Nicholas Barasch & Kyle Scatliffe Will Star in Big River at City Center Encores!

Broadway alums Nicholas Barasch and Kyle Scatliffe will lead the cast of Big River at New York City Center Encores! as Huckleberry Finn and Jim, respectively. The Roger Miller and William Hauptman musical, directed by Lear deBessonet, will run from February 8, 2017 through February 12.

Barasch last appeared on Broadway in She Loves Me, earning the Theatre World Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence for his performance as Arpad. His additional credits include The Mystery of Edwin Drood and West Side Story.

Scatliffe can currently be seen on Broadway as Harpo in The Color Purple through January 8. He made his Broadway debut as Enjolras in Les Misérables. He received an Olivier Award nomination in 2014 for The Scottsboro Boys.

The cast will also include Wayne Duvall (Bright Star) as Pap Finn, Charlie Franklin (The Book of Mormon) as Tom Sawyer, Tony Sheldon (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) as the King, Christopher Sieber (Matilda, Shrek) as the Duke and Lauren Worsham (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder) as Mary Jane Wilkes. Rounding out the company are Patrice Covington, Andrew Cristi, Mike Evariste, Charlie Franklin, Annie Golden, Katherine A. Guy, Megan Masako Haley, Adrianna Hicks, Zachary Infante, Gizel Jimenez, Andrew Kruep, John-Michael Lyles, Cass Morgan, Tome Nelis, Tom Alan Robbins and Horace V. Rogers.

Based on Mark Twain’s classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Big River premiered on Broadway in 1985 and went on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical later that year. The show uses a score infused with bluegrass and gospel to tell the story of Huckleberry Finn, who escapes down the Mississippi River and befriends Jim, a runaway slave.