Hudson Valley Les Misérables Finds Full Casting

Casting has been revealed for Hudson Valley Shakespeare's summer season. The Garrison, New York company, debuting their new permanent performance venue this summer, is presenting a new production of Les Misérables, along with stagings of Shakespeare's As You Like It and King Lear.

Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's long-running West End and Broadway hit Les Misérables will run in the theatre's new outdoor space August 12-September 27. Directed by Jenn Thompson, the staging will be led by Josh Young as Jean Valjean, with David Beach as Monsieur Thénardier, Haley Rose Ciaramella as Éponine, Haley Dortch as Fantine, Kiara Geolina as Cosette, Denis Lambert as Javert, Alex Ross as Marius, and Nance Williamson as Madam Thénardier. The ensemble will include Kelly Berman, Aamar-Malik Culbreth, Lucas Hakoshima, Safiya Harris, Stefanie Londino, Maya Mays, Anand Nagraj, Luis Quintero, Christian David Tinajero, Josh Totora, and Caroline Santiago Turner. Amanda Morton will serve as music supervisor.  

The production will feature choreography by Rhett Guter, costume design by Tilly Grimes, lighting design by Matt Richards, sound design by Ken Travis, and properties by Buffy Cardoza. Alex Gutierrez serves as music director and conductor, and Janelle Caso is the stage manager. The production is being presented by arrangement with Music Theatre International and Cameron Mackintosh, though it is separate from the arena spectacular tour that is scheduled to play NYC this summer.

The company's Shakespeare offerings will be offered in repertory, with As You Like It, directed by Miriam Laube and featuring original music by Amanda Dehnert, performing June 10-September 18. Davis McCallum will direct King Lear, performing June 12-September 18.

Starring in As You Like It will be Eric Berryman as Oliver, Helen Cespedes as Rosalind, Zack Fine as Silvius, Geolina as Audrey, Harris as Celia, Katie Hartke as Corin, Carl Howell as Amiens, Lambert as Duke Frederick, Melissa Mahoney as Phoebe, Sean McNall as Jacques, Keshav Moodliar as Orlando, Howard W. Overshown as Duke Senior, Quintero as Touchstone, and Kurt Rhoads as Adam, along with Hakoshima, Maya Mays, and Tinajero. Additional casting is to be announced. The staging will feature costume design by Herin Kaputkin, lighting design by Jeff Croiter, sound design by Charles Coes, and properties by Cardoza. Howell is the music supervisor, Quintero is the fight choreographer, Alithea Phillips is the voice and dialect coach, and Daniel Vaughn is the stage manager.

Rhoads will also star in the title role of King Lear, with Berryman as Edgar, Cespedes as Regan, Culbreth as Lear’s Knight, Fine as Earl of Kent, Hakoshima as King of France, Hartke as Goneril, Howell as Oswald, Mahoney as Cordelia, McNall as Duke of Cornwall, Moodliar as Edmund, Nagraj as Duke of Albany, Overshown as Earl of Gloucester, Ronald Sopyla as Old Man, Turner as Curran, and Williamson as the Fool, with further casting to be announced. The production will feature movement by Susannah Millonzi, costume design by Elizabeth Hope Clancy, lighting design by Croiter, sound design by Darron L West, and properties by Cardoza. Alithea Phillips is the voice and dialect coach, Quintero is the fight choreographer, and Caso is the stage manager.

"The well-known monologue in act two of As You Like It refers to the stages in life, so it is fitting that the play will be the debut performance in HVS’s new space, the Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center, as we enter our next stage of life as a company, and a community," says Artistic Director McCallum in a statement. "We’ve programmed a season that celebrates love—for each other, for nature, for freedom—as well as one that looks to the past to try to make sense of the present. We have been building towards this moment for more than five years and now I am eagerly counting down the days until we can welcome audiences into our new home.”

Ticket information is forthcoming. Visit HVShakespeare.org.