BROADWAY PERFORMERS ANNOUNCED FOR
“SIR TIM RICE & FRIENDS”
A ONE NIGHT ONLY CONCERT, PART OF THE 10TH ANNUAL
NEW YORK TIMES ARTS & LEISURE WEEKEND CELEBRATION FRIDAY, JANUARY 7TH AT 6PM
Cast to Feature Broadway Veterans Ashley Brown, Heidi Blickenstaff,
Merle Dandridge, Christopher Jackson, Tshidi Manye,
Josh Strickland and Alton Fitzgerald White
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Wednesday, December 22, 2010) – DISNEY THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS today announced the cast of Broadway performers for “Sir Tim Rice & Friends,” a salute to the Disney on Broadway songbook hosted by Oscar® and Tony Award®-winning lyricist Tim Rice. All seven of the accomplished performers are veterans of one or more Disney Theatrical Productions’ Broadway shows.
Held on Friday, January 7 (6pm-7:15pm) as part of The New York Times 10th annual Arts & Leisure weekend celebration, the Disney evening will feature Ashley Brown (original title star of Mary Poppins on Broadway), HEIDI BLICKENSTAFF (Ursula in The Little Mermaid; [title of show]), MERLE DANDRIDGE (Kala in Tarzan; Aida; Jesus Christ Superstar), CHRISTOPHER JACKSON (Benny in In the Heights; The Lion King), TSHIDI MANYE (currently starring on Broadway as Rafiki in The Lion King), Josh Strickland (original title star of Tarzan; currently starring in Peep Show and E!’s “Holly’s World”) and ALTON FITZGERALD WHITE (currently starring on Broadway as Mufasa in The Lion King, Miss Saigon).
“Sir Tim Rice & Friends” will feature selections from the musical theater scores of Disney’s seven Broadway shows including King David, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida, Tarzan®, Mary Poppins, a co-production by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh and The Little Mermaid. James Abbott serves as musical director.
A versatile and prolific lyricist and librettist, Sir Tim Rice is a longtime collaborator for Disney Theatrical Productions, having written lyrics for four of the seven Disney scores heard on Broadway. Rice partnered with composer Alan Menken for Beauty and the Beast and King David and with Elton John on the blockbuster The Lion King (film and stage) and the musical Aida. He was nominated for a Tony Award® for Best Original Score for his work on Beauty and the Beast (1994) and The Lion King (1998), earning the 2000 Tony Award® for Best Original Score for Aida. A three-time Tony Award® winner, Rice’s other notable Broadway and West End credits include Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita (1980 Tony Award® winner for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Chess, among others.
The New York Times Arts & Leisure Weekend will be held from January 6 to 9, 2011 and is a four-day celebration of the arts featuring interviews with New York Times journalists and celebrated guests from film, media, music, television and theater.
For additional information or to purchase advance tickets ($30 each plus a service fee), please call 1-888-NYT-1870 or visit ArtsAndLeisureWeekend.com. All “TimesTalks” are held at The TimesCenter (242 West 41st Street) in New York City.
DISNEY THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS, a division of The Walt Disney Studios, was formed in 1994 and operates under the direction of Thomas Schumacher. With 15 productions currently produced or licensed by DTP worldwide, a Disney musical is being performed professionally somewhere on the planet virtually every hour of the day. The company’s inaugural production, Beauty and the Beast, opened in 1994. It played a remarkable 13 year run on Broadway and has been produced in 28 countries worldwide. In November 1997, Disney opened The Lion King, which received six 1998 Tony® Awards including Best Musical and continues in its 13th smash year, having welcomed over 50 million visitors worldwide. In addition to its three North American productions, it can currently be seen in London, Hamburg and Tokyo, with Singapore to open in 2011. Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida opened on Broadway next, winning four 2000 Tony® Awards, running for four-and-a-half years and spawning productions around the world. Mary Poppins, a co-production by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, opened in London in 2004 and has established itself as one of the biggest stage musical successes to emerge in recent years. The Tony Award®-winning Broadway production opened in 2006 at Disney’s New Amsterdam Theatre, where it continues to delight audiences. Mary Poppins can also be seen on tour across North America, in Holland and Australia with four more productions scheduled to open this year. Tarzan®, which opened on Broadway in 2006, is now an international hit with an award-winning production in Germany and a record-setting one in Holland that closed in May 2009. In January 2008, The Little Mermaid opened on Broadway and was the #1-selling new musical of that year, completing its run in August 2009. In addition to producing musicals, DTP licenses stage performance rights to more than a dozen Disney musicals around the world through Music Theatre International. For more information visit, DisneyTheatricalProductions.com.
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