Kendall, Tucker, Zarrett et al. Cast in Musicals Tonight!’s Shinbone Alley

Trent Armand Kendall, Allyson Tucker, and Lee Zarrett are set to star in the upcoming Musicals Tonight! concert presentation of Shinbone Alley, the 1957 tuner based on the “archy & mehitabel” stories written by journalist Don Marquis in 1916. The show will play the McGinn/Cazale Theater, November 7-19; it will be directed by Thomas Mills, with musical direction by Rick Hip-Flores.

In the musical, a newspaperman relates the stories written by a very literate cockroach called Archy as the roach jumps up and down on the keys of his typewriter. Archy writes about what he knows best: the citizens of Shinbone Alley and his unrequited love for the alley cat Mehitabel. The show has a book by Joe Darion and Mel Brooks, music by George Kleinsinger, and lyrics by Darion. The original 1957 Broadway production starred Eddie Bracken, Eartha Kitt, Jacques d’Amboise, George S. Irving, and Allegra Kent, with Tom Poston and Chita Rivera as the leads’ standbys.

The cast of the Musicals Tonight! presentation also includes Kim Brownell, Thursday Farrar, Elena Gutierrez, Gene Jones, Erik McEwen, Lisa Marie Morabito, Val Moranto, Leajato Amara Robinson, Kwame Michael Remy, and Justin Sayre.

Kendall, who will play the tomcat Big Bill, appeared on Broadway in the revival of Into the Woods and Off-Broadway in such shows as Bat Boy. Tucker, who will play Mehitabel, has been seen on Broadway in Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, Man of La Mancha (which starred her husband, Brian Stokes Mitchell), Follies, and Ragtime. Zarrett, who will play Archy, has appeared in the Broadway productions of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Jane Eyre.

For more information, visit www.musicalstonight.org.