Ben Levi Ross, Beth Leavel, Brad Oscar, and More to Star in Workshop of Revised My Favorite Year

Asolo Repertory Theatre is developing a revised version of the musical My Favorite Year, with a score by the Tony Award-winning team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens and book by Joseph Dougherty. A workshop directed by Josh Rhodes is being held in New York City.

The workshop stars Tony nominee Chris Hoch as Alan Swann, Tony nominee Ben Levi Ross as Benjy Stone, Julie Benko as Alice Miller, Marina Kondo as K.C. Downing, Tony nominee Brad Oscar as King Kaiser, and Tony winner Beth Leavel as Belle Carroca Steinberg.

The cast also includes Orville Mendoza as Rookie, Briana Carlson-Goodman as Aunt Sadie, Robert Anthony Jones as Sy, Lyrica Woodruff as Tess, Stuart Zagnit as Uncle Morty, and Rob Tucker as Herb.

Based on the 1982 film, My Favorite Year is set in New York in 1954, when young comedy writer Benjy Stone is handed the assignment of a lifetime: keep the show’s guest star, the hard-drinking, swashbuckling screen idol Alan Swann, sober and out of trouble for one week leading up to the live broadcast.

The workshop features a revised version of the musical, which premiered on Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater in 1992. New material by Ahrens, Flaherty, and Dougherty was developed in collaboration with Asolo Rep, continuing the theater’s relationship with Ahrens and Flaherty, whose Knoxville (retitled All the Way Home) premiered at Asolo Rep in 2022.

The creative team includes David Holcenberg (music director), Jack Richman (music assistant), James Monaghan (dramaturg), Nia Sciarretta (stage manager), and Esther Chilson (assistant stage manager).