Doctor Zhivago Star Tom Hewitt & More Set for Josh Young-Led Amazing Grace on Broadway
As the saying goes, one door closes, another opens... Tom Hewitt, who starred in the recent short-lived production of Doctor Zhivago, has been tapped for the role of Captain Newton in Amazing Grace. Tickets are also now available for the musical, which will begin performances at Broadway's Nederlander Theatre on June 25 under the direction of Gabriel Barre. Opening night is set for July 16.
Hewitt received a Tony nod for The Rocky Horror Show; additional Great White Way credits include Jesus Christ Superstar, Chicago and The Lion King. Rounding out the company will be Leslie Becker (Bonnie & Clyde), Mike Evariste (Hair), Sean Ewing (West Side Story), Christopher Gurr (All the Way), Vince Oddo (Rocky), Oneika Phillips (Fela!), Clifton Samuels (Follies), Dan Sharkey (Bridges of Madison County), Bret Shuford (Little Mermaid), Charles E. Wallace (Miss Saigon), Hollie E. Wright (Hot Feet), with Sara Brophy, Rheaume Crenshaw, Miquel Edson, Savannah Frazier, Allen Kendall, Michael Dean Morgan, Gavriel Savit, Evan Alexander Smith, Uyoata Udi and Toni Elizabeth White making their Broadway debuts.
They join the previously announced Josh Young, Erin Mackey, Chuck Cooper, Chris Hoch, Harriett D. Foy, Laiona Michelle, Rachael Ferrera and Elizabeth Ward Land in the cast.
Featuring music and lyrics by Christopher Smith and a book by Smith and Arthur Giron, Amazing Grace is based on the true story behind the beloved song. A tale of romance, rebellion and redemption, the show follows one man whose incredible journey ignited a historic wave of change that gave birth to the abolitionist movement. John Newton (Young), a willful and musically talented young Englishman, faces a future as uncertain as the turning tide. Coming of age as Britain sits atop an international empire of slavery, he finds himself torn between following in the footsteps of his father—a slave trader—and embracing the more compassionate views of his childhood sweetheart (Mackey).
Amazing Grace played a pre-Broadway engagement in Chicago in fall 2014, in which Hewitt also starred.
