Smith, English & Cavenaugh Join Princesses Cast

Rex Smith, Donna English and Matt Cavenaugh will join Jenny Fellner in the Goodspeed Musicals world premiere of the Broadway-bound musical Princesses. The show will run at the company's developmental space, the Norma Terris Theatre, from November 4 through November 28.

Ken Mandelbaum first mentioned Smith for the show on August 25. Smith won a Theatre World Award for his performance in The Pirates of Penzance and has also appeared on the Great White Way in The Human Comedy, Grand Hotel and The Scarlet Pimpernel. English, who appeared on Broadway in the play Broadway, has been seen at Goodspeed in They All Laughed!, On the Twentieth Century and On the Town. Cavenaugh, who is currently featured in the soap opera, One Life to Live, is best known for starring in the musical version of Urban Cowboy.

Princesses is conceived, directed and has lyrics by David Zippel, a book by Cheri and Bill Steinkellner, music by Matthew Wilder and choreography by Rob Ashford. The musical takes place in a girls boarding school, where hip teens hate music class, love shopping and have no interest in putting on a show. Enter America's hottest action hero Smith to direct the school play, a mounting of A Little Princess. All the girls are crazy for him, except for one--his daughter Fellner, who barely knows him. English will play a teacher and Cavenaugh will portray a Hollywood hunk.

The cast of the musical also includes Allyson Arena, Jennifer Arena, Sarah Jane Everman, Lindsey Mary Faber, Sarah Jayne Jensen, Camille Anne Letscher, Dena Lindsay Mendez, Melissa Menezes, Patti Murin, Marissa Perry, LaQuet Thompson, Lindsay Wilson and Ericka Yang.

Princesses is scheduled to play Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre from May 31 through June 19, 2005. It has then been rumored for a Broadway bow in late summer.