Steve Martin to Compose Music for Shakespeare in the Park’s As You Like It; Additional Casting Announced

Actor, comedian, author, screenwriter, playwright and banjo player Steve Martin will soon be an off-Broadway composer as well. According to the New York Times, Martin will compose original music for the upcoming Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of As You Like It, running at the Delacorte Theater from June 5 through 30. The classic comedy, directed by Daniel Sullivan, will be set in the American South of the 1840s, and a bluegrass band will play Martin’s music live on stage. Additional casting has also been announced for the production.

Martin himself an accomplished bluegrass musician. Rare Bird Alert, the latest album from his band Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album and features 13 Martin-penned tracks. His debut album The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo won Best Bluegrass Album in 2009. Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers were also named Entertainer of the Year at the 2011 International Bluegrass Association Awards.

As You Like It will star the previously announced Lily Rabe, who will lead the cast as Rosalind. She will be joined on stage by Macintyre Dixon as Adam, Renee Elise Goldsberry as Celia and Omar Metwally as Oliver.

Dixon has appeared on Broadway in Cyrano de Bergerac, Prelude to a Kiss, the 2003 revival of Gypsy, The Crucible, Getting and Spending and 1776, among others. He has been seen at The Public in The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Pericles, Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale, Much Ado About Nothing and Lotta.

Goldsberry has been seen on Broadway in Good People, The Color Purple, Rent and The Lion King, and at The Public in Love’s Labor’s Lost and Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Metwally has appeared on Broadway in Sixteen Wounded and off-Broadway in Beast on the Moon. He will be seen in the upcoming film The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.