Brent Barrett & Jenny Fellner to Star in B'way-Bound Princesses in Seattle

Broadway.com has learned that Brent Barrett will star opposite Jenny Fellner in the upcoming pre-Broadway tryout of the musical Princesses at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle. The tuner is scheduled to there from August 9 through August 28.

Princesses 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 Barrett 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. The tuner features direction and lyrics by David Zippel who also conceived the show, a book by Cheri and Bill Steinkellner, music by Matthew Wilder and choreography by Rob Ashford.

Barrett will return to the role of Billy Flynn in the Broadway revival of Chicago on April 18. His other Broadway credits include West Side Story, Grand Hotel, Brigadoon, Candide and Annie Get Your Gun.. He also appeared in the West End production of Kiss Me, Kate for which he received an Olivier Award nomination and off-Broadway in Closer Than Ever and The Death of Von Richtofen as Witnessed From Earth. He has two solo albums: The Kander & Ebb Album and The Alan Jay Lerner Album. Barrett appeared in a March 2004 reading of Princesses.

Fellner has been attached to Princesses for a while and appeared in the show's previous mounting at Goodspeed Musicals last summer in which Rex Smith played her action star father. She is best known to New York theater audiences for playing Sophie in Mamma Mia! on Broadway. Her other theatrical credits include Jekyll and Hyde, Footloose, Cabaret, Bus Stop, Evita, Smoke on the Mountain, Into the Woods and the Julie Andrews-directed production of The Boy Friend at Bay Street Theatre. She is a graduate of the Music Theatre department at the University of Northern Colorado.

Princesses is aiming for a late October bow on the Great White Way. A production spokesperson could not confirm any casting for the show.