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TOOTSIE

TOOTSIE tells the story of a talented but difficult actor who struggles to find work until an audacious, desperate stunt lands him the role of a lifetime.

TOOTSIE features an original score by Tony Award-winner David Yazbek (The Band’s Visit, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), a book by Robert Horn (13; Dame Edna, Back with a Vengeance), choreography by Tony Award nominee Denis Jones (Holiday Inn, Honeymoon in Vegas), and musical direction by Andrea Grody (The Band’s Visit). TOOTSIE will be directed by eight-time Tony Award nominee and Olivier Award winner Scott Ellis (She Loves Me, On the Twentieth Century).

The company is led by Tony Award nominee SANTINO FONTANA as Michael Dorsey, LILLI COOPER as Julie Nichols, SARAH STILES as Sandy Lester, JOHN BEHLMANN as Max Van Horn, ANDY GROTELUESCHEN as Jeff Slater, JULIE HALSTON as Rita Marshall, MICHAEL McGRATH as Stan Fields, and REG ROGERS as Ron Carlisle.

The company also includes SISSY BELL, BARRY BUSBY, PAULA LEGGETT CHASE, BRITNEY COLEMAN, LESLIE DONNA FLESNER, JENIFER FOOTE, JOHN ARTHUR GREENE, DREW KING, JEFF KREADY, HARRIS MILGRIM, ADAM MONLEY, SHINA ANN MORRIS, JAMES MOYE, KATERINA PAPACOSTAS, DIANA VADEN, and ANTHONY WAYNE.

The design team for TOOTSIE includes scenic designer David Rockwell, costume designer William Ivey Long, lighting designer Donald Holder, sound designer Brian Ronan, hair and wig design by Paul Huntley, make-up design by Angelina Avallone. Casting is by Jim Carnahan C.S.A. Music supervision is by Andrea Grody & Dean Sharenow, vocal arrangements by Andrea Grody, dance arrangements by David Chase, orchestrations by Simon Hale, and music coordination by Dean Sharenow.

TOOTSIE is produced by Scott Sanders Productions, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Carol Fineman, Columbia Live Stage, Sally Horchow, James L. Nederlander, Judith Ann Abrams, Robert Greenblatt, Benjamin Lowy, Cindy and Jay Gutterman/Marlene and Gary Cohen, Stephanie P. McClelland, Michael Harrison/David Ian, A Few Good Women Productions, Roy Furman, Peter May, Seriff Productions LLC, Tom McGrath/42nd.club, The John Gore Organization, Independent Presenters Network, Chris and Ashlee Clarke, Phil Goldfine, Jonathan Littman, The Woodland Hills Broadway Group.

BIOS

DAVID YAZBEK (Music & Lyrics) has become one of Broadway’s preeminent composer/lyricists. Three of his shows, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown have been nominated for Best Score Tony Awards. He is a Tony Award winner for his most recent musical, The Band’s Visit, which opened on Broadway to rave reviews and has been named to every Best of the Year list for 2017. The show also received 10 Tony Awards, as well as the Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical. He’s also received three Grammy nominations and a Drama Desk Award. Yazbek won an Outstanding Writing Emmy Award for his stint on Late Night with David Letterman. He scored the last season of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, wrote the theme song to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, and has written hundreds of songs, scripts, scores and jingles for adult and children’s TV. As a recording artist, Yazbek is responsible for five albums—The Laughing Man, Tock, Damascus, Tape Recorder, and Evil Monkey Man. He has written and/or produced for such acts as XTC, Ruben Blades, The Persuasions, Joe Jackson, Tito Puente and many others. As a performer, he and his band are engaged in an ongoing series of monthly shows at NYC’s 54 Below club.

ROBERT HORN (Book) has written or co-written the books for Dame Edna, Back with a Vengeance; 13 with Jason Robert Brown; Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical, with Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark; Lone Star Love with the Red Clay Ramblers; and Dandy with composer Andreas Carlsson. Mr. Horn has also made contributions to numerous large-scale live events, such as Bette Midler’s 2016 Divine Intervention world tour. He has written, created, or produced such television series as Designing Women, Living Single, High Society, The Jenny Rivera Show, Car Wash, and the Kelsey Grammar/Martin Lawrence series Partners, to name just a few. Mr. Horn’s film and teleplay credits also include Teen Beach Movie (and its sequel), Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure, Wild Life, and Good Advice.

SCOTT ELLIS’ (Director) Broadway credits include She Loves Me (2016 Tony Award nomination), On the Twentieth Century, You Can’t Take It With You (Tony nomination), The Elephant Man, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Tony nomination), Harvey, Curtains (Tony nomination), The Little Dog Laughed (Drama League Award nomination), Twelve Angry Men (Tony nomination), The Man Who Had All the Luck, The Rainmaker, 1776 (Drama Desk Award and Tony nominations), She Loves Me (Tony nomination, also in London where he received the Olivier Award for Best Revival and Best Director), Picnic (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination), Company, A Month in the Country and Steel Pier (Tony nomination). Off-Broadway credits include Dada Woof Papa Hot; The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin; Gruesome Playground Injuries; Streamers; Good Boys and True; Entertaining Mr. Sloane; Flora, the Red Menace (Drama Desk nomination); And the World Goes ’Round (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards) and The Waverly Gallery. His television credits include “Dr. Ken” (pilot), “Undateable” (pilot), “Two Broke Girls,” “The Good Wife,” “The Closer,” “Weeds” (executive producer), “30 Rock” (Emmy Award nomination for Best Director), and “Modern Family.”

DENIS JONES (Choreographer). Recent credits include Holiday Inn, The New Irving Berlin Musical (Tony Award nomination); Honeymoon in Vegas (Broadway); Forum (Two River/ Williamstown Theatre Festival); Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical (Dallas Theater Center); The Tempest (New York Shakespeare Festival); and Paint Your Wagon (NY City Center Encores!).

ANDREA GRODY (Music Director) is currently the Music Director and Supervisor of the Broadway musical The Band’s Visit. Recent projects include the world premieres of Shaina Taub’s As You Like It (Public Works), The Band’s Visit (Atlantic Theater Company), Cake Off (Signature Theatre/Bucks County Playhouse), The Fortress of Solitude (Public Theater/Dallas Theater Center), Unknown Soldier (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and Love’s Labour’s Lost (Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park); and the regional premieres of The Great Immensity and Venice (Public Theater). Other favorites include Assassins (Yale Rep) and Robin Hood as Composer/Music Director (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Writing credits include the full-length musical Strange Faces and several songs for The Civilians’ Let Me Ascertain You series.

TOOTSIE is produced by SCOTT SANDERS PRODUCTIONS (Scott Sanders and Carol Fineman), an award winning theatre, film and television production company that was acquired by Westfield in 2016, where Mr. Sanders was named Creative Head of Global Entertainment. SSP was most recently represented on Broadway as the lead producer of the acclaimed 2016 Tony Award-winning revival of The Color Purple. That production was also the recipient of a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album and a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Performance on NBC’s “Today.” The Color Purple is currently playing to rave reviews on a highly successful tour across North America. Scott Sanders Productions has developed and produced such stage properties as After Midnight, which won a Tony Award in 2014; the Tony Award-winning Elaine Stritch at Liberty; the first-ever Broadway revival of Evita starring Ricky Martin, Elena Roger and Michael Cerveris; the critically acclaimed The Pee-wee Herman Show (on Broadway and in Los Angeles); Oprah Winfrey at Radio City Music Hall and O Magazine’s 10th Anniversary.

TOOTSIE is based on the story by Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart and the Columbia Pictures Motion Picture.

For more information visit: TootsieMusical.com