Fonda, Clark, Pasquale, Ebersole & More to Headline Grapes of Wrath Concert

Jane Fonda, Victoria Clark, Nathan Gunn, Steven Pasquale and Christine Ebersole are among the cast members set for a concert presentation of Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie’s opera version of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. The concert, organized by the Collegiate Chorale and featuring the American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ted Sperling, will be held at Carnegie Hall on March 22, 2010.

Tony winner Clark (The Light in the Piazza) and opera star Nathan Gunn will play Ma Joad and her son Tom, who leave Dust Bowl Oklahoma with their family in the mid-1930s to seek a better life in California. Fonda, who returned to Broadway last season in 33 Variations, will be the Narrator. (Her father, Henry Fonda, gave an iconic performance as Tom Joad in the 1940 feature film version of The Grapes of Wrath.)

Rounding out the cast are Pasquale (Al), Tony winner Ebersole (Mae/Waitress), Elizabeth Futral (Rosasharn), Anthony Dean Griffey (Jim Casy), Peter Halverson (Pa Joad), Stephen Powell (Uncle John), Andrew Wilkowske (Noah), Matthew Worth (Ragged Man/Connie Rivers/Truck Driver) and Madeline Gunn (Ruthie).

Gordon and Korie’s Grapes of Wrath was commissioned by the Minnesota Opera and co-produced with Utah Symphony & Opera. It premiered in February 2007 at St. Paul’s Ordway Center for the Performing Arts and went on to Salt Lake City’s Capitol Theatre in May 2007. Halverson, who will appear at Carnegie Hall, created the role of Pa Joad.