Lead cast announced for Bandstand on Broadway
The producers of Bandstand have announced leading casting for the production which begins previews at Broadway's Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on 31 March 2017 with an official opening on 26 April 2017.
Tony Award winner Beth Leavel, Joe Carroll, Brandon James Ellis, James Nathan Hopkins, Geoff Packard and Joey Pero will join previously announced stars Laura Osnes and Corey Cott.
Directed and choreographed by Tony winner Andy Blankenbuehler, the production transfers to Broadway following a run at the Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey.
Bandstand features music by Richard Oberacker, with a book and lyrics by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker.
Set in the smoke filled, swing fuelled night clubs of 1945, Bandstand brings the against-all-odds story of singer/songwriter Donny Novitski (Cott) and his band of mismatched fellow WWII veterans to the stage.
When a national radio contest to find America's next big swing band offers a chance at instant fame and Hollywood fortune, Donny must whip his wise-cracking gang of jazzers (Carroll, Ellis, Hopkins, Packard, Pero) into fighting shape. Teaming up with the beautiful young war widow Julia (Osnes) as their singer, they struggle to confront the lingering effects and secrets of the battlefield that threaten to tear them apart.
Playing for every voiceless underdog in a world that has left them behind, they risk everything in the final live broadcast to redefine the meaning of victory. With an explosive original score and choreography inspired by the high energy swing rhythms of the era, Bandstand is a truly American story of love, loss, triumph and the everyday men and women whose personal bravery defined a nation.
Beth Leavel (Mrs. Adams) received Tony, Drama Desk, New York Outer Critics Circle and LA Drama Critics Awards for her performance as the title character in The Drowsy Chaperone. Beth also received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle nominations for her role as Florence Greenberg in Baby, It's You.
Bandstand is produced on Broadway by Tom Smedes, Gabrielle Palitz, Terry Schnuck, Tom Kirdahy and Roger Horchow.
Additional casting and creative team information will be announced at a later date.
Tickets for the production are now on sale.
Originally published on