Kelli O'Hara to Star in Light in the Piazza at Lincoln Center
Broadway.com has learned that
O'Hara, who is currently playing 19th century debutante Lucy Westenra in Dracula, The Musical, appeared in the pre-Broadway productions of The Light in the Piazza in the smaller role of bitter Italian wife Franca. Celia Keenan-Bolger, who will star off-Broadway this spring in The 25th Annual Putnam County Bee, portrayed Clara Johnson in those mountings. Before Dracula, O'Hara appeared on the Great White Way in Jekyll & Hyde, Follies and Sweet Smell of Success, in which she played the young female lead, Susan. Her other credits include Jekyll & Hyde on tour and My Life With Albertine at Playwrights Horizons.
Based on the 1960 novel by Elizabeth Spencer, The Light in the Piazza unfolds in Florence and Rome in the summer of 1953. Margaret Johnson, the wife of a successful American businessman, is traveling abroad with her daughter Clara, a beautiful young woman who is not all that she seems. Clara's chance encounter with a young Italian develops into a passionate love affair that Margaret opposes for reasons only she understands. Victoria Clark played Margaret Johnson in all previous productions and will reprise her role on Broadway.
The Light in the Piazza, directed by Bartlett Sher, is scheduled to begin performances at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre on March 17 in preparation for an April 18 opening.
