Chad Kimball to Join Lennon; Chuck Cooper in Talks

Broadway.com has learned that Chad Kimball will be featured in the upcoming Broadway musical Lennon. Chuck Cooper is also in talks to appear in the production.

Kimball is currently in rehearsals for Good Vibrations. He will stay with the show until it opens at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on January 27 and then quickly depart. Kimball is best known for portraying Milky White in Into the Woods. He has also appeared on the Great White Way in The Civil War and off-Broadway in Godspell, My Life with Albertine and Finian's Rainbow. Kimball is also the star of the musical Memphis, which has already tried out at Massachusetts's North Shore Music Theatre and TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, California and is on the Broadway-bound track.

Cooper won a 1997 Tony Award for his performance in The Life. His other Broadway credits include Someone to Watch Over Me, Amen Corner, Getting Away with Murder, Chicago and Caroline, or Change. Cooper has also appeared in the national tours of The Tap Dance Kid, Eubie! and Whistle Down the Wind.

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 The show will also feature three unpublished songs by Lennon "India, India" and "I Don't Want to Lose You," neither of which were ever published, and "Cookin' in the Kitchen of Love," which was recorded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.

As we reported yesterday, Julie Danao, Mandy Gonzalez, Marcy Harriell, Manu Narayan and Michael Potts are in talks for the show. Ken Mandelbaum wrote today that Terrence Mann and Julia Murney have also been mentioned for the cast.