Monk, Ziemba, Danieley and More Join Pierce in Curtains

Casting has been announced for the world premiere of the John Kander/Fred Ebb musical Curtains at California's Ahmanson Theatre. In addition to previously announced star David Hyde Pierce, the tuner will feature Debra Monk, Karen Ziemba, Jason Danieley, Jill Paice, Edward Hibbert, John Bolton, Michael X. Martin, Michael McCormick, Noah Racey, Megan Sikora and Robert Walden.

A Tony Award winner for her performance in the play Redwood Curtain, Monk recently appeared off-Broadway in Show People. Ziemba won a 2000 Tony Award for her work in the musical Contact. Danieley has appeared on the Great White Way in Candide and The Full Monty. Paice is best known for playing Laura Fairlie in The Woman in White. Hibbert is currently appearing on Broadway in The Drowsy Chaperone. A Broadway veteran, Bolton was most recently seen on the New York stage in Five Course Love off-Broadway. Martin's off-Broadway credits include Les Miserables, 1776, Kiss Me, Kate, Oklahoma! and All Shook Up. McCormick is currently appearing in The Pajama Game. Racey is best known for playing Lucky Garnett in the Broadway musical Never Gonna Dance. Sikora's Broadway credits include 42nd Street, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Wonderful Town, Dracula and Wicked. Walden is best known for his performance as Joe Rossi in Lou Grant for which he received three Emmy nominations.

Curtains is a backstage murder mystery and musical comedy set in the 1950s in Boston. After the leading lady's mystifying curtain call demise, Frank Cioffi Pierce, homicide detective and musical theater aficionado, is on the case. He's got a tough job as the bodies pile up, the ensemble dwindles and everyone is a suspect. Can Cioffi solve the murders and save the show before it reaches Broadway?

Curtains features music by Kander, lyrics by the late Ebb and a book by Rupert Holmes based on the original libretto by the late Peter Stone. Holmes and Kander contributed additional lyrics. In addition to those named above, the cast will also include Nili Bassman, Ward Billeisen, Jennifer Dunne, David Eggers, J. Austin Eyer, Matt Farnsworth, Patty Goble, Mary Ann Lamb, Brittany Marcin, Jim Newman, Jessica Lea Patty, Joe Aaron Reid, Darcie Roberts and Christopher Spaulding.

Curtains, directed by Scott Ellis, is scheduled to run at the Ahmanson Theatre from July 25 through September 10.