Pal Joey: Stockard Channing, Christian Hoff and Martha Plimpton to star in Broadway revival

Stockard Channing, Christian Hoff and Martha Plimpton are to star in the Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway revival of Pal Joey, with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart.

Stockard Channing (Vera Simpson) won a Tony Award for her performance in Roundabout Theatre Company�s 1985 revival of 'Joe Egg,' and also received Tony nominations for her performances in 'The House of Blue Leaves' (1986), 'Six Degrees of Separation' (1990), 'Four Baboons Adoring the Sun' (1992) and Roundabout Theatre Company�s 'The Lion in Winter' (1999).

Christian Hoff (Joey Evans) won a 2006 Tony Award for his charismatic portrayal of 'Tommy DeVito' in the musical Jersey Boys. He was also an original cast member of 'The Who�s Tommy' (1993.)

Martha Plimpton is a two-time Tony Award nominee for her recent performances in Top Girls & The Coast of Utopia (2006). Off Broadway she won an Obie Award for her performance as 'Maggie Hobson' in the Atlantic Theater's production of 'Hobson's Choice' (2002).

Additional cast members will be announced shortly.

Pal Joey will feature a new book by Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out ), based on the original book by John O�Hara, with music direction by Tony Award winner Paul Gemignani (Lifetime Achievement Award), choreography by Graciela Daniele and directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Assassins, Take Me Out.)

The revival, presented by the Roundabout Theatre Company in association with Marc Platt, will open at Studio 54 on 11 Dec 2008, following reviews from 14 Nov 2008 (not 21 Nov 2008 as originally announced), for a limited engagement.

Set in Chicago in the late 1930s, Pal Joey is the story of Joey Evans, a brash, scheming song and dance man with dreams of owning his own nightclub. Joey abandons his wholesome girlfriend Linda English, to charm a rich, married older woman, Vera Simpson, in the hope that she�ll set him up in business.

The design team features two-time Tony Award winner Scott Pask (sets), five-time Tony Award winner William Ivey Long (costumes), two-time Tony Award winner Peggy Eisenhauer and eight-time Tony Award winner Jules Fisher (lights) and Tony Meola (sound).

The Rodgers & Hart score for Pal Joey includes �Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,� �I Could Write a Book,� �You Mustn�t Kick It Around,� and �Zip,� among others.

The new production of The Rodgers & Hart score for Pal Joey will also feature �I�m Talking to My Pal,� a song that had been dropped from the score during its out-of-town tryout, and will be heard on Broadway for the first time.

In 1939, author John O�Hara approached Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart to collaborate on a musical adaptation of his popular Pal Joey stories that had originally run in The New Yorker. The musical premiered on Broadway on 25 Dec 1940, in a production directed and produced by George Abbott, and starring Gene Kelly and Vivienne Segal.

While considered a success in 1940, a smash hit 1952 Broadway revival revealed the show as a true landmark Broadway musical, breaking new ground in subject matter, and featuring a score by Rodgers & Hart in their penultimate collaboration. The 1952 production of Pal Joey won 3 Tony Awards including Best Choreography and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical.

A film of the musical was made in 1957, starring Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth, and Kim Novak. Bob Fosse received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in the 1963 production and the 1976 production at Circle in the Square starred Dixie Carter.

The most recent production of Pal Joey was featured in the second season of Encores! at New York City Center in a 1995 concert version starring Patti LuPone and Peter Gallagher.