August 7, 2018
Yesterday was the first day of Legally Blonde rehearsals and so began Paramount’s Broadway Series Season Eight! Met with salvos of enthusiastic cheers, CEO and President Tim Rater and our box office, marketing, and production staffs were introduced to Director Trent Stork’s high decibel star wattage cast! (Take note of their names here as there is no doubt you will be hearing about them well into next year!)
Triple threat singing, dancing, acting talents all of them, our knock-out ensemble of beauty, brains and brawn include: Brittany Coriaci, Gilbert Domally, Michael Ehlers, Lara Hayhurst, Will Herndon, Ruchir Khazanchi, Yando Lopez, Mallory Maedke, María Alejandra Montero Guzman, LaShera Zenise Moore, John Pletka, Sierra Schnack, Will Skrip, Anthony Sullivan Jr., Leryn Turlington, Aaron Umsted, Janelle Villas, J Tyler Whitmer, and Missy Wise.
Our leading UCLA Delta Nu Sorority Sisters are personified by Kyrie Courter as Pilar, Lucy Godinez as Serena, and Sara Reinecke as Margot. Teressa LaGamba is power-belting feminist Enid Hoops, James Doherty is Kyle B. O’Boyle (the dreamy UPS guy), Jeff Award-winning Jacquelyne Jones is the stunning, classy, law student Vivienne Kensington and with her kilowatt energy, Jenna Coker-Jones is exercise video star, Brooke Wyndham, the defendant in the story’s murder case.
Heartthrob Warner Huntington III, driven law career hopeful with an eye on the senate, is played by Tyler Lain with model good looks and Chicago theater favorite, Jeff Award winner James Rank returns to Paramount (our 42nd Street’s Pat Denning) to play manipulative, conniving and charismatic, Harvard Law’s Professor Callahan.
From our multi-Jeff awarded Best Musical Les Misérables, Chicago A-list singer-actress Sophie Grimm brings her formidable comic chops to the lovable beauty salon owner, Paulette Buonofuonte. Directly from the closing night on Sunday of Broadway’s A Bronx Tale, handsome Gerald Caesar makes his Paramount debut as Emmett Forrest with his gorgeous crowd-pleasing pop tenor vocals. Speaking of debuts, of the cast of 31 artists, 18 of them will be on the Paramount stage for the first time. Leading all of them and making her debut here herself as the unstoppable Elle Woods, is our young star and show-stopping powerhouse, Casey Shuler.
Not only pretty in pink, this girl can sing! Add to that a warmth, vulnerability, sweet and smart, she’s gonna win your heart!
The energy in the room yesterday was seismic, the magnitude of which I’ve never quite felt before! (The only thing getting old around here is me!) The entire season is shaping up to be unforgettable! And I promise you, we’re starting off with a theatrical blast!
Love & thanks,
Jim
