Idina Menzel, Orfeh & More Set for Romantic Poetry Benefit

A starry cast will gather to perform Romantic Poetry: The Musicale a special one-night-only event to benefit LAByrinth Theatre Company on May 21 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. The new show features music by Tony Award and Academy Award nominee Henry Krieger Dreamgirls and book and lyrics by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley Doubt.

The cast for Romantic Poetry subject to availability will include Carlo Alban, Anastasia Barzee, Kim Director, Bill Evans, Ivan Hernandez, Andy Karl, Mark Linn-Baker, Chris McGarry, Idina Menzel, Patina Miller and Orfeh.

Romantic Poetry is described as a soaring love song to impossible romance. In the presumably tongue-in-cheek words of Krieger and Shanley, "You will laugh, you will cry, you will shake your head. You will embrace your fellow audience members, and gasp: ‘Thank God we were here!' You will make friends for life. The show will improve marriages, turn casual dates into torrid assignations, and reduce cynics to autograph hounds! Be there or face years of loneliness!"

LAByrinth's one-night benefit performance of Romantic Poetry: The Musicale will provide an advance look at this new musical, which is scheduled to premiere at New York Stage & Film this summer.