An American in Paris Casts
The Australian Ballet and GWB Entertainment
The Australian Ballet and GWB Entertainment today announced that charismatic Broadway and West End leads Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope will reprise their show-stopping turns as the American GI Jerry Mulligan and the young Parisian dancer Lise Dassin in Australia in An American In Paris,
with two of the country’s leading lights Cameron Holmes and Dimity Azoury from The Australian Ballet, to alternate in the lead roles.
The four-time Tony Award®-winning Broadway musical, based on the classic movie with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin, features an outstanding Australian cast and ensemble drawn from the worlds of musical theatre and ballet, including theatre royalty Anne Wood as Madame Baurel, David Whitney (The Merry Widow, West Side Story on Sydney Harbour) as Monsieur Baurel, Ashleigh Rubenach (Cry-Baby, Muriel’s Wedding: The Musical) as Milo Davenport, Jonathan Hickey (Sweeney Todd, Aspects of Love) as Adam Hochberg, and Sam Ward (The Ten Tenors, Jesus Christ Superstar) as Henri Baurel.
Tony Award®-winning director and choreographer, Christopher Wheeldon said: “Auditioning for An American In Paris has been a revelation of the wealth of top-level talent in Australia and I feel blessed with the choices we have been able to make in casting the show – never an easy task. This is a truly wonderful group of performers to bring the production to the stage.
“And to be able to bring Robbie Fairchild and Leanne Cope back to reprise their roles from Paris, Broadway and the West End alongside the superb Australian Ballet duo of Dimity Azoury and Cameron Holmes is the absolute icing on this beautiful cake.”
The musical won four 2015 Tony Awards including Best Choreography for Christopher Wheeldon, four Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards, the Drama League Award for Best Musical, three Chita Rivera Awards and two Theatre World Awards. It was also included on the ‘Year’s Best’ lists of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, The New Yorker, the Associated Press and The Hollywood Reporter.
With a book by Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Lucas, Tony Award-winner Bob Crowley’s swoon-worthy set and costume design, drawing inspiration from some of France’s most famous artists, Tony Award-winner Natasha Katz’s brilliant lighting designs and astonishing projections by 59 Productions (also Tony Winners for their work on this production), An American In Paris opened to widespread critical acclaim at the Palace Theatre on Broadway in April 2015 after its world premiere at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. It has since gone on to tour London’s West End, Tokyo and Beijing.
The musical score is adapted, arranged and supervised by Rob Fisher, with orchestrations by Christopher Austin, dance arrangements by Sam Davis, musical supervision by Todd Ellison, additional orchestrations by Don Sebesky and Bill Elliott and musical direction by Vanessa Scammell. The Australian production will be realised by Hannah Ryan (Australian Staging), Sean Kelly (Principal Dance Director) and Stuart Winter (Associate Choreographer) with sound design by Kelvin Gedye (System Sound).
An American In Paris is produced in Australia by GWB Entertainment, The Australian Ballet, Stuart Oken, Van Kaplan and Roy Furman by special arrangement with Elephant Eye Theatrical & Pittsburgh CLO and Théâtre du Châtelet.
