The Long Wharf’s announced the cast of its world premiere musical February House, a co-production with New York’s Public Theater. The new musical, with script by Seth Bockley and music/lyrics by Gabriel Kahane, is inspired by Sherill Tippins’ non-fiction book of the same title, about when a klatsch of major 20th century artists all happened to live together in Brooklyn in the 1940s.
The cast:
• Julian Fleisher—who plays the head of the artists’ commune, novelist/editor George Davis—played The Cat in the MCC Theater production of the musical Coraline (based on the Neil Gaiman book, with score by Stephin Merritt) and wrote the score for John Cariani’s Off Broadway play Almost, Maine.
• Kristen Sieh (playing the writer Carson McCullers) has a recurring role on Boardwalk Empire and played Joan is a heralded production of Brecht’s St. Joan of the Stockyards at P.S. 122 in New York in 2007.
• Erik Lochtefeld (eminent poet W.H. Auden in the show) was in Amy Freed’s Salem witchcraft comedy Safe in Hell at Yale Rep and the new adaptation of Tom Sawyer at Hartford Stage. He was in Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses on Broadway.
• A.J. Shively was Jean-Michel in the Broadway revival of La Cage Aux Folles, and has done a lot of new plays and musicals Off Broadway. He plays the Brooklyn-born poet and translator Chester Kallman, who worked on many projects with W.H. Auden.
• Stanley Bahorek (Benjamin Britten) will have his work cut out for him, trying to convince Connecticut audiences that he’s eminent British opera composer Benjamin Britten when his last two roles in the state were as Ralph Malph in the musical version of Happy Days and Charlie in the Muppet musical Emmet Otter’s Jugband (both at Goodspeed). Bahorek also did the Broadway production, and several regional ones, of 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee (as Leaf Coneybear) and the national tour of the Deaf West revival of Big River.
• Ken Barnett (who plays Peter Pears, Britten’s romantic partner and a star operatic tenor in some of Britten’s operas) was in workshops of February House at New York Stage & Film and at the Public. He’s had small roles in a slew of TV shows and movies, on both coasts, and played Calmon in Julie Taymor’s production of The Green Bird. His big Connecticut connection is that he attended Wesleyan University.
• Stephanie Hayes is a recent graduate of the Yale School of Drama, where she was in Chad Raine’s Craigslist-themed musical Missed Connections at the Yale Cabaret and Henri in Devin Brain’s production of Anouih’s Eurydice. She plays Erika Mann, the actress daughter of Thomas Mann.
• Kacie Sheik, who gets the showy role of Gypsy Rose Lee (yes, the one whose life has already been musicalized via Gypsy) spent four years with the Broadway revival of Hair, from the concert version to the New York, West End and touring productions. She’s also got a recording career.
• Ken Clark, who plays Reeves McCullers, husband of Carson McCullers, was Bobby Strong in Urinetown and Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls at Connecticut Repertory Theatre, and did a national tour of La Cage Aux Folles as Etienne. (That makes two La Cage vets in this production.)
Nearly the entire February House design team have previous Long Wharf credits… as well as Broadway, Off Broadway and major regional experience. Sets are by Riccardo Hernandez (who designed Donald Margulies’ Two Days at Long Wharf and The Evildoers at Yale Rep), costumes by Jess Goldstein (who has Long Wharf credits going back to the late ‘80s, including Pam Gems’ Camille), lights by Mark Barton (who lit Nilaja Sun’s No Child… at Long Wharf Stage II last year) and sound by Leon Rothenberg (who’s done a Cirque du Soleil show and a bunch of other stuff, mostly in New York).
Andy Boroson (Musical Director) was Assistant Musical Director for that cool new musical version of The Adding Machine in 2008, and was Music Director for the new musical Inner Voices at Primary Stages in 2010.
As for the shows’ authors, Seth Bockley is a playwright and director in Chicago whose previous plays include Comm Comm, Ask Aunt Susan and Jon. Gabriel Kahane, who previewed some of his February House score (on keyboards and banjo) at a Long Wharf season-announcement event last summer, has done musicals, song cycles and solo albums, and has worked with Chris Thile, Brad Mehldau, Sufhan Stevens, Rufus Wainwright and everybody else who’s cool. February House is directed by Davis McCallum, who did the musicals earlier workshop, has a lot of new-play directing experience, and teaches at Princeton University and NYC’s New School.
Every character in the show is between 19 and 34 years old. At the time the musical takes place (in Brooklyn Heights, 1940-41), some of the real-life characters had already established their careers, while others are still on the way up, or suffering setbacks.
“And their dreams were bright-colored brilliant,” as February House’s opening number goes.
February House will performed at Long Wharf Stage II from Feb. 15 through March 18. Tickets and details here.