Christian Borle, Krysta Rodriguez and Ephraim Sykes to Star in Bye Bye Birdie at the Kennedy Center

Two-time Tony Award winner Christian Borle, Krysta Rodriguez and Tony nominee Ephraim Sykes will star as Albert, Rosie and Conrad Birdie, respectively, in the classic Charles Strouse-Michael Stewart musical Bye Bye Birdie at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Part of the Broadway Center Stage series, the show will play 11 performances only, from June 7 through June 15, in the Eisenhower Theater.

Borle won Tony Awards for his roles in Something Rotten! and Peter and the Starcatcher and was most recently seen in Some Like It Hot. A star of NBC’s Smash, Rodriguez’s Broadway credits include last season's productions of Into the Woods and The Collaboration, as well as Spring Awakening, The Addams Family and In the Heights. Sykes was nominated for a Tony Award for Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations. He also starred in Hamilton, Motown the Musical and Memphis.

Premiering on Broadway in 1960, Bye Bye Birdie won four Tony Awards and was the first Broadway success for Strouse and lyricist Lee Adams. Loosely inspired by Elvis Presley joining the army in 1957, it made a star out of Dick Van Dyke while cementing the star status of Chita Rivera, who had just starred in West Side Story. The musical follows teen idol Conrad Birdie who is drafted into the army, but before he leaves, he’ll perform a new song on The Ed Sullivan Show and give one last kiss to a lucky fan.

Marc Bruni will direct the Kennedy Center production, which will have choreography by Denis Jones. Bruni and Jones were behind Guys and Dolls at the Kennedy Center in 2022.