The Bridges of Madison County

The Bridges of Madison County a New Musical for 2014 Season

Cast Update

Hunter Foster will join the cast of The Bridges of Madison County, the new musical based on the best selling novel by Robert James Waller also starring Kelli O’Hara and Steven Pasquale. Hunter will play Francesca husband (Bud) also Cass Morgan will join as (Marge) and Michael X. Martin (Charlie)

Bridges of Madison County the Musical coming to the Schoenfeld Theatre previews from Jan 17 2014 opening night Feb 27 2014.

The new musical is based on the 1992 best-selling novel by Robert James Waller which tells the story of a married but lonely Italian woman, living in 1960s Madison County, Iowa, who engages in an affair with a National Geographic photographer from Bellingham, Washington who is visiting Madison County in order to create a photographic essay on the covered bridges in the area. The novel was presented as a novelization of a true story, but it is in fact entirely fictional. However, the author has stated in an interview that there are strong similarities between the main character and himself. The Bridges of Madison the musical with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and the book by Marsha Norman, was premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival on August 1, 2013. Directed by Bartlett Sher, the cast features Elena Shaddow as Francesca and Steven Pasquale.

Music and Lyrics

Jason Robert Brown

(born June 20, 1970) is a musical theatre composer, lyricist, and playwright. Brown’s music sensibility fuses pop-rock styling’s with theatrical lyrics. An accomplished pianist, Brown has often served as music director, conductor, orchestrator, and pianist for his own productions. He began his career in New York City as an arranger, conductor, and pianist, working on shows such as William Finn’s A New Brain. He composed and wrote the lyrics for Parade, The Last Five Years, 13, Songs for a New World, and Honeymoon In Vegas (opens fall 2013 at Paper Mill Playhouse). He is the winner of the Tony Award (Parade), the Drama Desk Award (The Last Five Years, Parade), and the Kleban Award. With Marsha Norman, he created The Trumpet of the Swan, which he conducted with the National Symphony Orchestra

Marsha Norman
(b September 21, 1947) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and co-chair of Playwriting at Juilliard. She won a Tony for The Secret Garden, and another nomination for The Color Purple. Her first play, Getting Out, received the John Gassner Playwriting Medallion, the Newsday Oppenheimer Award, and a citation from the American Critics Association. Other plays include The Laundromat, The Pool Hall, Loving Daniel Boone, Trudy Blue, and her newest play, Last Dance.

Cast

Kelli O’Hara – Francesca Johnson

(b April 16, 1976) is a stage actress, singer, and songwriter. O’Hara has appeared on Broadway and Off-Broadway in many musicals and has been nominated for four Tony Awards, including three for Best Actress in a Musical for her work in The Pajama Game, South Pacific and Nice Work If You Can Get It. Her first nomination was for her featured role in The Light in the Piazza. Sweet Smell of Success, Follies and Dracula. She is currently starring in the new musical Far From Heaven at Playwrights Horizon. Other Regional/Off Broadway credits include: Far From Heaven at WTF, King Lear at the Public Theatre, Bells Are Ringing at City Centre Encores.

Steven Pasquale –Robert Kincaid

(b November 18, 1976) is a actor He is best known for his role as Sean Garrity in the critically acclaimed series Rescue Me. He made his debut on the HBO series Six Feet Under, playing a love interest for David. A regular on the theatre scene, he was recently seen in Tony Kushnerâ€™s The Intelligent Homosexualâ€™s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures at the Public Theatre. He starred on Broadway in Neil LaButeâ€™s reasons to be pretty, as well as A Soldierâ€™s Play (Second Stage), Neil LaButeâ€™s off-Broadway hit, Fat Pig (MCC), the Ahrens/Flaherty/McNally musical A Man of No Importance (Lincoln Centre, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations)

The cast will also include Morgan James (Motown: The Musical) as Marian/Chiara, Julie Johnson (Barney & Friends) as Marge, Daniel Magder (Life with Derek) as Michael, Debby Ryan (The Suite Life on Deck) as Carolyn, John Sanders (Matilda the Musical) as Charlie and Liev Schreiber (A View from the Bridge) as Bud.

The ensemble comprises Candy Buckley (Scandalous: The Life and Trials of Aimee Semple McPherson), Aaron Charbonneau (Cirque du Soleil), Cara Cooper (Elf the Musical), Vincent Corazza (Mamma Mia!), Janet Dacal (In the Heights), Meghann Fahy (Next to Normal), Lauren Froderman (So You Think You Can Dance), Stephanie Gibson, Neil Haskell (Bring It On the Musical), Aaron Kaburick (Billy Elliot the Musical), Jason Kappus (Legally Blonde The Musical), Michael Milton (Legally Blonde The Musical), Chloe Tucker (Mamma Mia!) and Chris Woods (Shrek the Musical).