Charles Sykes/Associated Press Bryce PinkhamCasting additions to two shows scheduled for the coming Broadway season were announced on Monday. Bryce Pinkham, who is playing Longaville in the Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of “Love’s Labor Lost,†will join the cast of “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,†the musical by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak that had a successful run in Hartford last fall and opens on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theater on Oct. 22. Mr. Pinkham is to play Monty Navarro, who stands to become the Earl of Highhurst once he dispatches the eight better claimants. Those eight heirs are all portrayed by Jefferson Mays, who played the octuple role in Hartford. The show is directed by Darko Tresnjak.
Ruby Washington/The New York Times LaChanzeLater in the season, the Tony Award-winning actress and singer LaChanze (“The Color Purpleâ€) will star in in “If/Then,†a new musical by Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt, with Michael Greif directing - the same team that produced the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning “Next to Normal.†LaChanze will play Kate, an elementary school teacher who moves back to Manhattan just before her 40th birthday to make a fresh start. The cast also includes Idina Menzel as Kate’s neighbor, Elizabeth. The play will have a month-long run at the National Theater in Washington, starting Nov. 5; it is to open on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theater on March 27.
Also announced on Monday was the Off Broadway run of “Brendan at the Chelsea,†the United States premiere Janet Behan’s play about the last weeks in the life of the Irish poet, playwright and novelist Brendan Behan (who was Ms. Behan’s uncle). The production, by the Lyric Theater of Belfast, will star Adrian Dunbar (who also directs the show), and will have a five-week run at the Acorn Theater, starting on Sept. 4.
