NEW YORK (AP) — Camryn Manheim is joining the Deaf West Theatre production of “Spring Awakening” on Broadway.
Producers said Monday that Manheim will play several female roles in the Tony Award-winning rock musical about a dozen young people discovering their sexual identities. The revival is choreographed by Spencer Liff, directed by Michael Arden and will feature a cast of 28 that blends hearing and deaf performers.
Previews begin Sept. 8 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre and will be performed simultaneously in English and American Sign Language. Tickets are now on sale.
Manheim, whose TV credits include “Extant,” ”Person of Interest,” Harry’s Law and eight years on “”The Practice,” returns to the stage for the first time since 2007 when she played the Nurse in “Romeo and Juliet” in Central Park.
After earning her master’s from New York University, Manheim spent the next eight years performing off-Broadway. Her first play in New York was “Hydriotaphia,” written and directed by Tony Kushner. In 1995 she wrote and starred in her one-woman show, “Wake Up, I’m Fat!”
Manheim joins a cast that includes Marlee Matlin, Krysta Rodriguez (who was in the original cast) and Andy Mientus. Broadway veterans Patrick Page from “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” and “Cyrano De Bergerac,” as well as Russell Harvard from the TV show “Fargo” and the film “There Will Be Blood” also has joined the line-up.
The original Broadway production of “Spring Awakening” won eight Tony Awards, including best musical, and helped the careers of Rodriquez, Jennifer Damiano and Lea Michele.
Deaf West put on its revival in Los Angeles last year. It is best known for its revival of “Big River,” which played Broadway in 2003. The producers of the revival are Ken Davenport, Cody Lassen, Hunter Arnold and Deaf West Theatre.
___
Online: www.springawakeningthemusical.com
___
Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits