Noted Broadway player and Tony Award Winning singer/actor Brian Stokes Mitchell will be starring in a stage adaptation of the MGM silver screen hit The Band Wagon. Having recently participated in Delacore Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado…earlier this summer, Mitchell’s limited engagement will run from November 6-16 at City Center.
With a book being adapted from the Betty Comden and Adolph Green screenplay by Douglas Carter Beane, and featuring direction and choreography by Kathleen Marshall, it seems this production is being crafted by some very skilled hands.
The press notes have given some clues about what it will be like describing it as, “A washed-up Hollywood star trying to make a comeback by doing a Broadway show, a British director who is a genius but has no business directing a musical, a leading lady who’s never done a show before, and a composer and a lyricist who are at each other’s throats. All the things that could never happen in the New York theater today.”
If you’re not readily familiar with Mitchell’s work you might recall him from his role as Ivan in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown back in 2010, or from Kiss Me, Kate in 2000 which lead to his Tony win for Best Actor that year. Brian has also done a number of television and film appearances such as Hillary’s ill-fated fiance Trevor on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, one of Rachel Berry’s dads on the hit ABC show Glee, and he also starred opposite Angela Bassett in the movie Jumping the Broom.
A little history about the project, written back in 1953, Betty Comden and Adolph Green used music from Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz to tell the story of their film, and the title drew it’s inspiration from the famed 1931 revue they worked in collaboration with George S. Kaufman. In this recent adaptation, Todd Ellison is at the helm of music direction and has plans with Beane to use the original screenplay and will include numbers such as, “Dancing in the Dark”, “A Shine on My Shoes” and “That’s Entertainment”. You can purchase tickets for this show beginning September 2nd by visiting the New York City Center Box Office at West 55th st. between 6th. & 7th ave., by calling (212) 581-1212 or by logging on to their website
