FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 12, 2012 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected] NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC ANNOUNCES CASTING FOR RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN’S CAROUSEL KELLI O’HARA, NATHAN GUNN, STEPHANIE BLYTHE, and ALEXANDER GEMIGNANI To Star in Staged Production JOHN RANDO To Direct and ROB FISHER To Conduct February 27–March 2 The New York Philharmonic has announced casting details for its staged production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel, February 27–March 2, 2013. The evening will feature Kelli O’Hara as Julie Jordan, Nathan Gunn as Billy Bigelow, Stephanie Blythe as Nettie Fowler, and Alexander Gemignani as Enoch Snow. The production will be directed by John Rando, replacing the previously announced James Brennan due to scheduling conflicts, and conducted by Rob Fisher. Further casting will be announced at a later date. Following this special engagement, Ms. O’Hara will return to Nice Work If You Can Get It at the Imperial Theatre on Sunday, March 3. Based on Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár’s 1909 play, Liliom, Carousel transfers the story from Europe to the Maine coastline and revolves around the tragic romance between carousel barker Billy Bigelow and mill worker Julie Jordan. The musical includes such highlights as “If I Loved You,” “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over,” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” The New York Philharmonic has performed selections from Carousel on various programs since 1946, most recently in March 2011 when Ted Sperling conducted Ms. O’Hara, Mr. Gunn, and the Orchestra in Classic Broadway, an evening of Broadway selections that included “If I Loved You” and Carousel Waltz. Carousel was Rodgers & Hammerstein’s second work together, following Oklahoma!, and marked an important development in American musical theatre. Premiering at New York’s Majestic Theatre in 1945, the hit musical won the New York Drama Critics Award for Best Musical. Carousel was revived in 1992 at the Royal National Theatre and again in 1994 at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, garnering the Tony Award for Best Musical Revival. (more) Carousel / 2 Artists John Rando is the Tony and Outer Critic’s Circle Award–winning director of Urinetown: The Musical. Mr. Rando’s other Broadway credits include A Christmas Story: The Musical, The Wedding Singer, A Thousand Clowns, and Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party. With City Center Encores!, he has directed Bernstein’s On The Town, Damn Yankees, Face the Music, Of Thee I Sing, The Pajama Game, Do Re Mi, and Strike up the Band. Last winter his production of A Christmas Story: The Musical garnered terrific success in Chicago at the Chicago Theater. His Off-Broadway credits include the 2009 Outer Critic’s Circle Award–winner for Best Musical: The Toxic Avenger, as well as productions at the Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Class Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Primary Stages, the Promenade, the Acting Company, and the Pearl Theatre, among others. Mr. Rando’s recent regional credits include his highly acclaimed production of Guys and Dolls at Barrington Stage Company and a revised version of The Toxic Avenger at the Alley theatre. His other extensive regional credits include productions at The Old Globe Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Geffen Playhouse, American Conservatory Theatre, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Philadelphia Theatre Company, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cleveland Playhouse, Syracuse Stage, and many others. John Rando was a Drama League Directing Fellow and in 2010 was the recipient of the UCLA Department of Theater, Film, and Television Alumni Achievement Award. Rob Fisher — internationally distinguished artistic director, conductor, and pianist — is a leading figure in American music and musical theater. He was founding music director and conductor of Encores! at New York City Center until 2005, a series that earned a 2000 Tony Award. Mr. Fisher was awarded the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Special Achievement in 1997 for his work on Encores!, and he conducted the series’ Grammy Award–winning Chicago cast album. Last season, Fisher served as music supervisor of the Tony-winning Broadway revival of Anything Goes, and in April of 2012, he conducted a one-night gala performance of The Sound of Music at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Fisher has been producer/music director of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook Series’ tributes to Gershwin, Porter, and Bernstein. Recent collaborations have included performances with such artists as Kristin Chenoweth, Kelli O’Hara, Idina Menzel, and David Hyde Pierce. Within the past decade Mr. Fisher has been a guest conductor or pianist of virtually every major orchestra in the U.S. In 2007 he led My Fair Lady with the New York Philharmonic, and he most recently appeared with the Philharmonic in October 2012, conducting Mr. Keillor at 70 with Garrison Keillor. Mr. Fisher was music director and conductor for “Ira at 100,” a gala concert at Carnegie Hall broadcast on PBS’s Great Performances, and he appeared twice on the PBS series In Performance at the White House for President and Mrs. Clinton. For four seasons Mr. Fisher was music director for Garrison Keillor’s American Radio Company and remains a frequent guest on A Prairie Home Companion. Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe has appeared at The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Paris Opéra. She has performed the title roles in Bizet’s Carmen, Saint-Saëns’s Samson and Dalilah, Offenbach’s La Grande Duchesse, Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice, and Handel’s Julius Caesar in Egypt. Her other roles have included Isabella in Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers; Frugola, Principessa, (more) Carousel / 3 and Zita in Puccini’s The Triptych; Fricka in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Die Walküre; and the Verdi roles of Amneris in Aida, Azucena in Il Trovatore, Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera, and Mistress Quickly in Falstaff. An accomplished concert singer, Ms. Blythe has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Met Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, as well as at the Tanglewood, Mostly Mozart, and Ravinia festivals and the BBC Proms. She has been presented in recital at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, Alice Tully Hall, 92nd Street Y, Town Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vocal Arts Society in Washington, D.C., Cleveland Art Song Festival, University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Shriver Hall in Baltimore. Ms. Blythe starred in The Metropolitan Opera’s live HD broadcasts of Orpheus and Eurydice, The Triptych, Handel’s Rodelinda, and Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle. Her recordings of works by Mahler, Brahms, and Wagner and of arias by Handel and Bach are available on the Virgin Classics label. This season, Ms. Blythe returns to The Metropolitan Opera for the new production of Un ballo in maschera, Il Trovatore, and the complete Ring Cycle, and she tours the U.S. with two of her highly acclaimed programs — We’ll Meet Again: The Songs of Kate Smith and an all-American song program — culminating in a recital in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. Alexander Gemignani’s Broadway credits include Valjean in Les Misérables (for which he received a Drama League nomination), The Beadle in Sweeney Todd (Drama Desk nomination), Hinckley in Assassins (Theatre World Award), Moishe in The People in the Picture, and Boatman/Dennis in Sunday in the Park with George. He has appeared Off-Broadway in Road Show at the Public Theater (Drama League nomination), Headstrong at Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Avenue Q at the Vineyard Theatre. Highlights of his regional appearances include The Three Sisters at Cincinnati Playhouse, The Boys From Syracuse at The Shakespeare Theatre of D.C., and the title character in the world premiere of the musical Saint-Ex at The Weston Playhouse. Mr. Gemignani last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in 2010 for Sondheim! The Birthday Concert. He appeared in the Live From Lincoln Center broadcast of Sondheim’s Passion and the Great Performances broadcast of South Pacific at Carnegie Hall — both on PBS. He has also performed with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and he has made several appearances as performer and director in the Broadway by the Year series at New York’s Town Hall. Alexander Gemignani has appeared on the television shows Homeland, The Good Wife, and Empire State as well as in the film The Producers. His solo show, All at Once, was premiered at the Kennedy Center as part of Barbara Cook’s Spotlight Series in 2011. As a composer, Mr. Gemignani is currently developing two new musicals, having recently written the score for an Off-Broadway play titled Cadence: Home. He is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and a graduate of the University of Michigan Musical Theatre Department. (more) Carousel / 4 Nathan Gunn has sung leading lyric baritone roles at The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Paris Opéra, Theatre an der Wien, and Bavarian Staatsoper. He created the roles of Clyde Griffiths in Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy, Father Delura in Peter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons, Alec Harvey in André Previn’s Brief Encounter, and Paul in Daron Hagen’s Amelia. Mr. Gunn has appeared regularly with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston, Chicago, and London symphony orchestras. He has appeared with the New York Philharmonic in Camelot (broadcast live on PBS’s Great Performances) in 2008, Sondheim: The Birthday Concert in 2010, and Broadway’s Classic Hits alongside Kelli O’Hara in 2011. Other engagements have included Showboat at Carnegie Hall and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, appearances with Mandy Patinkin at the Ravinia Festival, cabaret shows at New York City’s famed Café Carlyle, and a performance of Sting and Trudie Styler’s Twin Spirits in the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center.