INTERVIEW with Broadway Star MAX VON ESSEN

Tony Award Nominee MAX VON ESSEN discusses his critically hailed performances as Marvin in the National Tour of FALSETTOS and the life changing impact this production has had in his life. FALSETTOS, William Finn and James Lapine’s groundbreaking, Tony Award-winning musical, will play Broadway In Chicago’s Oriental Theatre (24 W. Randolph) for a limited engagement May 28 – June 9, 2019.For more information, visit BroadwayInChicago.com

MAX VON ESSEN (Marvin) most recently starred in the Broadway production of Anastasia as Gleb Vaganov. He is perhaps best known to audiences as Henri Baurel in the Award-winning production of An American in Paris, a role which earned him nominations for the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Grammy Awards. Other Broadway credits include the revivals of Evita, Les Misérables and Jesus Christ Superstar as well as Dance of the Vampires and the closing company of the original Les Misérables.

Additional New York credits include Yours Unfaithfully for the Mint Theater, Death Takes a Holiday for the Roundabout Theater Company, The Jerry Springer Opera at Carnegie Hall, Hello Again (Drama League nomination) for The Transport Group, Finian’s Rainbow for the Irish Repertory Theater and many others.

Tours include Xanadu, Chicago and West Side Story. Television and film credits include Law & Order: SVU, Elementary, Boardwalk Empire, The Good Wife, Royal Pains, Gossip Girl, The Beautiful Life, The Intern, Seven Lovers, Sex and the City 2, and the hit web series, Submissions Only.

Max’s concert work has brought him across the country and Canada, including The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall and a recent sold-out solo run at the famed Birdland Jazz Club in New York City. Recordings include An American in Paris, Evita, Death Takes a Holiday, Finian’s Rainbow, Love Songs of Andrew Lloyd Weber and Broadway by the Year: 1928. @maxizpad.

Purchase Max’s fantastic new album CALL ME OLD FASHIONED

FALSETTOS PERFORMANCE INFORMATION & TICKETS

Broadway In Chicago is thrilled to announce the 2019 National Tour of the Lincoln Center Theater Broadway Production of FALSETTOS, William Finn and James Lapine’s groundbreaking, Tony Award-winning musical, will play Broadway In Chicago’s Oriental Theatre (24 W. Randolph) for a limited engagement May 28 – June 9, 2019. This production was nominated for five Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival when it returned to Broadway in Fall 2016. FALSETTOS will be part of Broadway In Chicago’s upcoming season. Subscriptions will go on sale in the fall of 2018.

The North American Tour of The Lincoln Center Theater Broadway production of FALSETTOS is directed once again by James Lapine. The production has choreography by Spencer Liff (Emmy Award nominee for FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance), sets by David Rockwell (Hairspray, The Normal Heart, She Loves Me), costumes by Jennifer Caprio (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), lighting by Jeff Croiter (Bandstand, Something Rotten!), sound by Dan Moses Schreier (A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, Gypsy with Patti Lupone), casting by Eric Woodall / Tara Rubin Casting, and features Michael Starobin’s (Assassins, Next to Normal) original orchestrations.

The North American Tour of The Lincoln Center Theater Broadway production of FALSETTOS is produced by Jujamcyn Theaters and NETworks Presentations.

FALSETTOS revolves around the life of a charming, intelligent, neurotic gay man named Marvin, his wife, lover, about-to- be-Bar-Mitzvahed son, their psychiatrist, and the lesbians next door. It’s a hilarious and achingly poignant look at the infinite possibilities that make up a modern family… and a beautiful reminder that love can tell a million stories.

This production of FALSETTOS marks a happy reunion for composer/lyricist William Finn and playwright/director James Lapine. In 1981, Finn and Lapine’s new one-act musical March of the Falsettos premiered at Playwrights Horizons’ second floor 75-seat space. The story of a gay man named Marvin, his lover Whizzer, Marvin’s wife Trina, son Jason, and their psychiatrist Mendel, March of the Falsettos was a critical success, described by The New York Times as “a musical find.” It eventually moved to Playwrights Horizons’ larger downstairs theater for an extended engagement before enjoying a long run Off-Broadway at what was then known as the Westside Arts Theatre.

Fast forward to 1990, when a second new musical by Finn and Lapine, Falsettoland, opened at Playwrights Horizons. A continuation of the story of Marvin and his extended family in the early days of the AIDS crisis, Falsettoland repeated the success of its predecessor with rave reviews and a move to the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

In 1992, the two one-act musicals were combined into one and opened on Broadway as FALSETTOS. FALSETTOS ran for over a year at the John Golden Theatre and won Tony Awards for Finn’s score and Finn and Lapine’s book.

Casting will be announced at a later date.

BIOGRAPHIES

William Finn and James Lapine’s musical A New Brain (with music and lyrics by Finn and book by Finn and Lapine) played at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater in 1998 and won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. Additionally, Lapine and Finn have collaborated on the musicals Muscle and Little Miss Sunshine. Lapine also directed Finn’s musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on Broadway, for which they received Tony nominations for both direction and original score.

William Finn’s Elegies: A Song Cycle premiered at Lincoln Center Theater in 2003. He wrote and composed In Trousers (L.A. Drama Critics Award); America Kicks Up Its Heels (Playwrights Horizons); and Make Me A Song (New York Stages); as well as Romance in Hard Times, Love’s Fire: Fresh Numbers by Seven American Playwrights, and scores for Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and As You Like It, all for The Public Theater. He graduated from Williams College, where he was awarded the Hutchinson Fellowship in Musical Composition.

James Lapine wrote and directed the Tony Award-nominated play Act One from the autobiography by Moss Hart and directed his play Twelve Dreams. In addition to directing the recent HBO documentary Six by Sondheim, Lapine collaborated with Stephen Sondheim as author and director on the musicals Sunday in the Park with George (Pulitzer Prize), Into the Woods, Passion (Tony Award), and the multi-media revue Sondheim on Sondheim. On Broadway, he directed the 2013 revival of the musical Annie, Golden Child, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Amour. His other plays include Luck, Pluck and Virtue, The Moment When, Fran’s Bed, and Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets are available for groups of 10 or more by calling Broadway In Chicago Group Sales at (312) 977-1710 or emailing GroupSales@BroadwayInChicago.com. Individual tickets for FALSETTOS will go on-sale at a later date. For more information, visit BroadwayInChicago.com.

ABOUT BROADWAY IN CHICAGO

Broadway In Chicago was created in July 2000 and over the past 18 years has grown to be one of the largest commercial touring homes in the country. A Nederlander Presentation, Broadway In Chicago lights up the Chicago Theater District entertaining more than 1.7 million people annually in five theatres. Broadway In Chicago presents a full range of entertainment, including musicals and plays, on the stages of five of the finest theatres in Chicago’s Loop including the Cadillac Palace Theatre, CIBC Theatre, Oriental Theatre, and just off the Magnificent Mile, the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place and presenting Broadway shows at The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University. For more information, visit www.BroadwayInChicago.com.

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