Dayna Tietzen in A Chorus Line.DON DIXON ASYLUM ARTISTS INC
"God, I hope I get it! I hope I get it."
The Stratford Festival has announced who got it – that is, who has landed a role singing these lines in director Donna Feore's production of A Chorus Line, as well as key casting for A Little Night Music and Shakespeare in Love in the 2016 season.
A Chorus Line will star Dayna Tietzen as Cassie, an older dancer competing against many younger "triple threats" for a place in the chorus of a new Broadway show. Originally from Edmonton, Tietzen has toured the world with War Horse and recently played Morticia Addams in The Addams Family at Neptune Theatre in Halifax.
Stratford Festival star Juan Chioran will play Zach, the taskmaster director of the musical that Cassie is auditioning for (and also her former flame).
The other triple threats who made the cut at taskmaster director Feore's own auditions for A Chorus Line are Eric Abel, Matt Alfano, Gabriel Antonacci, Matthew Armet, Ashley Arnett, Alex Black, Stephen Cota, Colton Curtis, JJ Gerber, Alexandra Herzog, Galen Johnson, Bonnie Jordan, Bethany Kovarik, Ayrin Mackie, Chad McFadden, Melanie McInenly, Julia McLellan, Nicholas Nesbitt, Matt Nethersole, Cory O'Brien, Jennifer Rider-Shaw, Conor Scully, Genny Sermonia, Jason Sermonia, Cynthia Smithers and Kimberly-Ann Truong.
Director Gary Griffin's production of A Little Night Music – the other 1970s musical in the 2016 season – will feature the cream of the crop of the Stratford company.
Ben Carlson, Cynthia Dale, Yanna McIntosh, Juan Chioran, Sara Farb and Alexis Gordon will play the leads in this production of Stephen Sondheim's 1973 musical based on Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night.
Carlson, who made his debut in a Stratford musical this summer as a Captain von Trapp for the ages, will play the central role of Fredrik Egerman. McIntosh will play his old flame, Desirée – who sings the musical's most famous song, Send in the Clowns.
As for Shakespeare in Love, the cat has been out of the bag for some time that Luke Humphrey and Shannon Taylor will be starring as William Shakespeare and Viola in this stage adaptation of the 1998 romantic comedy. Those are the two leading parts played by Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow in the original film – which won best picture at the Academy Awards.
But Stratford has now revealed who will round out the cast playing Shakespeare's contemporaries in what will be the North American premiere of this play adapted from Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard's screenplay by Lee Hall.
Saamer Usmani will play Shakespeare's rival playwright Christopher Marlowe, Sarah Orenstein will be Queen Elizabeth and Steve Ross and Brad Hodder will take on the great Elizabethan actors Richard Burbage and Ned Alleyn.
Festival veterans Stephen Ouimette and Tom McCamus will return to Stratford to take the parts of Henslowe, the owner of the Rose Theatre, and the entirely fictional character of Fennyman, respectively. Karen Robinson will play the part of the Nurse.
As with the West End production, Declan Donnellan will direct and Nick Ormerod will design.
J. Kelly Nestruck