Patina Miller, Chuck Cooper & Daniel Breaker Among Cast of Encores! Lost in the Stars

Casting has been announced for the forthcoming Encores! production of Lost in the Stars, which will be presented at New York City Center February 3-6. The show, featuring music by Kurt Weill and a book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson, will be directed by Gary Griffin, with choreography by Chase Brock and music direction by Rob Berman.

The cast will be led by Tony winner Chuck Cooper (Finian’s Rainbow, The Life) as Stephen Kumalo, Tony nominee Daniel Breaker (Shrek, Passing Strange) as Stephen Kumalo, Patina Miller (Olivier Award nominee for the Broadway-bound Sister Act) as Linda, Sharon Washington (The Scottsboro Boys) as Grace Kumalo, Daniel Gerroll (Plenty, Enchanted April) as James Jarvis, John Douglas Thompson (Othello, The Emperor Jones) as John Kumalo and Sherry Boone (Marie Christine, Ragtime) as Irena.

Also in the cast will be Kieran Campion, Quentin Earl Darrington, Clifton Duncan, Mark Eland, Jeremy Gumbs, Chike Johnson, Stephen Kunken, James Rebhorn and Ted Sutherland, with Adam Alexander, Andre Garner, Rosena Hill, Mary Illes, Amy Justman, Joy Lynn Matthews, Andrew McRae, Patricia Phillips, Devin Richards, Lindsay Roberts, Nathaniel Stampley, Eric Van Hoven, Kevin Vortmann, J.D. Webster and Jorell Williams.

Based on Alan Paton’s novel Cry, the Beloved Country, Lost in the Stars was billed as a “musical tragedy” when it opened on Broadway in 1949, playing 281 performances. The show provides an uncompromising social indictment of apartheid South Africa through the story of two aging men (one black, one white) brought together by a shared grief. Weill’s score includes operatic arias, chorales, blues, folk music, and pop tunes, and makes abundant use of the chorus (representing the blacks and whites of Johannesburg) to comment upon the action and propel the story forward.