Casting has been revealed for MasterVoices' upcoming concert of Stephen Sondheim and Burt Shevelove's The Frogs. A third performance has been added, with the concerts now being held November 3 and 4 at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater.
Nathan Lane, who penned the revised book from Shevelove's original, will host the evening, with Douglas Sills as Dionysos, Kevin Chamberlin as Xanthias, Peter Bartlett as Pluto, Dylan Baker as George Bernard Shaw, Chuck Cooper as Charon, Marc Kudisch as Herakles, Jordan Donica as William Shakespeare, and Candice Corbin as Ariadne. Also featured will be the MasterVoices Chorus.
Loosely based on the ancient Aristophanes play, The Frogs features the most complex choral writing of any of Sondheim's scores, following Dionysos and his servant Xanthias as they travel to Hades and back to rescue one of the great artists to save mankind. The musical was famously written to be performed in a Yale swimming pool, with an original cast that boasted such future stars (then Yale Drama students) as Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, and Christopher Durang. MasterVoices will present the work in its revised iteration written for a 2004 Broadway debut via Lincoln Center Theater. The revisions are penned by Lane, who also starred in the Broadway bow.
MasterVoices' concert will be directed and conducted by Artistic Director Ted Sperling, with choreography by Lainie Sakakura, sound design by Scott Lehrer, costume design by Tracy Christensen, and lighting design by Shelby Loera.
The Frogs serves as the kick off to MasterVoices' 2023-2024 season, which will also include a new dance piece created in collaboration with choreographer Doug Varone To My Arms / Restore, performing at NYU Skirball Center March 22-23; and Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie's opera The Grapes of Wrath, performing April 17 at Carnegie Hall.
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