McCarter Theatre's TEN CENTS A DANCE Opens 9/16, Featuring Donna McKechnie & Malcolm Gets

McCarter Theatre Center will open its 2011/2012 season with John Doyle's Ten Cents A Dance: The Music of Rodgers and Hart Friday, September 16 and runs through Sunday, October 9. Ten Cent A Dance is a co-production with Williamstown Theatre Festival where it recently completed a successful run. The show previews Friday, September 9 through Thursday, September 15.

In Ten Cents A Dance, Tony Award winner John Doyle (Sweeney Todd, Company), applies his signature style of engaging a company of actor-musicians to bring to life the extraordinary music of the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart songbook. The cast will include Diana DiMarzio, Tony Award nominee Malcolm Gets, Tony Award winner Donna McKechnie, Elisa Winter, Jane Pfitsch, and Jessica Tyler Wright.

In Ten Cents A Dance, crooner Johnny wistfully recalls his lifelong love affair of chorus girl Miss Jones, who is embodied by five women, each portraying a different stage of her life. As Johnny and Miss Jones take "Manhattan" under a "Blue Moon" while "Falling in Love with Love," you can't help but think "Isn't it Romantic?" - even if sometimes "The Lady is a Tramp." These and so many other unforgettable songs - filled with infatuation, longing and enchantment - will leave you with a song in your heart.

New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley gave Ten Cents A Dance a rave review when it played Williamstown Theatre Festival stating, "Director John Doyle has brought an original and haunting grace to the songbook musical, and reinvents the form."

Diana DiMarzio appeared on Broadway in John Doyle's production of Sweeney Todd opposite Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris. Her national tour credits include The Light in the Piazza, Sweeney Todd, and Man of La Mancha opposite Jack Jones. She is a grant recipient of the National Italian American Foundation for her solo concert Cinema Italiano.

Malcolm Gets' career on and off Broadway in New York includes his Tony nominated performance in Amour, and in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, for which he won an Obie Award. In 2009, he co-starred in the new Broadway musical. Story Of My Life. which has been recorded and released on CD. His other New York stage credits include the Encores! production of The Apple Tree with Kristin Chenoweth and he starred opposite Melissa Errico in the acclaimed Irish Rep production of Finian's Rainbow. Other credits include Michael John LaChiusa's Hello Again, William Finn's A New Brain and the York Theatre's production of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. His films include Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, Love in the Time of Money, Adam and Steve, Sex and the City, and the HBO film of Grey Gardens, in which he stars opposite Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore. On television, he is perhaps best known for his role as Richard in the sitcom Caroline in the City.

Donna McKechnie is one of Broadway's most beloved and esteemed performers. She made her Broadway debut in the original cast of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Her next original Broadway musical was Promises, Promises; and she was also in the original cast of Stephen Sondheim's Company. She toured in Call Me Madam with Ethel Merman; was in the 1971 Broadway revival of On the Town; and portrayed to great acclaim the role of Sally in the Paper Mill production of Follies. Ms. McKechnie has starred in numerous TV specials and dramatic series including Fame, Cheers, Family Ties, and Dark Shadows. Her memoir, Time Steps, was published by Simon and Schuster.

Jane Pfitsch has appeared on Broadway in John Doyle's Tony winning revival of Company and in the Tony nominated revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Off-Broadway, she appeared in The 39 Steps at New World Stages and Pumpgirl at Manhattan Theater Club. Her regional theater credits include Educating Rita at Huntington Theatre Company, Barefoot in the Park at Actors Theatre of Louisville, the world premiere of Alive and Well at Virginia Stage Company, and Mrs. Warren's Profession at the Alley Theatre.

Elisa Winter is an actor, musician, and teacher. She made her Broadway debut in the 2005 revival of Sweeney Todd (starring Patti LuPone), and went on to perform in the first national tour of Sweeney Todd (starring Judy Kaye). Elisa is the co-founder of Play On! Studios in NYC, where she teaches music and theater to children.

Jessica Tyler Wright appeared on Broadway in John Doyle's productions of Sweeney Todd and Company; and Love Musik. Off-Broadway credits include It Must Be Him, Radio Gals, and Suburb. Her other credits include productions at Sacramento Music Circus, Theatre Under the Stars, Arkansas Repertory Theatre as well as three shows at Paper Mill Playhouse: Big River, No, No, Nanette, and Of Thee I Sing. As a violinist and vocalist she has worked with various artists including Sally Mayes, Rebecca Luker, Susan Egan and Rich Little's The Presidents PBS Special.

The creative team includes music direction by Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Scott Pask (Scenic Design), Ann Hould-Ward (Costume Design), Jane Cox (Lighting Design), and Dan Moses Schreier (Sound Design/Composer). Robert Meffe is the Associate Music Director, Dontee Kiehn is the Movement Consultant and Lauren Kurinskas and Eileen Ryan Kelly are the Production Stage Managers. 

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