jim Caruso, Nikki Renée Daniels, Christine Ebersole, Katie Finneran, Santino Fontana, Alexander Gemignani, Miguel Gil, Olivia Elease Hardy, Grey Henson, Fernell Hogan, Jennifer Holliday, Isabel Keating, Adriane Lenox, Norm Lewis, Ryan McCartan, Thom Sesma, Barbara Walsh, Nina White, and Karen Ziemba. Casting is by Merri Sugarman.
Norbert Leo Butz, Erika Henningsen, Rachel Bay Jones, Donna Murphy, and Joseph Keith Watson will no longer perform as originally announced, due to scheduling conflicts.
Original cast member Kurt Peterson and theatre historian Ted Chapin (who served as a gofer on the original production as a college intern) will host the evening, which will feature Jonathan Tunick's original, 30-piece orchestrations and selections of Michael Bennett's original choreography, restaged by original company member Mary Jane Houdina. Hannah Oren is the evening's creative producer.
Set in a decaying theatre on the eve of its demolishing, Follies centers on a reunion of former follies girls who reunite to relive their past, and rehash old wounds and regrets. Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning score a mix of pastiche and complex, character-driven material features “I'm Still Here,” “Broadway Baby,” “Losing My Mind,” “The Right Girl,” and “Too Many Mornings.” The original production opened on Broadway in 1971, which was followed by revivals in 2001 and 2011. A major London revival at London's National Theatre was filmed and broadcast in movie theatres in 2017.
Part of Transport Group's Anne L. Bernstein Concert Series, the performance is being presented by special arrangement with Cameron Mackintosh. The London producer gave the musical its West End premiere in 1987, a production that made dramatic changes to Goldman's book and Sondheim's score. Those changes, which generally gave the work a more upbeat tone, have never again been authorized for use.
The concert is also being presented by special arrangement with Music Theatre International.
Previous presentations in Transport’s Anne L. Bernstein Concert Series include Nine; Rodgers & Hammerstein: A Broadway Celebration; Sweet Charity; Promises, Promises; Man of La Mancha; Baby; Once Upon a Mattress; The Music Man; Peter Pan; and A Man of No Importance.
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