On the Stage

Sweeney Todd is back on Broadway! Does theatre life get any better than this? It's one of my all-time favorite shows AND...AND...AND! Michael Cerveris is going to be playing Sweeney Todd himself! MY GOD! I can't wait to hear that (not that I have any way to hear it...*clears throat*).

Michael Cerveris is a musical theatre god! He has SUCH a powerful voice (hear him in Titanic or Assassins and you will know) and his acting is spot on and so convincing. Phew! Can't wait!

Patti LuPone is playing Mrs. Lovett -- eh, so what. She's good, but she played in in the recent show they did for PBS that aired and came out on DVD (I have it if someone wants to see it). She's good, of course, but eh...someone new please. She played opposite Geroge Hearn, the second and by all account original Sweeney Todd. He is perfection in Sweeney, but I can't wait to hear Michael!

Also of excitement in the cast is Alexander Gemignani who will be playing The Beadle, a part I love. He was John Hinckley in the revival of Assassins as well, loved him in that!

Some other Sweeney's of note: (there's way more than this, but these I remember)
Len Cariou
George Hearn
Timothy Nolen
Mark Delevan
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Kelsey Grammer

Here it is in all it's glory folks:



with article:

Tom Viertel, Steven Baruch, Marc Routh, Richard Frankel, and the Ambassador Theatre Group, Adam Kenwright & Tulchin/Bartner/Bagert Productions announce that Tony Award winners Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris lead a ten member cast in the upcoming Broadway production of SWEENEY TODD, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

SWEENEY TODD has music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler from an adaptation by Christopher Bond. The production is directed and designed by John Doyle, with music supervision and orchestrations by Sarah Travis. SWEENEY TODD opens at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on Thursday, November 3 following preview performances from Monday, October 3.

Rounding out the ten member cast are: John Arbo (Jonas Fogg), Donna Lynne Champlin (Pirelli), Diana DiMarzio (Beggar Woman), Manoel Felciano (Tobias Ragg), Alexander Gemignani (The Beadle), Mark Jacoby (Judge Turpin), Benjamin Magnuson (Anthony Hope), Lauren Molina (Johanna).

This production of SWEENEY TODD arrives on Broadway from a highly successful London engagement originally staged by the Watermill Theatre, which transferred first to the Trafalgar Studios in London in July 2004 to wide critical acclaim, then into the West End where it ran for a limited engagement closing on February 5, 2005.

This production, which marks the first time SWEENEY TODD has been seen on Broadway in over 16 years, is innovatively staged with 10 talented actor/musicians. "Never has Sondheim's miraculous music theatre been presented more inventively than here," said the London Sunday Times.

SWEENEY TODD is based on the 19th century legend of a London barber, who is driven to crime when a malevolent judge takes his wife and child from him. His plan for revenge includes a cutthroat partnership with Mrs. Lovett, an enterprising businesswomen, who is soon producing the tastiest meat pies in London.

Tickets are available to holders of an American Express card beginning August 21 by calling Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200. The pre-sale will end on September 4, the day that tickets go on sale to the general public. The ticket range is $100-$35. The performance schedule during previews is: Monday - Saturday at 8pm, Wednesday & Saturday at 2pm. The performance schedule starting the week of November 7 is: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday - Saturday at 8pm, Wednesday & Saturday at 2pm and Sunday at 2pm. Please note that there is no performance on Friday, November 4 and that a performance has been added on Sunday, November 6 at 2pm.

Biographies

MICHAEL CERVERIS (Sweeney Todd) Broadway: Assassins (Tony Award), The Who's Tommy (Tony Award nomination, Theatre World Award, Grammy for Original Cast Album), Titanic: The Musical. London West End: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (also Off-Broadway and Los Angeles, Garland Award). Off-Broadway: Wintertime (2nd Stage and McCarter), Fifth of July (Signature), Total Eclipse (West Side Arts), Abingdon Square (premiere), The Games with Meredith Monk and Ping Chong (BAM). Duncan Sheik's Spring Awakening and Sondheim's Passion for Live from Lincoln Center on PBS. Regional: Romeo (Goodman, Old Globe), Puck (Dallas Theater Center), Crow in Tooth of Crime (Hartford Stage), Richard II (Mark Taper), Measure for Measure (Old Globe), Much Ado About Nothing (La Jolla), Eastern Standard (premiere, Seattle Rep.), Passion (Kennedy Center and Ravinia Festival), A Little Night Music (Joseph Jefferson Award nomination). Film: The Mexican, Paul Auster's Lulu on the Bridge. Television: regular on "Fame" and "The American Embassy," guest star on various series. Cerveris toured the US & UK as guitarist with punk icon Bob Mould and has released his indierock debut album Dog Eared on Low Heat Records.

PATTI LuPONE (Mrs. Lovett) has appeared in all four productions of the Ravinia Festival's celebration of the works of Stephen Sondheim. She starred as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (which she also performed with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and on the Emmy Award-winning PBS Great Performances telecast), Desiree in A Little Night Music, Fosca opposite Michael Cerveris in Passion, which she also performed at Lincoln Center Theater's American Songbook Series (and for Great Performances on PBS which just received an Emmy Award nomination) as well as in last summer's Sunday in the Park with George, also with Michael Cerveris. In August she will return for her fifth summer to once again star opposite Mr. Cerveris in Anyone Can Whistle. Earlier this year, she starred in the title role in Marc Blitzstein's Regina, a musical adaptation of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes at the Kennedy Center and returned to Carnegie Hall to perform her third solo concert, The Lady with the Torch. This season Clear Channel Entertainment has presented a tour of her theatrical concert, Matters of the Heart. A Graduate of The Juilliard School and a Tony Award-winner for her performance in Evita, she has most recently been seen on New York stages in the New York Philharmonic's concert production of Leonard Bernstein's Candide (also broadcast on PBS's Great Performance and just received an Emmy Award nomination), Cole Porter's Can-Can for City Center Encores!, and the Broadway productions of Michael Frayn's Noises Off, David Mamet's The Old Neighborhood, Terrence McNally's Master Class, and her own concert, Patti LuPone on Broadway. Best known to television audiences from the ABC series "Life Goes On," her more recent television appearances include "Will & Grace," a featured role on HBO's "OZ," the TNT film "Monday Night Mayhem," "Law & Order" and her Emmy nominated performance on "Frasier." Her film credits include City by the Sea, David Mamet's Heist and State and Main, Just Looking, Summer of Sam, The 24 Hour Woman, Family Prayers, Driving Miss Daisy, and Witness.

JOHN ARBO (Jonas Fogg) was a voice major at Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Metropolitan Opera tenor Gabor Carelli. He toured and recorded for 7 years as the baritone with the New York Vocal Arts Ensemble - a classical vocal quartet - including appearances at the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall and other important venues in Europe and the Americas. He has been the bassist for Les Paul, Woody Herman, Liza Minnelli and presently Tony Danza, and has had the bass chair at several B'way shows including Cyrano, Miss Saigon, 42nd St., and Good Vibrations.

DONNA LYNNE CHAMPLIN (Pirelli). Broadway: Hollywood Arms, James Joyce's The Dead (Mary Jane), By Jeeves (Honoria), Encores! Bloomer Girl (Daisy). Off-Broadway: May in Carnegie Hall's Very Warm for May (John McGlinn conducting), Harold and Maude (Papermill), Reunion, Stars in Your Eyes, First Lady Suite, My Life With Albertine. National tours: Jolson (Ruby Keeler). CD recordings include 3hree, By Jeeves, Reunion, Our Heart Sings. Training: Carnegie Mellon University (BFA), Oxford University (Shakespeare/Chekhov scholarship). For more information, please visit www.donnalynnechamplin.com.

DIANA DiMARZIO (Beggar Woman) plays the clarinet and performs in concerts around the country. On her 2001 self-titled CD she sings Sondheim's "There Won't Be Trumpets" from Anyone Can Whistle. She was awarded a grant by the National Italian American Foundation to produce her concert entitled Music of the Italian Cinema, which she debuted at Symphony Space in October of 2004. Her theatrical credits include Side By Side By Sondheim, Evita, Showboat, Desert Song, A Christmas Carol and a national tour of Man of La Mancha, in which she was featured as Aldonza opposite Jack Jones and Ron Holgate. She also has opera experience, appearing in a European touring production of Carmen, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and A Hand of Bridge.

MANOEL FELCIANO (Tobias Ragg) recently appeared Off Broadway in Shockheaded Peter. Broadway: Brooklyn, the Musical; Cabaret; Jesus Christ Superstar. NY credits: NYSF production of Much Ado About Nothing. National tour: Whistle Down the Wind, Saturday Night Fever. B.A., Yale; M.F.A., NYU Graduate Acting.

ALEXANDER GEMIGNANI (The Beadle). Broadway: John Hinckley in Roundabout's Tony-winning production of Assassins (2004 Theatre World Award). Off-Broadway: Brian in Avenue Q (Vineyard Theatre) Sorry, Wrong Number (Drama League). Recipient of the Best Performer Award for The Trapped Family Singers (2003 NY Fringe Festival). Regional: Bandleader and understudy for John C. Reilly in Marty (Huntington Theatre). NY readings/workshops: The Frogs, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Roundabout), Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro and Obediently Yours, Orson Welles (Manhattan Ensemble Theater). Upcoming film and TV: The Producers and PBS's "Live From Lincoln Center" concert of Stephen Sondheim's Passion. Alexander holds a B.F.A. in music theatre from the University of Michigan

MARK JACOBY (Judge Turpin). Broadway: Man of La Mancha; Ragtime; Showboat (Tony, Outer Critics and Joseph Jefferson Award nominations); The Phantom of the Opera; Grand Hotel; Sweet Charity (Theatre World Award). Off-Broadway: Enter the Guardsmen (Drama Desk nomination). National tour: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Regional: The Visit (Goodman Theatre, world premiere); Camelot (St. Louis MUNY); Nine (Chicago premiere, Joseph Jefferson Award); On the Twentieth Century (Goodspeed Opera House, Connecticut Drama Critics Award); Robert and Elizabeth (Paper Mill Playhouse inaugural production).

BENJAMIN MAGNUSON (Anthony Hope), a trained cellist, received a BFA in Musical Theater in the spring of '05 from the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. At the school, he has played Joe Josephson in Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, Frank Drecker in Working, the Chairman in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Judge Pitkin in On The Town and Dr. Jafar Barensteiner in A New Brain. His other theatrical credits include mountings of The Fantasticks, My Fair Lady, Barnum, Peter Pan, Children of Eden and River of Freedom.

LAUREN MOLINA (Johanna). New York stage credits include the York Theatre Company's Musicals in Mufti presentation of Henry, Sweet Henry and Meet Me in St. Louis at the 45th Street Theatre. Other theatrical credits include Fiddler on the Roof, Marvin's Room, Man of La Mancha, Once Upon a Mattress, Patience and Saving Anne (in which she played the title character of Anne Frank). She studied musical theatre at the University of Michigan.