Boyd Gaines & Tiler Peck to Join Rebecca Luker in World Premiere of Little Dancer at the Kennedy Center

Shall we dance? Four-time Tony winner Boyd Gaines and New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck will join previously announced Cinderella star Rebecca Luker in the world premiere of Little Dancer at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Directed and choreographed by Tony winner Susan Stroman (Big Fish), the new musical by Tony-winning songwriting team Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime) will begin performances October 2014 at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. Exact dates and additional casting will be announced shortly.

The production stars Peck as Young Marie von Goethem, Gaines as Edgar Degas, and Luker as Adult Marie von Goethem. Part fact, part fiction, and set in the harsh backstage world of the Paris Opera Ballet, Little Dancer is inspired by the young ballerina who posed for Edgar Degas and became, inadvertently, the most famous dancer in the world. Torn by her family’s poverty, her debt to the artist and the lure of wealthy men, Marie struggles to keep her place in the ballet corps—a girl on the verge of womanhood, caught between the conflicting demands of life and art.

Gaines won Tony Awards for Gypsy, Contact, She Loves Me and The Heidi Chronicles. His additional Broadway credits include An Enemy of the People, The Columnist, Driving Miss Daisy, Pygmalion, Journey’s End, Twelve Angry Men, Cabaret, Company and The Show Off.  Peck made her Broadway debut as Gracie Shinn in The Music Man. She played Clara in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and appeared in the New York Philharmonic’s Live From Lincoln Center production of Carousel. Her film credits include A Time For Dancing, Geppetto, Donnie Darko, Catfish and Black Swan.

The Little Dancer creative team includes set design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by William Ivey Long, lighting design by Ken Billington, sound design by Kai Harada and music supervision by David Loud.