Raúl Esparza, acclaimed for his performances in The Rocky Horror Show, Cabaret, tick, tick…BOOM! and Comedians in New York and in the Sondheim Celebration productions of Merrily We Roll Along and Sunday in the Park With George at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., will play Crown Prince Rudolf, doomed heir to the Hapsburg throne, in two concert performances of the new musical City of Dreams on Monday, March 10 at the Lamb’s Theatre in Manhattan.
Also featured in the cast are Alison Fraser (a Tony Award nominee for Romance, Romance and The Secret Garden) as a scheming countess and Nancy Anderson (a 2002 Olivier Award nominee for her role of Lois/Bianca in the London production of Kiss Me, Kate) as a young social-climber whose affair with the crown prince threatens to topple the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
A re-imagining of true historical events, City of Dreams is set in turn-of-the-century Vienna. The musical “weaves a young Sigmund Freud (Adam Heller) and painter Gustav Klimt (Tom Zemon) into the story of a royal family at war with itself as a great, gilded city teeters on the edge of the violent modern age.” The cast of the concert presentation of the show also includes Kirk McDonald, Danielle Ferland, Kristin Griffith, D. Michael Berkowitz, and Michael Mendiola.
City of Dreams has music by Joseph Zellnik, book and lyrics by David Zellnik. The concert will be directed by Chris Smith of Ensemble Studio Theatre, who was recently appointed the new artistic director of the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. The show had a successful run in the 2002 Midtown International Theater Festival and was performed in Europe at the first International Music Theater Festival in Cardiff, Wales.
The concert will be presented by the National Music Theatre Network/BroadwayUSA on March 10 at 4pm and 7pm at The Lamb’s Theatre, located at 130 West 44th Street. All tickets are $15 and may be purchased by phoning 212-664-0979. Tickets are $15.00. For more information, visit the website www.zellnik.com/cityofdreams.