© broadway.com
6/18/2003


Cast Set for Jackie Mason Laughing Room Only
by Cara Joy David

As we reported on May 2, Jackie Mason Laughing Room Only, the first ever musical starring the famed comedian, is indeed landing at the Brooks Atkinson Theater this fall. The show will begin previews at the Broadway house on October 23 in preparation for a November 19 opening. Joining Mason in the cast will be Darrin Baker, Robert Creighton, Barry Finkel, Ruth Gottschall and Cheryl Stern.

In Laughing Room Only, Mason plays himself. Inspired to produce a Broadway musical, he doesn't want to pay $10 million to do it. So he sets off to work it all out for the wholesale price of $19.99! Mason will prepare and cast the show onstage and then, in the grand tradition of show-within-a-show pieces, will present his $19.99 musical to audience members at the Brooks Atkinson. Directed by former Paper Mill Playhouse artistic director Robert Johanson, Laughing Room Only, based on an idea by film and television writer Digby Wolfe, features a script by Dennis Blair and music by Doug Katsaros (whose credits include scoring the Fox animated series The Tick).

Baker's Broadway credits include Sunset Boulevard, The Scarlet Pimpernel and Footloose. Creighton, a Canadian who appeared in The Lion King in Toronto and Los Angeles, will make his Broadway debut with Laughing Room Only. Finkel's theatrical credits include Broadway productions of Side Show and High Society and off-Broadway mountings of Pageant and Lust. Gottschall's Broadway credits include The Music Man, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Goodbye Girl and Cabaret. Stern's theatrical credits include Broadway revival of The Women and off-Broadway's I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.

In addition to those mentioned above, the creative team of Laughing Room Only also includes choreographer Michael Lichtefeld (whose Broadway credits include revivals of Sweeney Todd, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Sound of Music and the new musical The Secret Garden), set designer Michael Anania, costume designer Thom Heyer and lighting designer Paul D. Miller.


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