Dee Hoty Reunites with Tommy Tune for National Tour of Dr. Doolittle

Tony-nominated actress Dee Hoty will appear in the national tour of Dr. Doolittle opposite Tommy Tune, who is also directing the tuner. Hoty will play Dolittle's love interest Emma Fairfax.

Hoty appeared on Broadway in Tune's productions of The Will Rogers Follies and The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public. She received Tony nominations for her work in both shows. Her other Broadway credits include Mamma Mia!, Footloose which also earned her a Tony nomination, City of Angels, Me and My Girl, Big River, The Five O'Clock Girl and Shakespeare's Cabaret.

Dr. Doolittle, which will be choreographed by Patti Colombo, also stars 12-year-old Aaron Burr, who won the Greatest Dancer competition on ABC's Good Morning America for which Tune was a judge, as Chee-Chee the chimpanzee. The ensemble will include Joel Blum, Amanda Braddock, Jessica Leigh Brown, Kristin Dawn Calgaro, Matthew Crowle, Sandi DeGeorge, Jack Doyle, Mike Erickson, Joe Jackson, Lesley M. Klose, Scott Leindecker, Allan Mangasser, Amanda Rose, Jonathan Sandler, Sarah Stiles, Sally Ann Swarm, Elisa Van Duyne, David F.M. Vaughn, Erin Webley, Steven Wenslawski and Jessica Wu.

This is the cast for the retooled Dr. Doolittle, which is beginning performances at the Hobby Center in Houston, Texas on January 17. The American tour of Dr. Dolittle--Leslie Bricusse's stage musical based on his 1967 Oscar-winning movie of the same name and The Doctor Dolittle Stories by Hugh Lofting--launched at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera in August with Glenn Casale directing and Tom Hewitt starring and Nancy Anderson as Fairfax. After poor reviews, the tour shut down in Hershey, Pennsylvania on October 2. Tune was then brought on to direct and star in a revised mounting of the musical. Van Duyne is the only person in the former cast to be appearing in this new staging.

After Houston where it will run through January 29, Dr. Doolittle is scheduled to play the Buell Theater in Denver January 31-February 12, The Pantages in Los Angeles February 21-March 5, the Civic Theatre in San Diego March 7-12, the Civic Theatre in Tucson March 14-19, Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa March 21-April 2, DuPont Theatre in Wilmington April 7-16, the Palace Theatre in Cleveland April 18-30, Providence Performing Arts Center May 2-7, Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh May 9-14; the Fox Theatre in St. Louis May 16-28, Proctor's Theater in Schenectady May 31-June 4, DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids June 6-11, Community Center Theater in Sacramento June 13-25, Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville, AR June 27-July 2 and the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago July 18-30.