Theater Favorites to Star in a Broadway ‘Disaster!’
A slew of Broadway favorites — including Faith Prince, Roger Bart, Kerry Butler, Adam Pascal, Kevin Chamberlin and Rachel York — will star on Broadway this spring in the disaster-movie musical spoof “Disaster!”
Written by Seth Rudetsky (pictured above) and Jack Plotnick, “Disaster!” picked up considerable buzz over a series of Off Broadway runs, most recently in the spring of 2014.
Writer-pianist Rudetsky is one of the better-known backstage figures along Broadway, thanks to an ongoing gig as the afternoon Broadway host on SiriusXM radio. A regular concert accompanist for theater stars such as Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone, he also recently penned the novel “The Rise and Fall of a Theater Geek.” Plotnick, who directs “Disaster!,” co-wrote and directed last year’s starry scifi comedy “Space Station 76.”
Rudetsky’s deep roots in the Broadway community shows in the cast that’s come together for “Disaster!,” which will star Tony winners Bart (“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” “The Producers”) and Prince (“Guys and Dolls”) as well as stage veterans Butler (“Xanadu,” “Hairspray”), Chamberlin (“The Addams Family”), Pascal (“Rent”) and York (“Victor/Victoria”). Max Crumm, Jennifer Simard and Lacretta Nicole also appear in the cast, as will Rudetsky.
A comic riff on films such as “The Poseidon Adventure” and “Airport 1975,” “Disaster!” centers on the revelers at New York’s first floating casino and disco, as the new establishment is battered by all manner of natural disasters. Tunes for the show are drawn from the hits of the 1970s, with a song list that includes “I Am Woman,” “Daybreak” and “Hot Stuff.” Joann M. Hunter choreographs.
Robert Ahrens (“Xanadu”) leads a Broadway producing team that also includes Mickey Liddell/LD Entertainment, Hunter Arnold, James Wesley and Jim Burba and Bob Hayes in association with Katherine McGregor, Mary J. David and Stephen CuUnjieng.
The Broadway production of “Disaster!” begins previews Feb. 9 ahead of a March 8 opening at the Nederlander Theater, where the musical “Amazing Grace” shuttered last month.
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