Max von Essen to Replace Lennon-Bound Chase in Paper Mill Baker's Wife

Broadway.com has learned that Max von Essen will now play Dominique opposite Alice Ripley's Genevieve in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of the Stephen Schwartz-Joseph Stein musical The Baker's Wife. Will Chase was previously expected to fill the role, but left the project in order to appear in the upcoming Broadway musical Lennon.

"I am really excited," Von Essen told Broadway.com. "To play opposite Alice Ripley will kick ass."

Von Essen is best known for playing Alfred in Dance of the Vampires. He has also appeared on the Great White Way in Jesus Christ Superstar and Les Miserables, as part of the hit musical's final company. His other theatrical credits include Finian's Rainbow off-Broadway, national tours of Chicago and West Side Story and regional productions of My Fair Lady at Paper Mill, Hair and Blood Brothers. This past summer Von Essen played Older Patrick in the Charles Busch mini-tour of Auntie Mame, starred in Jesus Chris Superstar in Sacramento and also earned positive notices for playing the title character in the musical Dorian in Los Angeles. On Saturday he performed selections from West Side Story with the Albany Symphony Orchestra.

In The Baker's Wife, a new baker arrives in a rural French village just in time to ease the pains of the contentious villagers, who have been without bread for weeks. All is well and everyone's spirits are rising until the baker is driven to distraction and the villagers suffer the fate of breadless ness once again. Lenny Wolpe will star as the baker with Ripley playing his wife and Von Essen playing the man who tries to steal her heart.

This mounting will be directed by Gordon Greenberg, who helmed a Goodspeed Musicals production of the tuner. Returning from the Goodspeed production are Wolpe and Gay Marshall. The Baker's Wife is scheduled to run at Paper Mill April 13 through May 22.