Music in the Air: Marni Nixon replaces Sally Ann Howes in Encores! production

Marni Nixon has joined the cast of Kern and Hammerstein�s Music in the Air, the second Encores! production of New York City Center�s 2008-09 season, running from 5 - 8 Feb 2009.

Nixon replaces the previously announced Sally Ann Howes. Howes is no longer available due to illness.

Nixon's career includes opera, chamber and symphony, oratorio soloist and Grammy nominated recordings both popular and classical. Her awards include four Emmys for Best Actress on her children's TV show 'Boomerang' and two Gold records for 'Songs for Mary Poppin's and 'Mulan' (voice of Grandma Fa) and two Classical Grammy nominations.

Nixon�s Broadway credits are 'The Girl in Pink Tights' (1954), 'James Joyce's The Dead' (Aunt Kate Morkan: 2000), 'Follies' (Heidi Schiller - replacement: 2001 revival) and 'Nine' (Guido's Mother - replacement: 2003). Nixon is the singing voice of Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn in the films and soundtracks of 'The King and I,' 'An Affair to Remember,' 'West Side Story' and 'My Fair Lady.'

This is Music in the Air's second cast change, Tony Award-winning actress Kristin Chenoweth recently replaced the previously announced Marin Mazzie, who left the cast following the death of her father.

Music in the Air, a rarely seen 1932 musical, will be directed by Gary Griffin with music direction by Rob Berman and choreography by Michael Lichtefeld. The production runs for five performances at NY City Center.

Nixon, joins the previously announced Kristin Chenoweth, Douglas Sills, Dick Latessa, Tom Alan Robbins, Sierra Boggess, Walter Charles and Anne L. Nathan.

Music in the Air, with music by Jerome Kern, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett, has been restored by the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization and not been seen in New York in its original form since its premiere Broadway engagement at the Alvin Theatre in 1932. Opening on 8 Nov of that year, it played for 342 performances in a production directed by the authors. A revised version had a brief revival at the Ziegfeld Theatre in 1951.

Music in the Air is a musical romance, with the wit and elegance of an Ernst Lubitsch film. It�s the story of a Bavarian music teacher (Robbins), his beautiful young daughter (Boggess), and the daughter�s suitor, who travel to the big, bad city of Munich where they encounter a cast of self-involved, egotistical theater folk who promise them fame, fortune and romance.

Kristin Chenoweth and Douglas Sills play a Diva (Chenoweth) and an operetta librettist (Sills) who take the young couple under their wings (and claws). Songs include �I�ve Told Ev�ry Little Star� and �The Song Is You.�

For tickets and further information click here.