Fantasia
Dule Hill
Adriane Lenox
Producers Scott Sanders and Wynton Marsalis have announced the wildly eclectic opening night cast for the new Broadway Musical, After Midnight. The company includes a wide array of 25 cutting-edge performers from varied backgrounds who will come together to create an explosive, modern interpretation of Duke Ellington’s years at the Cotton Club. Directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle and featuring the big-band sounds of nine-time Grammy Award-winner Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center All-Stars, After Midnight will begin previews on Friday, October 18, 2013 at Broadway’s Brooks Atkinson Theatre (256 W 46th St) with an official opening night set for Sunday, November 3, 2013.
Joining previously announced Grammy Award-winning “Special Guest Star” Fantasia and Dulé Hill, who will lead the audience through the heat and glamour of the Harlem Renaissance as “The Host,” is Tony Award-winner Adriane Lenox reprising her critically acclaimed role as the blues singer with a sense of humor; Julius “Iglide” Chisholm from the renowned dance crew RemoteKontrol, reimagining Harlem’s popular 1920’s “snakehips” dance; hip hop star Virgil J. Gadson; Tony Award-nominated modern dancer Karine Plantadit; Michael Jackson’s tap coach Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and tap-dancing choreographer Jared Grimes in stunning tap routines. The cast will also include a male quartet comprised of Grammy Award-nominee and member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band Everett Bradley, Cedric Neal, T. Oliver Reid and Monroe Kent; a female trio of Broadway vets including Carmen Ruby Floyd, Rosena M. Hill Jackson and Bryonha Marie Parham; and accomplished dancers Marija Abney, Phillip Attmore, Christopher Broughton, Taeler Elyse Cyrus, C.K. Edwards, Bahiyah Hibah, Erin Moore, Justin Prescott, Tony Award nominee Desmond Richardson, Monique Smith and Daniel Watts.
This evocative new musical will take the sexy, smoky glamour of the original Jazz Age and catapult it into a whole new era of heart-pounding, mind-blowing entertainment for modern Broadway audiences. Refracted through a contemporary lens, After Midnight will celebrate Duke Ellington’s years at the Cotton Club using his original arrangements and performed by a world-class big band of 17 musicians hand-picked by living jazz legend, Wynton Marsalis. The timeless tunes set against a narrative of Langston Hughes poetry will provide an authentic backdrop for an array of cutting-edge performances by 25 sensational vocalists and dancers, including special guest stars, whose interpretations will shatter everything you think you know about music, nightlife and Broadway.
After Midnight is a new production of Cotton Club Parade which played two smash-hit, sold-out engagements at City Center. Conceived by Jack Viertel, After Midnight features direction and choreography by Warren Carlyle, musical direction by Wynton Marsalis and musical supervision by Daryl Waters.
The design team for After Midnight will include prolific design couple Isabel Toledo (costumes) and Ruben Toledo, Tony Award-winners John Lee Beatty (set design) and Howell Binkley (lighting design) and Peter Hylenski (sound). Tickets: 212-239-6262 or 800-432-7780 www.telecharge.com
