Byrne, Mazzie, Kudisch & More Set for Camelot at New York Philharmonic

Gabriel Byrne, Marin Mazzie, Nathan Gunn, Christopher Lloyd and Marc Kudisch have signed on to play leading roles in the New York Philharmonic's upcoming semi-staged concerts of Lerner & Loewe's Camelot. Lonny Price will direct five performances of the musical from May 7 to May 10. The May 8 performance will be broadcast nationally on Live from Lincoln Center on PBS.

Byrne will play King Arthur to Mazzie's Guenevere, with opera star Gunn as Lancelot, Lloyd as Pellinore and Kudisch as Lionel. The cast also includes Bobby Steggert as Mordred, Christopher Seiber as Dinadan and Will Swenson as Sagramore. Additional casting will be announced.

Camelot, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, first appeared on Broadway at the Majestic Theater on December 3, 1960. Based on T.H. White's novel The Once and Future King about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, the musical features songs such as “I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight,” “Camelot,” “The Lusty Month of May,” “How to Handle a Woman,” “If Ever I Would Leave You,” and “What Do the Simple Folk Do?” The original production starred Julie Andrews as Guenevere, Richard Burton as King Arthur, Robert Goulet as Lancelot, and Roddy McDowall as Mordred and ran for 873 performances, winning four Tony Awards.

Byrne received a Tony Award nomination for A Moon for the Misbegotten and starred on Broadway in A Touch of the Poet. He has starred in more than 35 feature films, including Excalibur, Miller's Crossing, Into the West, Little Women, The Usual Suspects, The Man in the Iron Mask and Vanity Fair. He is currently starring as a psychiatrist in the HBO series In Treatment.

Mazzie received Tony nominations for Kiss Me Kate, Ragtime and Passion and most recently played the Lady of the Lake in the Broadway and London productions of Spamalot. Other Broadway credits include Man of La Mancha, Into the Woods, Big River, Out of This World and the Encores! production of Kismet. She is also a well-known concert artist.

Gunn has appeared in internationally renowned opera houses, including The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, and the Glyndebourne Festival. Upcoming engagements include Kern's Show Boat at Carnegie Hall.

Lloyd most recently appeared on New York stages in Morning's At Seven, Twelfth Waiting for Godot and Trumbo. He won three Emmy Awards for Taxi and has appeared in more than 90 film and TV productions. Including Mike Nichols's HBO adaptation of Wit.

Kudisch Lionel appeared with the New York City Opera as the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance and as Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm in A Little Night Music. He received Tony nominations for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Thoroughly Modern Millie and has appeared on Broadway in The Apple Tree, Assassins, Bells Are Ringing, The Wild Party, The Scarlet Pimpernel, High Society, Beauty and the Beast and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

The creative team includes Paul Gemignani conductor and music supervisor, Thomas Z. Shepard producer, Josh Prince choreographer, Tracy Christensen costume designer, Jim Noone set designer and Paul Miller lighting designer.

The New York Philharmonic has been presenting semi-staged performances of musicals for two decades. The most recent was Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady in March 2007, starring Kelli O'Hara, Kelsey Grammer, Charles Kimbrough, Brian Dennehy and Marni Nixon.