Full LENNON Cast Announced

Complete casting was announced today for the upcoming Broadway production of LENNON, the world premiere musical based on the life and songs of John Lennon. The cast includes Will Chase, Chuck Cooper, Julie Danao, Mandy Gonzalez, Marcy Harriell, Chad Kimball, Terrence Mann, Julia Murney, and Michael Potts.

To check out photos of the cast and find out more information, visit the show's website at www.LennonTheMusical.com.

Written and directed by Don Scardino and produced by Allan McKeown, Don Scardino and Edgar Lansbury in association with Clear Channel Entertainment, LENNON will make its Broadway debut at the Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44th Street) beginning previews on Thursday, July 7th with the opening date set for Thursday, July 21st.

LENNON is produced by arrangement with Yoko Ono.

Prior to Broadway, LENNON will play an engagement at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, California from April 12th - May 14th and then at the Colonial Theater in Boston, Massachusetts from May 31st - June 25th.

Director and book writer Don Scardino says, "We will tell the story of John Lennon's life using Lennon's own words and twenty-seven of his songs. Our ensemble of 9 extraordinary and diverse performers and a ten-piece onstage band will guide the audience through Lennon's life and the eras he shaped." Scardino continues, "Out of the nearly two hundred songs to choose from, the musical includes such memorable tunes as "Imagine," "Instant Karma," "Give Peace a Chance," "(Just Like) Starting Over" and "Whatever Gets You Through the Night," among others. Using slide and film projections, LENNON will be a visually stunning search for the real John Lennon."

In addition to Scardino, the LENNON creative team includes Joe Malone (Choreography) John Arnone (Scenic Design), Jane Greenwood (Costume Design), Natasha Katz (Lighting Design), and Bobby Aitken (Sound Design).

Playing schedule and ticket information for San Francisco, Boston, and Broadway will be announced soon.

THE COMPANY:

Will Chase - Broadway: The Full Monty (Jerry), Aida, Miss Saigon (Chris), Rent. Chicago theatre credits: ...Black Patent Leather Shoes... (Jeff Award nomination, Best Actor), Assassins, Electra, Trask & Fenn (Jeff nom.), Son of Fire (Jeff nom.), Mame. Film and television: Shaft , the upcoming HBO film Brooklyn, "Law & Order," "Third Watch," "Queens Supreme," "When I Grow Up," "All My Children," "Guiding Light." A classically trained conductor and percussionist, Will has worked with such classical music luminaries as John Cage, Robert Spano, John Adams, Gunther Schuller and Loren Maazel. Will is married to comedienne Lori Chase, and they are the proud parents of Daisy and Gracie.

Chuck Cooper - won the 1996 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his portrayal of Memphis in The Life. Broadway: Caroline, or Change, Chicago, Passion, Someone to Watch Over Me, Rumors, Amen Corner, Getting Away With Murder, Badfoot in St. Louis Woman (City Center Encores!). National tours: The Tap Dance Kid, Eubie, Whistle Down the Wind. Off-Broadway: Marco Polo Sings a Solo, Jawbone, Avenue X, Police Boys, Colored People's Time. Television: "Law & Order," "Oz," "Strangers with Candy," "NYPD Blue," "Cosby," "The Cosby Mysteries," "New York Undercover," "I'll Fly Away," "The Bold and the Beautiful," "100 Centre Street." Film: Three Days of Rain, Our Song, Gloria, The Peacemaker, The Juror, The Hurricane. Favorite role: Eddie, Alex and Lilli's father.

Julie Danao - National Tours include: Rent, Aida, Miss Saigon. Off-Broadway credits include: The Karaoke Show. Other credits include: Disney's Aladdin's Oasis and Pocahontas stage shows. Television credits include: "The Making of Aladdin." Independent and short film credits include: 101 Ways…, Three Penny America, Reading Lessons.

Mandy Gonzalez - A Los Angeles native, Mandy was most recently seen on Broadway starring as Sarah along-side Michael Crawford in Dance of the Vampires. Mandy is perhaps best known for her Obie Award-winning performance in the Off-Broadway production of Eli's Comin'. She has also performed as a backup singer for the Divine Bette Midler on a tour of the U.S. and Canada. Workshops include When You Wish, Wicked and Drive All Night. For more info visit www.mandygonzalez.net.

Marcy Harriell - Recent credits: Company (The Kennedy Center), Rent (Broadway first replacement), The Compleat Female Stage Beauty (Philadelphia Theatre Co.), HMS Pinafore (Berkshire Theatre Festival), Once on This Island (Rep. Theatre of St. Louis), A Sondheim Celebration (Lincoln Center), national tours of West Side Story and Blood Brothers, and a host of workshops including Hotel Carter (New Dramatists), Was (Lincoln Center), Mask and The Capeman.

Chad Kimball - most recently donned the endearing and peculiar guise of Milky White the Cow in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's Into the Woods. He made his Broadway debut in the final performance of Frank Wildhorn's Civil War (Broadway and national tour). Credits include the 30th anniversary Off-Broadway revival of Godspell, Sweeney Todd at Signature Theatre and Chess at the Helen Hayes in Nyack. Other favorites include Master Harold and the Boys, Equus, The Winter's Tale and Three Sisters. Chad made his solo concert debut in September for the Broadway Spotlight Series. He is a graduate of The Boston Conservatory and a native of Seattle.

Terrence Mann - Broadway: Rocky Horror, Barnum (Ringmaster), Cats (Rum Tum Tugger), Rags (Saul), Les Misérables (Javert - Tony nomination - Best Actor), Jerome Robbins' Broadway (Narrator), A Christmas Carol (Scrooge), Beauty and the Beast (Beast - Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award nominations - Best Actor in a Musical), The Scarlet Pimpernel (Chauvelin), Getting Away with Murder (Greg). Off-Broadway and regional: Assassins (Playwrights Horizons), 1776 (Dickinson), Noël Coward's Tonight at 8:30 (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Film and television: A Chorus Line, Big Top Pee Wee, Critters, "One Life to Live," "Another World" (Emmy nomination), "All My Children," "True Women," "Law & Order."

Julia Murney - Manhattan Theatre Club: Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party (Queenie, Drama Desk nomination), A Class Act (Felicia), both original cast albums available on RCA Victor, Time and Again (Kate). A Syracuse University graduate, other credits include Cloud 9 (Perry Street), Mata Hari (York), Into the Woods (Pioneer), Snapshots (Virginia State). TV: "Law & Order," "Another World," and approximately a gazillion voiceovers.

Michael Potts - Theater: The Persians, Highway Ulysses, Twelfth Night. Encores!: Golden Boy, Once Around the City, Romeo & Juliet, Love's Labour's Lost, The Hostage, Cup of Coffee, Arms and the Man, Joe Fearless, Mud River Stone, Overtime, Rent, The America Play (Obie Award); The Rivals, Randy Newman's Faust, Othello, St. Joan of the Stockyards. Film/Television: Black People Hate Me and They Hate My Glasses, Conspiracy Theory, The Peacemaker, George: A True Story, Stonewall, Hackers, "The Wire," "Queens Supreme," "Oz," "Cosby," "Trinity," "Law & Order," "NYPD Blue," "Thomas Jefferson," "The West." Graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

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