New York, NY (Wednesday,
April 30) – In the glow of its seven Tony® Award nominations, including one for
Best Musical, producers Scott
Sanders
and Wynton Marsalis announced today
that a trio of true music legends will make their way to Broadway this summer
in After
Midnight.
Multi-award winning icons Patti
LaBelle,
Gladys Knight and Natalie Cole (making her
Broadway debut) are set to join the illustrious roster of "Special Guest
Star" vocalists in the red hot Broadway musical.
Combined, this trio of legends boasts 22 platinum and gold
records, 18 Grammy Awards, and almost 300 million albums sold worldwide. Ms. LaBelle
will play performances from June 10 - 29, Ms. Knight July 8 - August 3, and Ms.
Cole August 5 - 31 at the Brooks
Atkinson
Theatre (256
W 47th Street).
Conceived by Jack
Viertel,
and directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, After Midnight began preview performances on Friday,
October 18, 2013, and opened to the best reviews of any new musical this
season on Sunday, November 3, 2013.
Gladys Knight
On Tuesday, the production garnered seven Tony® Award
nominations, including Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical (Warren
Carlyle), Best Choreography (Warren Carlyle), Best Performance by a Featured
Actress in a Musical (Adriane Lenox), Best Costume Design of a Musical (Isabel
Toledo), Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Howell Binkley) and Best Sound
Design of a Musical (Peter Hylenski). Last week, After
Midnight
received five Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Outstanding New
Broadway Musical, Outstanding Director of a Musical (Warren Carlyle),
Outstanding Choreographer (Warren Carlyle), Outstanding Costume Design
(Isabel Toledo), and Outstanding Lighting Design (Howell Binkley), as well as
Drama League nominations for Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off
Broadway Musical and the Distinguished Performance Award (Adriane Lenox), and
three Drama Desk nominations including Outstanding Revue, Outstanding
Choreography (Warren Carlyle) and Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical
(Adriane Lenox).
Natalie Cole
After Midnight takes the sexy,
smoky glamour of the original Jazz Age and catapults it into a whole new era of
heart-pounding, mind-blowing entertainment for modern Broadway audiences.
Refracted through a contemporary lens, After Midnight celebrates 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 provide an authentic backdrop for an array of cutting-edge performances
by 25 sensational vocalists and dancers, including special guest stars, whose
interpretations shatter everything you think you know about music, nightlife
and Broadway.
In
its heyday, the Cotton Club featured a cavalcade of guest stars each week,
known then as “Celebrity Nights.” After Midnight reintroduces
this exciting tradition by presenting stars of today in limited engagement
appearances throughout the musical’s run. Currently starring multi-platinum
recording artist and actress Vanessa
Williams through
May 11, 2014, Grammy Award-winning recording artist Fantasia began the tradition (10/18/13 – 2/9/14),
followed by four-time Grammy Award-winning icon k.d. lang (2/11/14 - 3/9/14) and Grammy Award-winners Toni Braxton & Kenny “Babyface”
Edmonds
(3/17/14 - 3/30/14). Fantasia
will
be returning to After Midnight for a four-week
return engagement (5/13/14 - 6/8/14) leading up to the Tony Awards on June 9,
2014.
Patti LaBelle
After Midnight
features musical direction by Wynton Marsalis, musical supervision by Daryl Waters and
direction and choreography by Warren Carlyle. The design team
for After
Midnight
includes 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).
After Midnight is produced by Scott Sanders Productions, and Wynton Marsalis, in association
with Marks-Moore-Turnbull
Group;
Stephen and Ruth Hendel; Tom Kirdahy.
The
performance schedule for After Midnight is as follows:
Tuesdays – Thursdays at 7:30 pm, Friday and Saturday nights at 8 pm, and
matinee performances on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2:00 pm and Sundays at 3
pm. Tickets range from $60.00 to $142.00 (premium
tickets are $199) and are available via TicketMaster and in persona at the
Brooks Atkinson box office. Tickets for groups
of 12 or more can be purchased by calling 212-239-6262 or 800-432-7780 or by
visiting http://www.ticketmaster.com/.
No comments:
Post a Comment