Addi McDaniel Joins The Fantasticks; Lewis Cleale Returns

Addi McDaniel and Lewis Cleale will join the cast of off-Broadway's The Fantasticks. McDaniel will take on the role of Luisa while Cleale returns to the production as El Gallo. Both actors begin performances at the Snapple Theatre Center on June 29.

McDaniel has starred as Gabriella in North Shore Music Theatre's production of High School Musical. She's also been seen in Little House on the Prairie at the Guthrie Theatre and in the film Stripes 2. 

Cleale played El Gallo from September 2008 to March 2009 and has since starred as Jordan "Bick" Benedict in Giant at the Signature Theatre. His Broadway credits include Spamalot, Amour, Once Upon a Mattress and Swinging on a Star, for which he earned a Drama Desk Award nomination. He appeared off-Broadway in Time and Again, A New Brain, Big City Rhythm and in the Encores! production of Call Me Madam opposite Tyne Daly. National tours include Sunset Boulevard (opposite Petula Clark) and South Pacific (with Robert Goulet). His regional credits include Passion and 1776 at Ford's Theatre.

Featuring a book and lyrics by Tom Jones and music by Harvey Schmidt, The Fantasticks is a romantic comedy about a boy and girl who fall in the love at the hands of their meddling fathers, only to be separated and forced to confront the harsh realities of the real world. The show played a record-breaking 17,162 performances in its original run at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village.

The current cast of The Fantasticksincludes Bradley Dean as El Gallo, Ramona Mallory as Luisa, Jonathan Schwartz as Matt, Steve Routman as Bellomy, Gene Jones as Hucklebee, Michael Nostrand as Mortimer, John Thomas Waite as Henry and Douglas Ullman Jr. as The Mute.