Hamptons area theatre fans can celebrate. Bay Street Theater’s Bay Street Under the Stars has announced that an outdoor production of the very first musical to win the Best Musical Tony Award, Kiss Me, Kate, will be performed August 25 and 26, with Tony Award nominee Melissa Errico as its star, Lilli Vanessi.
The 1948 Cole Porter musical about battling ex-spouses co-starring in a musical based on The Taming of the Shrew will be directed by Will Pomerantz and will co-star operatic tenor Richard Troxell, who appeared with Errico in last year’s Encores! production of Do I Hear a Waltz?.
The free performances will be given in Mashashimuet Park at the southern end of downtown Sag Harbor.
Errico, who was nominated for a Tony Award for Amour in 2003, told Playbill, “Outdoors? I love it! I have messy curly hair so I don't mind singing in breezy beautiful summer air! Performing another great classic but under the ol’ devil moon of Sag Harbor will be dreamy! Or should I say ‘Wunderbar’! This is one of the greatest shows ever, and Marin Mazzie was truly thrilling as Lilli [in the 1999 revival] and the gold standard. Being married myself (mostly peacefully) almost 20 years, I think it's fabulous fun to look at such a complex and battling portrait of a marriage.”
Kiss Me, Kate won’t be Errico’s first outdoor performing experience. She has sung at the Hollywood Bowl with Jeremy Irons in Camelot, with John Lithgow and Roger Daltrey in My Fair Lady, and with John Schneider and Marni Nixon in The Sound of Music.
“Those were fully staged concerts with sets and costumes and a huge orchestra conducted by John Mauceri,” Errico recalled, “but Bay Street will be simpler and more pure, with a focus on the characters, script and the songs.”
She said, “I’m excited to sing with my great pal, opera star Richard Troxell who won the NYC musical theater crowd over—and fell in love with singing musicals himself!—in Do I Hear a Waltz? with me at Encores! a year ago. He's the full star package! Funny, handsome, smart and a voice to knock your socks off.”
Referring to the song “I Hate Men,” she said, “As much as I love men, I'll give it my best when I have to sing otherwise. I hope New Yorkers will plan a weekend now, grab a motel room and a beach chair and come have some fun.”
Errico also was a special guest performer on Playbill’s Broadway on the High Seas cruise to the Caribbean. Cabins are available for Playbill’s Rhine River cruise in August 2017, featuring Seth Rudetsky, Andréa Burns, Faith Prince, Terrence Mann, Charlotte d’Amboise, and Santino Fontana. Playbill Travel is now also booking Broadway on the Danube River for November 2017, with Carmen Cusack, Christopher Fitzgerald, Marc Kudisch, Julia Murney, Christopher Sieber, Brandon Uranowitz, and Rudetsky, as well as other exciting talent to be announced. Visit PlaybillTravel.com for booking and information.
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