Be prepared to be bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. On Tuesday, October 17, the cast of New York City Center's upcoming gala production of Pal Joey performed two songs from the show for the press. Watch above to see their rollicking renditions of "The Lady Is a Tramp" and “Falling In Love With Love."
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's Pal Joey will run November 1–5. The 1940 musical has been reimagined by co-director and choreographer Savion Glover and director Tony Goldwyn, and will feature a new book by Richard LaGravenese and Daniel "Koa" Beaty.
The show stars Ephraim Sykes as Joey, Loretta Devine as Lucille, Elizabeth Stanley as Vera, Brooks Ashmanskas as Melvin, Jeb Brown as Tony, and Aisha Jackson as Linda. See photos of the cast and crew below.
The project has been in the works since at least 2021, when it was announced that Glover and Goldwyn were working with LaGravenese on a new Broadway-bound revival. LaGravenese and Beaty are revising John O'Hara's original book, adapted from his novel. The new version reportedly reimagines its title character as a Black jazz singer trying to make it on the Chicago nightclub circuit, and newly interpolates Rodgers and Hart songs from other works, including “Where or When,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “It Never Entered My Mind,” “My Heart Stood Still,” “Falling in Love With Love,” and “There’s a Small Hotel.”
Glover will appear in the revival's onstage dance ensemble, which, according to press notes, will serve as "descendants of ancestral spirits that speak in the language of dance." Joining Glover in that ensemble will be Krystina M. Burton, Marshall L. Davis Jr., Dormeisha, Jarvis Manning, and Brittany Nicole Parks. The non-spirit ensemble will comprise Mary Antonini, Taylor Marie Daniel, Leandra Ellis-Gaston, Jodeci Milhouse, NaTonia Monét, Rory Shirley, and Allysa Shorte.