Ana Gasteyer, Wayne Knight, Marc Kudisch & More Set for Encores! Opener Girl Crazy
Ana Gasteyer, Wayne Knight and Marc Kudisch will headline Girl Crazy, the first production of Encores! 2009-2010 season at New York City Center. The show will run November 19-22, directed by Jerry Zaks, choreographed by Warren Carlyle and conducted by guest musical director Rob Fisher.
The cast will also feature Jeremy Beck, real-life husband and wife Chris Diamantopoulos (Les Miserables, TV’s The Starter Wife) and Becki Newton (TV’s Ugly Betty), Mylinda Hull (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), Richard Poe (Cry-Baby), Daniel Stewart Sherman (Desire Under the Elms) and Gregory Wooddell (Cymbeline).
Girl Crazy features music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin and a book by Guy Bolton and Jack McGowan. This fanciful Depression-era musical is the tale of a sophisticated New Yorker (Diamantopoulos) marooned in a dusty Western cow town with no one who understands him but the Yiddish-speaking cabbie (Knight) who brought him there and no one to love but the only woman (Newton) within 50 miles. The score includes such beloved songs as “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” “But Not for Me” and “Bidin’ My Time." Girl Crazy opened at the Alvin Theatre on October 14, 1930, and ran for 272 performances.
Gasteyer (Frisco Kate Fothergill) is currently starring in the Broadway revival of The Royal Family and has appeared on Broadway in Wicked, The Threepenny Opera and The Rocky Horror Show. Her off Broadway credits include Kimberly Akimbo, The Vagina Monologues and Cinderella at New York City Opera. She is best known for her long run on Saturday Night Live.
Knight (Gieber Goldfarb) has appeared on Broadway in Gemini, Mastergate, Art and Sweet Charity. He is best known for his recurring role as Newman in Seinfeld.
Kudisch (Slick Fothergill) received Tony nominations for 9 to 5, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and has appeared on Broadway in The Apple Tree, Assassins, Bells Are Ringing, The Wild Party and Beauty and the Beast. He played the Pirate King in New York City Opera’s The Pirates of Penzance and starred at Encores! in No Strings.
The Encores! production of Girl Crazy will feature sets by John Lee Beatty, costumes by William Ivey Long, lighting by Peter Kaczorowski and sound by Scott Lehrer.
