Danao, Gonzalez, Harriell, Narayan & Potts Eye Lennon
Danao served as a swing in Broadway's Rent and a pit singer for Saturday Night Fever. She also appeared in the national tours of Rent and Miss Saigon. Danao was most recently featured on the New York stage as part of The Karaoke Show.
Gonzalez is best known for playing Sarah in Dance of the Vampires and Amneris in Aida. She won an Obie Award for her performance in the off-Broadway tuner Eli's Comin'. Gonzalez also performed as a backup singer for Bette Midler on a North American concert tour.
Harriell starred in the Broadway production of Rent and national tours of Blood Brothers and West Side Story. Her off-Broadway credits include Outlaws, Jigsaw, Golden Boy, The Hotel Carter, Sorrows & Rejoicing and Little Fish. Harriell was also a series regular on the last season of Ed.
Narayan is currently starring as Akaash, the slum-dweller who becomes a Bollywood star, in Bombay Dreams which ends its Broadway run on January 1. He also appeared on the Gotham stage in I Am Mou, Bintou, Josephine's Song and Fucking A. His other theatrical credits include Indian Ink, Metamorphoses, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter's Tale, A Christmas Carol, Fame, Mame, Godspell and a national tour of Miss Saigon.
Potts' off-Broadway credits include The American Play, Overtime, Mud, River, Stone, Arms and the Man, Once Around the City, Twelfth Night, The Mysteries and the Encores! mounting of Golden Boy. His other theatrical credits include Romeo and Juliet, Love's Labour's Lost, Cup of Coffee, The Hostage, The Rivals, Othello, St. Joan of the Stockyards and The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World. Potts is also known for playing Brother Mouzone in the HBO series The Wire.
Written and directed by Don Scardino, Lennon will feature 10 actors, all portraying John Lennon at different points in his life. Approximately 30 of Lennon's songs will be featured in the musical including "Imagine," "Instant Karma," "Give Peace a Chance," "Working Class Hero," and "Whatever Gets You Through the Night." The show will also feature three unpublished songs by Lennon "India, India" and "I Don't Want to Lose You," neither of which were ever published, and "Cookin' in the Kitchen of Love," which was recorded by Ringo Starr in 1976, but never by Lennon himself.
Lennon is being produced by Allan McKeown, Don Scardino and Edgar Lansbury, by arrangement with Yoko Ono. The musical's design team includes John Arnone sets, Jane Greenwood costumes and Natasha Katz lighting.
The musical is scheduled to begin previews at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre on July 7. Prior to hitting New York, the show will play at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, California from April 12 through May 14 and the Colonial Theatre in Boston from May 31 through June 25.