James, Kudisch and Charles to Join Chenoweth in The Apple Tree

Brian d'Arcy James, Marc Kudisch and Walter Charles will join Kristin Chenoweth in the Roundabout Theatre Company's forthcoming Broadway revival of The Apple Tree. Directed by Gary Griffin The Color Purple, the production begins performances on November 28 at Studio 54 and is set to open on December 14. The limited engagement is scheduled to end on March 11, 2007. The production marks the first joint Broadway appearance of Chenoweth and Kudisch, who were engaged several years ago.

As previously reported on Broadway.com, Chenoweth is reprising three roles—Eve, Princess Barbara and Passionella—that she first played in Griffin's May 2005 Encores! presentation of the three-part musical. James will play Adam, Sanjar and Flip roles sung by Malcolm Gets at Encores! and Kudisch will play the Snake sung by Michael Cerveris at Encores!. Charles will play King Arik, Employer and Producer.

James most recently played Freddy Benson in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Brendan in the off-Broadway and Broadway productions of The Lieutenant of Inishmore. He received a Tony nomination for Sweet Smell of Success and appeared in the Broadway productions of Titanic, Carousel and Blood Brothers. He won an Obie Award for The Good Thief and appeared off-Broadway in The Pavilion, Flight, The Wild Party, Ancestral Voices, Public Enemy and Floyd Collins. He has starred in the Los Angeles and San Francisco companies of White Christmas.

Kudisch received Tony nominations for his performances in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Other Broadway credits include Assassins, Bells Are Ringing, The Scarlet Pimpernel, High Society, Beauty and the Beast and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Off-Broadway credits include See What I Wanna See and The Wild Party. At the New York City Opera, he appeared in A Little Night Music.

Charles' Broadway credits include The Woman in White, Big River, The Boys From Syracuse, Kiss Me Kate, A Christmas Carol, La Cage Aux Folles, Aspects of Love, Me & My Girl, Cats and Grease. At the New York City Opera, he appeared in Sweeney Todd and 110 in the Shade. Off-Broadway credits include Wit and The Immigrant.

The company of The Apple Tree will also include Meggie Nicole Cansler, Julie Connors, Sarah Jane Everman, Jennifer Taylor Farrell, Justin Keyes, Lorin Lataro, Mike McGowan, Sean Palmer, Dennis Stowe and Eric Santagata.

The Apple Tree features music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and a book by Bock and Harnick, the team that created Fiddler on the Roof, She Loves Me and The Rothschilds. Described as an evening of three one-act musicals about men, women and temptation, the show is based on "The Diary of Adam and Eve," by Mark Twain; "The Lady or the Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton; and "Passionella" by Jules Feiffer, with additional book material by Jerome Coopersmith. The Apple Tree originally premiered on Broadway on October 18, 1966, at the Shubert Theatre starring Alan Alda and Barbara Harris, directed by Mike Nichols.

The Apple Tree's creative team includes Andy Blankenbuehler choreography, Rob Fisher musical direction and vocal/dance Arrangements, Jonathan Tunick orchestrations, John Lee Beatty sets, Jess Goldstein costumes, Donald Holder lights, Dan Moses Schreier sound and Charles LaPointe hair and wigs.