Cast announced for Encores! Big River at City Center

Casting has been announced for the first show in the The New York City Center 2017 Encores! Season Big River which will run from 8 to 12 February 2017 at the City Center's Mainstage.

The production will star Nicholas Barasch, Patrice Covington, Andrew Cristi, Wayne Duvall, Mike Evariste, Charlie Franklin, Annie Golden, Katherine A. Guy, Megan Masako Haley, Adrianna Hicks, Zachary Infante, Gizel Jimenez, Andrew Kruep, John-Michael Lyles, Cass Morgan, Tome Nelis, Tom Alan Robbins, Horace V. Rogers, Kyle Scatliffe, Tony Sheldon, Christopher Sieber, and Lauren Worsham.

Featuring music and lyrics by Roger Miller and a book by William Hauptman adapted from the novel by Mark Twain, this new semi-staged production will feature The Encores! Orchestra, choreography by Josh Rhodes, music direction by Rob Berman and direction by Lear deBessonet.

Based at the New York City Center under the artistic directorship of Jack Viertel, all the Encores! productions feature musical direction by Rob Berman.

A thoroughly original retelling of Twain's historic tale of friendship, freedom, and the untamed Mississippi, Big River follows Huckleberry Finn (Nicholas Barasch) as he escapes down the river and encounters Jim (Kyle Scatliffe), a runaway slave, and the notorious pair known as the Duke (Christopher Sieber) and the King (Tony Sheldon).

"A musical underdog as scrappy and restless as Huckleberry Finn himself, the show was created in the age of British spectacles by a quintessentially American artist—the beloved country-western singer Roger Miller—and his score is a blend of bluegrass, gospel, and honky tonk. Just over 30 years later, this musical remains a compelling journey through 1840s America in all its beauty and savagery."

Casting for further shows in the Encores! series is yet to be announced.

- by Dom O'Hanlon

Originally published on

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