Sally Murphy & Emily Skinner Join A Tree Grows in Brooklyn at Encores!

Sally Murphy and Emily Skinner will join Jason Danieley in the upcoming Encores! mounting of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, according to Variety. The production, directed by Gary Griffin, is scheduled to run from February 10 through February 13.

Murphy is currently appearing as Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof. She has previously appeared on Broadway in The Wild Party, The Grapes of Wrath and Carousel. Her off-Broadway credits include Brutal Imagination and A Man of No Importance. She is a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

Skinner recently appeared in the national tour of the Disney revue On the Record. She shared a Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award nomination with her Side Show co-star Alice Ripley in 1998. Her other Broadway credits include Jekyll and Hyde, James Joyce's The Dead, The Full Monty and Dinner at Eight. Skinner is an Encores! alum, having been featured in No Strings! and Pardon My English.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn tells the story of the Nolan clan, a Brooklyn working-class family at the turn of the century, comprised of Johnny Danieley, who finds relief in a bottle, his wife Katie Murphy, their daughter Francie, who idolizes her father, and Katie's audacious sister, Cissy Skinner. The show features music by Arthur Schwartz, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and a book by George Abbott and Betty Smith who wrote the novel on which the musical is based.

In other Encores! news, the series' original music director, Rob Fisher, will step down at the end of the 2005 season. His last show in the position will be The Apple Tree, running from May 12 through May 16. Fisher will remain on the Encores! advisory committee and may return to conduct some of the concerts in the future.