Marc Kudisch to Headline Flaherty & Ahrens' The Glorious Ones

Marc Kudisch will be part of the seven-member cast in Lincoln Center Theater's forthcoming New York premiere production of The Glorious Ones, a new musical with book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, music by Stephen Flaherty and choreography and direction by Graciela Daniele. The Glorious Ones will begin performances on October 11 and open on November 5 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.

In addition to Kudisch, the cast of The Glorious Ones will include Natalie Venetia Belcon, Erin Davie, John Kassir, David Patrick Kelly, Julyana Soelistyo, and Jeremy Webb.

The Glorious Ones is a backstage musical about the lives, loves, ambitions and art of the performers in a 16th-century commedia dell'arte troupe in Italy of the late Renaissance. Based on the novel by Francine Prose, the musical tells how the troupe came to be and how it captured the public's adoration with its bawdy comedy and raunchiness, before changing artistic fashion altered its way of life. Its seven archetypal characters are the charismatic leading man Kudisch, the sly harlequin Webb, the quack "dottore" Kassir, the old miser Kelly, the earthy maidservant Belcon, the devoted dwarf Soelistyo and the beautiful maiden Davie.

The Glorious Ones reunites the team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty with director/choreographer Graciela Daniele, who collaborated on the musicals Once On This Island, Ragtime and Dessa Rose. Lincoln Center Theater has previously produced three Ahrens and Flaherty musicals My Favorite Year, A Man of No Importance and Dessa Rose. The Glorious Ones had its first production in April at the Pittsburgh Public Theater.

Kudisch most recently appeared on Broadway in The Apple Tree and at the New York City Opera in The Pirates of Penzance. He starred in the Signature Theater of Virginia's recentl productin of The Witches of Eastwick. Other Broadway credits include his Tony-nominated performances in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Thoroughly Modern Millie, plus Assassins, Bells Are Ringing and The Wild Party. Off-Broadway credits include See What I Wanna See.

Belcon played Gary Coleman on Broadway in Avenue Q and apppeared off-Broadway in The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin and And the World Goes Round. Davie played Little Edie Beale in Grey Gardens and appeared in national tours of Swing! and The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Kassir's off Broadway credits include Reefer Madness, The Musical and Three Guys Naked From the Waist Down.

Kelly's Broadway credits include Festen, Uncle Vanya, Twelfth Night, The Government Inspector, Working and The Suicide. His off-Broadway credits include Ghosts, Marlowe, Lobster Alice, Arturo Ui and Film is Evil/Radio is Good. Soelistyo received a Tony nomination for Golden Child and appeared onstage in The Children of Herakles, Cymbeline, Pericles, Alice in Wonderland, Naomi's Road and Bringing Out the Dead. Webb's off-Broadway credits include Tabletop,The Baltimore Waltz, BFF, Summer '69 and Three O'Clock in Brooklyn.

The Glorious Ones will have sets by Dan Ostling, costumes by Mara Blumenfeld, lighting by Stephen Strawbridge, sound by Scott Lehrer, orchestrations by Michael Starobin and musical direction by David Holcenberg.