FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tina Slak, 610.282.WILL [9455]
[email protected]
January 26, 2017
Center Valley, PA – Broadway actress Dee Roscioli will star at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival this summer in the season opener, Evita.
Roscioli, an Easton native and DeSales University graduate is best known for her long run as Elphaba on Broadway, and in the Chicago, San Francisco, and national touring productions of the hit musical Wicked. She has the distinction of playing the role of Elphaba in more performances in North America than any other actress.
Roscioli returns to PSF following her recent Broadway performance of Fruma-Sarah in the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof. She performed the leading role of Mrs. Lovett in the Festival’s 2012 production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
In the musical Evita Roscioli will portray Eva Peron, an extraordinary woman who rose from abject poverty in rural Argentina to become the First Lady by the age of 27. “Eva is one of those parts that is like a pot of gold for an actress…I can’t wait to know her.” Roscioli says.
In December Roscioli performed in her home-town of Easton as a featured vocalist in the Broadway musical review, Wicked Divas, presented with the Pennsylvania Philharmonic at the State Theatre of Easton.
“Anytime I get the opportunity to work with PSF and return to my roots in the Lehigh Valley I take it,” says Roscioli.
Evita will be directed by PSF’s Associate Artistic Director Dennis Razze, who was lauded for the Festival’s completely sold-out productions of West Side Story last summer and Les Misérables in 2015. Razze directed Roscioli in the Festival’s 2012 production of Sweeney Todd.
“I am beyond thrilled that Dee Roscioli has accepted our offer to play Eva Peron in PSF’s upcoming production of Evita,” says director Razze. “She was a marvelous Mrs. Lovett in our production of Sweeney Todd, and I have no doubt her Eva will be magnificent. Dee is a terrific actress and possesses one of the best voices on Broadway.”
“I’ve been working with Dennis Razze since I was a kid so we have a definite comfort level,” Roscioli says. “We had such a great time doing Sweeney Todd together. I’m really looking forward to working with him on this show.”
A seven-time Tony Award winning musical, with a dazzling score inspired by Latin, pop and jazz and filled with show-stopping numbers including the riveting anthem, “Don’t Cry for me Argentina,” Evita captures the complexity of an illegitimate child who came to be “the spiritual leader of the nation” and one of history’s most tragic and dramatic figures.
The production previews June 14 and 15, opens June 16 and runs through July 2 on the Main Stage of the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of DeSales University in Center Valley.
The Festival anticipates most performances of Evita to sell-out.
Roscioli will also perform during Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s annual gala Luminosity on June 3. In addition, she will perform a one-night-only concert at PSF this summer on July 31.
The 26th season will also feature Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Troilus and Cressida along with two world classics, The Three Musketeers and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Subscription packages and single tickets will go on sale February 15 at www.pashakespeare.org and 610-282-WILL [9455]. Discounts are available for subscribers, youth, and military.
Evita
Lyrics by Tim Rice
Music by Andrew Lloyd Weber
Seven-Time Tony Award Winner
Previews: 7pm Wednesday and Thursday, June 14 and 15
Opens: 8pm Friday, June 16
Performances: Tuesdays at 7pm, June 20 and 27; Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm, June 14 through 17, June 21 through June 24, and June 28 through July 1; 2pm Wednesday Matinees, June 21 and 28; 2pm Saturday Matinees, June 17 and 24, and July 1; 2pm Sunday Matinees, June 18 and 25, and July 2; 7:30pm Sunday evening, June 18.
PSF is a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, and a member of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, the Shakespeare Theatre Association, the Lehigh Valley Arts Council, and Discover Lehigh Valley.
David B. and Patrina L. Rothrock will serve as season sponsors. Associate season sponsors are the Harry C. Trexler Trust, Linda Lapos and Paul Wirth, and the Szarko family. The season media sponsor is The Morning Call.
The season runs June 2 through August 6. The schedule is:
Main Stage Theatre
Evita • June 14 – July 2
The Three Musketeers • July 12 – August 6
As You Like It• July 20 – August 6
Shakespeare for Kids • July 26 – August 6
Schubert Theatre
The Hound of the Baskervilles • June 21 – July 16
Troilus and Cressida • July 26 – August 6
The Ice Princess • June 2 – August 6
Media Representatives: High res photos available (and Dee Roscioli as Elphaba attached). Please contact Tina Slak, 610.282.WILL [9455] or [email protected]