A private industry reading of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's new musical Little Dancer will be held June 8 prior to the production’s West Coast premiere at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre in March 2019.
Directed and choreographed by five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman (The Producers), Little Dancer features a book and lyrics by Tony winner Ahrens (Once On This Island, Anastasia) and music by Tony winner Flaherty (Once On This Island, Anastasia).
The reading will star New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Tiler Peck (On The Town), Tony and Olivier winner Robert Lindsay (Me and My Girl), Tony nominee Kate Baldwin (Hello, Dolly!), Tony winner Karen Ziemba (Prince of Broadway), Tony nominee Dee Hoty (Bright Star), Christopher Gurr (Cats), Kyle Harris (Sondheim on Sondheim), Scarlett Strallen (Travesties), and Sami Bray (1984) with Polly Baird (The Phantom of the Opera), Sissy Bell (Anastasia), Lauren Blackman (Anastasia), Jim Borstelmann (Bullets Over Broadway), Nina Goldman (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), Megan Masako Haley (Wicked national tour), Heather Hill (The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess), Seán Martin Hingston (Promises, Promises), Jolina Javier (The Phantom of the Opera), Barbara Marineau (War Paint), Olivia Puckett (Dear Evan Hansen), Arbender Robinson (Shuffle Along), and Eric Santagata (Prince of Broadway).
Based on a famed masterpiece by Edgar Degas and the unknown dancer who inspired it, Little Dancer is set in the glamorous and dangerous backstage world of the Paris Opera Ballet and follows a young woman caught between the conflicting demands of life and art, and an artist with one last chance for greatness. It had a 2014 production at the Kennedy Center in D.C., also starring Peck and Ziemba.
Little Dancer will feature scenic design by Tony Award winner Beowulf Boritt (Come From Away), costume design by six-time Tony winner William Ivey Long (The Producers), lighting design by Tony winner Ken Billington (Chicago), sound design by Tony nominee Kai Harada (The Band’s Visit), projection design by Outer Critics Circle nominee Benjamin Pearcy (Hedwig and the Angry Inch), hair and wig design by Paul Huntley (Cabaret), makeup design by Anne Ford-Coates (Frozen), orchestrations by Tony winner Doug Besterman (Anastasia) and Tony winner Larry Hochman (Hello, Dolly!), dance music arrangements by Sam Davis (Prince of Broadway), and vocal arrangements by Tony winner Flaherty.
Baldwin has been a special guest performer on Playbill’s Broadway on the High Seas cruises. Cabins are now on sale for the Broadway on the Rhône River 2 cruise April 7–14, 2019, with a lineup of top Broadway stars to be announced. Call Playbill Travel for tickets at 866-455-6789 or visit PlaybillTravel.com.
