Elena Shaddow, George Hearn and James Snyder to Star in Fanny at Encores!

Elena Shaddow will play the title role in the upcoming Encores! presentation of Fanny, joined by Tony Award winner George Hearn as Cesar and James Snyder as Marius. The musical will run February 4-7 at New York City Center, directed by Marc Bruni, with choreography by Lorin Latarro and music direction by Rob Berman.

In addition to the three stars, the cast of Fanny will include Tony winner Rondi Reed (August: Osage County, Wicked) as Honorine, Fred Applegate (The Producers, Young Frankenstein) as Panisse, David Patrick Kelly (Twelfth Night) as the Admiral, Michael McCormick (Curtains, The Pajama Game) as Escartifique and Ted Sutherland as Cesario.

Fanny is based on Marcel Pagnol’s trilogy Marius, Fanny and Cesar. Set in Marseille, it tells of a young girl’s passion for a young man so in love with the sea that he leaves her, little realizing that she is pregnant with his child. Her marriage of convenience to a wealthy older man desperate to have an heir is complicated by the sailor’s return years later.

The original Broadway production of Fanny opened on November 4, 1954, at the Majestic Theater and ran for 888 performances, starring Florence Henderson, Ezio Pinza and Walter Slezak, who won a Best Actor Tony Award. The show features a book by Joshua Logan and S.N. Behrman and a score by Harold Rome, which includes the title song, “Restless Heart,” “Never Too Late for Love” and “Be Kind to Your Parents.”

Shaddow appeared on Broadway in The Woman in White, Fiddler on the Roof, Nine, Sweet Smell of Success and as Cosette in Les Misérables. She played Magnolia in Show Boat in London and was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for her performance as Clara in the national tour of The Light in the Piazza.

Hearn won Tony Awards for Sunset Boulevard and La Cage aux Folles and received nominations for Putting It Together, A Doll’s Life and Watch on the Rhine. He also appeared on Broadway in Wicked, The Diary of Anne Frank, Meet Me in St. Louis, I Remember Mama, A Time for Singing, An Almost Perfect Person, The Changing Room and Ah, Wilderness!

Snyder made his Broadway debut as the title role in Cry-Baby and has appeared at the Kennedy Center in Broadway: Three Generations and in the Los Angeles productions of Rock of Ages and Happy Days.