Brian d'Arcy James and Anika Noni Rose Join Mayer's Revamped On a Clear Day at Vassar

Brian d’Arcy James and Anika Noni Rose will headline the previously announced reimagining of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, set for a workshop premiere at New York Stage and Film’s summer series at Vassar College’s Powerhouse Theatre, according to The New York Times. Helmed by American Idiot’s Michael Mayer, the concert production features a score by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe and a new book by Peter Parnell. The workshop runs July 29 through August 1.

The cast will also feature David Turner (Sunday in the Park with George), Kerry O’Malley (White Christmas), Colin Hanlon (Rent) and Sarah Stiles (Avenue Q).

In an interview with the Times, Mayer discussed significant changes to the musical's storyline, which follows the romantic entanglements of Daisy Gamble, a woman who discovers a past life as an 18th century woman named Melinda Welles when she is put under hypnosis by psychiatrist Dr. Mark Bruckner. The plot twists when Dr. Bruckner falls for the elusive Melinda, while Daisy falls for the good doctor. “I don’t want to overexplain it,” Mayer told The New York Times. “By playing a little bit with gender, I thought I could make a different kind of love triangle at the center of it. That’s the goal.”

The original production, which played 280 performances when it opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in 1965, starred Barbara Harris and John Cullum. A subsequent film adaptation in 1970, directed by Vincente Minnelli, starred Barbra Streisand and Yves Montand. Elements from both the stage and film versions will be worked into the New York Stage & Film workshop.

James is currently starring in Broadway’s Next to Normal. He appeared this season in Time Stands Still, and has received Tony Award nominations for Shrek the Musical and Sweet Smell of Success. Additional Broadway credits include The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Apple Tree, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Titanic, Carousel and Blood Brothers.

Rose’s Broadway credits include Caroline, or Change, which earned her a Tony Award, as well as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Footloose. She is best known for her recent big screen appearances in Dreamgirls and as the voice of the title character in Disney’s animated hit The Princess and the Frog.