Mazzie, Sills, Boggess & More to Star in Music in the Air for Encores!

Marin Mazzie, Douglas Sills, Dick Latessa, Tom Alan Robbins, Sierra Boggess, Walter Charles, Anne L. Nathan and Sally Ann Howes will headline Music in the Air, the second production of Encores! 2008-2009 season at New York City Center. The show will play five performances, February 5-8, 2009, directed by Gary Griffin.

Music in the Air, which features music by Jerome Kern, book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett, has not been seen in New York in its original form since its Broadway premiere at the Alvin Theatre on November 8, 1932. It played for 342 performances in a production directed by the authors and was briefly revived at the Ziegfeld Theatre in 1951.

A musical romance, Music in the Air is the story of a Bavarian music teacher Robbins, his beautiful young daughter Boggess, and the daughter’s suitor, who travel to the big, bad city of Munich where they encounter a cast of self-involved, egotistical theater folk who promise them fame, fortune and romance. Mazzie and Sills play a Diva Mazzie and an operetta librettist Sills who take the young couple under their wings and claws. Songs include “I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star” and “The Song Is You.”

Mazzie most recently played the Lady in the Lake in Spamalot has given Tony-nominated performances in Kiss Me Kate, Ragtime and Passion. Other Broadway credits include Man of LaMancha, Into the Woods and Big River and Camelot at the New York Philharmonic.

Sills received a Tony nomination for the title role in The Scarlet Pimpernel and appeared in the Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors and the Kennedy Center’s production of A Little Night Music and the L.A. premiere of Chess.

Boggess is currently playing the title role in the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid and played Christine in the Las Vegas production of The Phantom of the Opera and Cosette in the national tour of Les Miserables.

Latessa won a Tony for playing Wilbur Turnblad in Hairspray and his many Broadway credits include Cabaret, Damn Yankees, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Follies, Rags, The Cherry Orchard, Awake and Sing!, Broadway Bound, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Rumors and Chapter Two.

Robbins is currently appearing in The Lion King and has appeared on Broadway in Is He Dead?, Sunset Boulevard, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, The Threepenny Opera and Once Upon a Mattress.

Howes made her Broadway debut in 1957 when she replaced Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady and has starred in Kwamina, Brigadoon, What Makes Sammy Run? and in the film version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Truly Scrumptious.

Charles began his Broadway career in the original production of Grease and has appeared on Broadway in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Sweeney Todd, Cats, La Cage aux Folles, Me and My Girl, Aspects of Love, Kiss Me, Kate, The Boys from Syracuse, Big River, The Woman in Whiteand The Apple Tree.

Nathan has appeared on Broadway in Sunday in the Park with George, Assassins, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Ragtime and Chicago.

The Encores! production of Music in the Air will feature music direction by Rob Berman and choreography by Michael Lichtefeld.