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Shoshana Bean and Whitney Bashor Are the Winds Beneath Our Wings in Beaches

Check out these photos from the new stage musical version of the classic film.

Editorial Staff

Chicago

July 7, 2015

Broadway vets Shoshana Bean (Wicked) and Whitney Bashor (The Bridges of Madison County) star in the Chicago mounting of the new musical Beaches. Billed as a pre-Broadway run, the show plays the Drury Lane Theatre through August 16.

Shoshana Bean as Cee Cee Bloom with back-up dancers Josh Kohane and William Carlos Angulo.
(© Brett Beiner)

Bean and Bashor take on the roles of Cee Cee Bloom and Berti Whitee, whose friendship from childhood to adulthood is charted over the course of the show. Directed by Eric Shaeffer, the musical is inspired by Iris Rainer Dart's novel and features music by David Austin, lyrics by Dart, and a book by Dart and Thom Thomas.

Whitney Bashor as Bertie White in the stage musical version of Beaches. — Whitney Bashor as Bertie White in the stage musical version of *Beaches*.
(© Brett Beiner)

The full cast also includes Travis Taylor as John Perry, Nancy Voigts as Leona Bloom, Kelly Anne Clark as Rose White, Jim DeSelm as Michael Barron, Michael Accardo as Nathan Bloom, Andrew Varela as Arthur, Samantha Pauly as Teen Cee Cee, Olivia Renteria as Teen Bertie, Presley Ryan as Little Cee Cee, Brooklyn Schuck as Little Bertie/Nina, and William Carlos Angulo, Heather Brorsen, Josh Kohane, Christine Mild, and Holly Strauder.

Shoshana Bean and Whitney Bashor share a tender moment as Cee Cee Bloom and Whitney Bashor Bertie White. — Shoshana Bean and Whitney Bashor share a tender moment as Cee Cee Bloom and Bertie White.
(© Brett Beiner)

The story is perhaps best known from its 1988 film adaptation, which starred Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey. The musical version premiered in 2014 at Signature Theatre in Virginia with Alysha Umphress (On the Town) as Cee Cee and Mara Davi (A Chorus Line) as Bertie.