| COMPLETE CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR “THE HELLO GIRLS” SPECIAL CONCERTS | |
| Last Edit: Official_Press_Release 09:31 pm EDT 04/05/24 | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 09:31 pm EDT 04/05/24 | |
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| BEN DAVIS, SAVY JACKSON, AND MORE COMPLETE CASTING FOR PROSPECT THEATER COMPANY'S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL "THE HELLO GIRLS" TO PLAY DC'S THE JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS ONE NIGHT ONLY TUESDAY, MAY 7 AT 7:30PM & NEW YORK CITY'S SYMPHONY SPACE ONE NIGHT ONLY SUNDAY, MAY 12 AT 6:30PM HONORING THE FIRST WOMEN SOLIDERS IN THE U.S. ARMY ORIGINAL OFF-BROADWAY CAST MEMBERS TO REUNITE TICKETS NOW ON SALE! Washington, DC & New York, NY (April 5, 2024) – Prospect Theater Company (Cara Reichel, Producing Artistic Director; Melissa Huber, Managing Director) announced today the complete casting for the special concert presentations of their hit musical The Hello Girls: Tony Award Honor recipient Ben Davis (New York, New York; La Bohème), Lisa Helmi Johanson (POTUS), Savy Jackson (Bad Cinderella), Asher Muldoon (Dear Evan Hansen), Laura Jean Spineti (The Oldenburg Suite), Matthew Weatherhead, and Kat Wolff will join the previously announced members of the world premiere actor-musician cast, including Ellie Fishman (Into the Woods) as ‘Grace Banker', Arlo Hill (The Phantom of the Opera), Chanel Karimkhani (The Goree All Girl String Band), Andrew Mayer (The Great Comet of 1812 ), Ben Moss (OBIE Award, Oratorio for Living Things), and Lili Thomas (Chicago). Original company percussionist Elena Bonomo (Six) and bass player Jordyn Davis will join the on stage ensemble of musicians. Fernanda Douglas will serve as Associate Music Director, and Kate Semmens as Assistant Director. Veronica Aglow is the Production Stage Manager, and Hollace Jeffords is the Assistant Stage Manager. As previously announced, The Hello Girls will play Washington, DC for one night only on Tuesday, May 7th at 7:30pm in the Terrace Theater at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (2700 F Street, NW), in a special staged concert presented by the Doughboy Foundation. Tickets, starting at $40, are now on sale and can be purchased at www.kennedy-center.org or www.prospecttheater.org. The production will also receive a special one night only presentation as part of Prospect's IGNITE Series in New York City on Sunday, May 12 at 6:30pm at the Peter Norton Symphony Space (2537 Broadway, at 95th Street). Tickets, starting at $30 for students with ID (includes facility fee), are on sale now, and can be purchased at www.symphonyspace.org or www.prospecttheater.org. The critically-acclaimed musical tells the story of the first women soldiers in the U.S. Army, who served on the front lines during World War I, acting as bi-lingual Signal Corps Telephone Operators. Deployed to France, they connected over 26 million calls and remained to assist during the post-war period, including at the Treaty of Versailles that officially ended the war. Colloquially known as the ‘Hello Girls', over thirty of the women received individual commendations, including Grace Banker who received the Distinguished Service Medal. Despite their key role in the American combat effort, when they returned home the women learned that the War Department did not consider them military veterans. They fought for their rights valiantly until 1977, when congress finally acknowledged their veterans' status. The show features music and lyrics by award-winning composer Peter Mills, with script by Mills and Cara Reichel. Choreography is by Christine O'Grady and music direction is by Ben Moss, and the production is directed by Cara Reichel. Prospect Theater Company commissioned, developed, and premiered The Hello Girls in 2018, when it played off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters, and earned multiple Drama Desk and Outer Critics' Circle Award nominations. In advance of the Kennedy Center ticketed performance, there will be a free family-friendly mini-concert performed by The Hello Girls cast at the National World War I Memorial in Washington, DC. Hosted by the US World War I Centennial Commission and the Doughboy Foundation, this special sneak-peek event will take place on Sunday, May 5th at 4:00pm. More information on the free mini-concert can be found at: www.doughboy.org/events. This presentation of The Hello Girls is a partner-project supported by the US World War I Centennial Commission and the Doughboy Foundation . The Centennial Commission was established by the US Congress in 2013, to create public awareness regarding America's involvement, and sacrifice, in World War I. The Hello Girls is an external rental presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and is not produced by the Kennedy Center. The NYC performance is made possible in part by funding from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs. For more information on all The Hello Girls musical, please visit www.thehellogirlsmusical.com. THE HELLO GIRLS - CALENDAR OF EVENTS DC / The Hello Girls Musical Sneak-Peek Mini-Concert Sunday, May 5 at 4pm Free, open to the public www.doughboy.org/events The National World War I Memorial: 1493 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004 DC / The Hello Girls Musical Kennedy Center Concert Tuesday, May 7 at 7:30pm Tickets starting at $40 https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/explore-by-genre/theater/2023-2024/the-hello-girls/ The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Terrace Theater 2700 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20566 NYC / The Hello Girls at Symphony Space Sunday, May 12 at 6:30pm Tickets starting at $30 with Student ID (includes fees) https://www.symphonyspace.org/events/vp-the-hello-girls Symphony Space 2537 Broadway, New York, NY 10025 BIOGRAPHIES? ELENA BONOMO (Musician) is a drummer and music educator and holds a B.M. from Berklee Col-lege of Music. She originated the drum chair for SIX on Broadway. Other credits include: "Late Night With Seth Meyers" (guest drummer), Waitress (1st National Tour), A Strange Loop, and The Hello Girls (Off Broadway). BEN DAVIS (Cast) has done some Broadway shows like New York, New York, Dear Evan Hansen, Violet, A Little Night Music, La Boheme (Tony Honor), Les Miserables, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Some concerts in places like Milan (La Scala) and Knoxville. Some TV/film. Some opera. Some opera on film. JORDYN DAVIS (Musician) is an award-winning bassist, composer, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. She is the first African-American woman to receive a Bachelor's Degree in Music Composition from Michigan State University, and also completed a Master's Degree in Jazz Studies at Michigan State. Davis worked on the Tony-Winning Broadway Musical New York, New York: A new musical and collaborated with Craig Harris & the contemporary dance company Urban Bush Women. She was named one of two inaugural Jazz Leader Fellowship recipients by the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, leads her own band/ensemble called Composetheway, and has released an EP titled Connections. ELLIE FISHMAN (Cast: Grace Banker) is so happy to be back with The Hello Girls after originating the role of ‘Grace Banker' Off-Broadway! First National Tour: Into The Woods (u/s Cinderella, others), Miss Saigon (Ellen), Finding Neverland. Off-Broadway: The Hello Girls (Grace Banker). Regional Theatre: The Music Man (Marian/Goodspeed), Les Miserables (Fantine/Witchita), Rags (Goodspeed), The Sound of Music (Maria/City Springs). B.F.A University of Michigan. LISA HELMI JOHANSON (Cast) (she/her) is passionate about developing new works and intentional representation as a means to further the work of racial and social justice. Broadway: Potus; Tours: Into the Woods, Avenue Q; Select Off Broadway: Avenue Q, Einstein's Dreams (OC), Rescue Rue (OC); Select Regional: The Chinese Lady (Milwaukee Rep), Anything Goes (Arena Stage), Vietgone (Denver Center); TV/Film: "Law & Order", "Law & Order: SVU", "A Holiday Spectacular" (Hallmark); Playwright: The Porch on Windy Hill, Kim Loo Gets a Redo. ARLO HILL (Cast) is an actor, singer, voiceover artist, and startup founder. Appearances include Broadway (Phantom), Lincoln Center (Carousel), Encores (Where's Charley?, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Little Me, Most Happy Fella), the Kennedy Center (Music Man), and Off-Broadway (The Hello Girls). His solo show about the life & work of Frank Loesser has been seen at a range of cabaret venues including 54 Below. Voiceover includes Ken Burns' & Lynn Novick's Hemingway. Harvard; NYU Grad Acting. SAVY JACKSON (Cast) most recently made their Broadway debut in the original company of Bad Cinderella starring as the titular role every Sunday. Other credits include, the National tour of Once On This Island, Marian in Hood (Asolo Rep) and Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (Geva Theater). Savy is a singer/songwriter currently working on their debut EP and can also be seen in the upcoming Max feature Sweethearts. CHANEL KARIMKHANI (Cast). Off-Broadway: The Hello Girls (listen on Spotify/Apple), Bach and Bleach, The Goree All Girl String Band. Off-off Broadway: Don't Do This To Us, Chamber Music, Sympathy in C. Regional credits include: Bee????? (Portland Headwaters Theatre), Sister Act (Arvada Center), Death Takes a Holiday (Arvada Center). Europe: There's Nothing Rougher Than Love – a cabaret (Paris, France - Broadway Au Carré). B.F.A. Musical Theatre graduate from University of the Arts. Thank you to my cast, creative team, and family/friends… your believing in me makes magic on stage! ANDREW MAYER (Cast). Credits include B'way: The Great Comet of 1812, A Christmas Carol. Off-B'way: I Spy a Spy, Dying for It (Atlantic). Regional: It Happened in Key West (Fulton), The Band's Visit (Huntington), Oliver (Goodspeed). TV: "The Girls on the Bus", "Wu-Tang", "Law & Order", "Black-list". Education: BU School of Theater, Manhattan School of Music, LAMDA. Andrew regularly per-forms with event bands all over the US. Also a stage combat specialist, you can find him in hit video game Red Dead Redemption 2. PETER MILLS (Music / Lyrics / Script) wrote lyrics and music and co-wrote the book for The Hello Girls (4 Outer Critics Circle nominations, 3 Drama Desk nominations, Drama League nomination for Outstanding Production of a Musical, and an Off-Broadway Alliance nomination for Best New Musical). The Hello Girls premiered in 2018 in NYC, released a cast album in 2019, and has since had over fifty productions across the USA and around the world. Mills also penned lyrics for The Honey-mooners (Paper Mill), Iron Curtain (Prospect, Village Theatre), and The Oscar Micheaux Project (upcoming). As a composer/lyricist, his other shows include Illyria , The Flood, The Underclassman, and Golden Boy Of The Blue Ridge. He has been honored to receive the Kleban Prize for lyrics, the Fred Ebb Award, the ASCAP Cole Porter Award and Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, Drama Desk Award nominations for The Pursuit Of Persephone (Best Music / Best Orchestrations), and a grant from the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation. MFA: NYU's Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program. Peter also teaches at NYU and at Princeton University. BEN MOSS (Cast / Music Director). Recent credits include Oratorio for Living Things at Ars Nova (Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award) and Prospect Theater's The Hello Girls. Broadway: Head Over Heels, Amélie, Deaf West's Spring Awakening. Other credits: Penelope (Signature Theatre), Azul (Eugene O'Neill Theater Center), Heather Christian's PRIME (Playwright's Horizons "Soundstage"), Arlington (Vineyard Theatre), After Anatevka (Audible), and appearances at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. He is the composer of the new musical Don't Call Me John! and the music director of the Broadway Sings concert series. ASHER MULDOON (Cast) is a performer, writer, composer, and comedian based in New York. His first musical, an adaptation of Patrick McCabe's novel The Butcher Boy, premiered at Irish Repertory Theater in the summer of 2022. While an undergraduate, he took time off to travel with the First National Tour of Dear Evan Hansen, understudying Connor and Jared. This past spring he graduated with a degree in English from Princeton, where he wrote and performed with the Princeton Triangle Club. He's currently writing a speculative thriller piece inspired by Steve Jobs and the early days of Apple. CHRISTINE O'GRADY (Choreographer). Broadway/Tours: Hair (Resident/Associate Dir./Chor.), Legally Blonde (SDC Observer), Pete the Cat's Big Hollywood Adventure (Dir./Chor.). Off-Broadway: The Hello Girls, The Underclassman, and Iron Curtain as well as revivals of tick, tick…BOOM!, and john and jen . Regional: Mark Taper Forum, Barrington Stage Company, TheaterWorks Hartford and the Totem PolePlayhouse. Awards: SDCF's Charles Abbott Directing Fellowship (The Guthrie); Moss Hart Award (The Outcast of Sherwood Forest, RIYT); and a NYIT Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Drowsy Chaperone (Gallery Players). Member: SDC and MTEA. Christine is an Assistant Professor of Theatre (Directing) and on the Graduate Faculty at Penn State. CARA REICHEL (Director / Script) is the Producing Artistic Director of NYC's critically-acclaimed, OBIE and Drama Desk Award-winning Prospect Theater Company. She collaborates frequently with fellow founding Prospect artist Peter Mills and together they have created over a dozen new musicals, including The Hello Girls, The Underclassman, Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge, The Flood, and Illyria. Cara directed the NYC premiere of Einstein's Dreams, which received multiple 2020 Drama Desk Award nominations, and has developed works at the O'Neill Theatre Center, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's Festival of New Musicals, Phoenix Theatre Company, Surflight Theatre, Goodwill Theatre, and the Village Theatre's Festival of New Musicals. Cara is co-librettist on The Oscar Micheaux Project, a new jazz musical featured in the 2023 NAMT Festival of New Musicals and developed at Goodspeed Musicals' Johnny Mercer Writers Grove. She was commissioned by Theatrical Rights Worldwide and BMG to create a female-forward jukebox musical, The Olympians. LAURA JEAN SPINETI (Louise LeBreton) is delighted to be joining this incredible team of multidisci-plinary performers & artists! Off-Broadway: The Oldenburg Suite (Coosje), The Fling LP, National Tour & International: Annie, Click Clack Moo, Spirit of the Dance, Regional: Pride & Prejudice (Hartford Stage), Radio Girl (Goodspeed), Footloose (Ivoryton). TV/Film: "The Deuce" (HBO), Bad Bach (Upcoming). Much love and thanks to The Hello Girls team, Mom, Dad & Michael! Proud NYU alumna. LILI THOMAS (Cast) is thrilled to return to The Hello Girls fresh off her history-making run as ‘Mama Morton' in Chicago on Broadway. Also seen as ‘Cynthia Murphy' in Dear Evan Hansen (1st Nat'l). Off-B'way: We're Gonna Die (Second Stage), The Hello Girls (Prospect @ 59E59), Only Human (St. Clements). Select regional: PCLO (Great Comet), Berkeley Rep (Octet w/Dave Malloy), Lincoln Center (NYPhil). NYU/Tisch. For my "Mustard 1 & 2" who still know every word to this show! MATTHEW WEATHERHEAD (Cast) is a performer and academic from Barbados. His performing career began as an instrumentalist (clarinet, flute and steel pan) and expanded to acting and voice. He recently graduated from Princeton University studying psychology and musical theatre and is pursuing a PhD at Cambridge University. Past credits include Adamandi, The Hello Girls (McCarter Theatre, NJ), Songs for A New World, and Sweeney Todd (ADC Theatre, Cambridge UK). KAT WOLFF (Cast) is an NYC-based actor & multi-hyphenate who is passionate about new work and thrilled to be joining the company of The Hello Girls! Regional credits include Fulton Theatre, Maine State Music Theatre, Phoenix Theatre Company, Goodspeed, Gretna Theatre, and more. Huge thanks as always to my beautiful village for their support! The Collective Talent; BFA Hartt School (go Hawks!) ABOUT PROSPECT THEATER COMPANY PROSPECT THEATER COMPANY is dedicated to fostering and showcasing today's new voices shaping tomorrow's musicals. Over two decades, the company has premiered almost 40 musicals in New York City, in addition to new plays and numerous re-inventions of classic works. Reflecting its investment in the future of the field, Prospect leads a variety of developmental initiatives: including an annual Musical Theater Lab for emerging writers, and the IGNITE Series of new musical theater in concert. In recognition of its enterprising and risk-taking new musical theater, the company has re-ceived an OBIE Award grant, and its role as a community anchor for emerging artists that strength-ens the quality, diversity, and dynamism of American theater was honored by the American Theatre Wing. Most recently, Prospect produced the NYC premiere of Lizard Boy (2023) with book, music and lyrics by Justin Huertas, and the musical song-cycle Notes From Now – Songs of Resilience & Renewal (2022) featuring a lineup of newly-commissioned original songs created by 21 of today's brightest musical theater writers. # # # # ProspectTheater.org Facebook: @ProspectTheater Instagram: @ProspectTheaterCo X / Twitter: @ProspectTheater YouTube: @ProspectTheaterCo |
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