Rick Elice's PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS Opens At La Jolla

La Jolla Playhouse welcomes back Rick Elice, co-writer of the Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys, as the playwright of Peter and the Starcatchers. Alex Timbers and Roger Rees are set to direct with choreography by Kelly Devine and music by Wayne Barker. Peter and the Starcatchers will be playing at the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre at La Jolla Playhouse February 13 -March 8, 2009.

Based on the best-selling novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Peter and the Starcatchers dares to tell the real story of precisely how a desperate orphan in Victorian England became The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up. It's a tale that travels halfway round the world and straight up to the stars. It's a comedy that takes aim at social injustice. It's a romance of young heroes who risk everything for the sake of doing right. It's an exposé of extravagant villains possessed of a single-minded ferocity from which no good shall ever spring. In short, it's an awfully big adventure. La Jolla Playhouse will present Peter and the Starcatchers, a new play, as a part of its Page To Stage program, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions.

Adam Green has been cast in the role of Peter. He has appeared in Off-Broadway productions such as Election Day, All This Intimacy and None of the Above. Molly will be played by Celia Keenan-Bolger who most recently appeared on Broadway in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. She also appeared in Saved. Lost boy Prentiss will be played by Carson Elrod, who appeared in the La Jolla Playhouse production of Our Town. Elrod has also appeared on Broadway in Reckless and Noises Off. David Rossmer is cast as the ever - peckish lost boy Teddy. His Broadway credits include Fiddler on the Roof and Titanic.

Christian Borle, who will be playing the ravenous Black Stache, received acclaim for his roles in Spamalot. He also received a 2007 Tony Award nomination for his role in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde. Andrew McGinn is set to play Slank. His New York credits include Coast of Utopia and The Invention of Love. Playing Lord Aster is John G. Preston, who recently appeared as Cameron Parker in the Off-Broadway production of Taboos. Greg Hildreth, playing the good hearted Alf, recently appeared in Dance Dance Revolution and Gentlemen of Verona. Teddy Bergman will be playing Fighting Prawn. His New York theater credits include Dance Dance Revolution and Nobody Likes the Mormons.

Ron Choularton, playing the merciless Smee, has been seen in Moon for the Misbegotten and Sight Unseen, and has won numerous San Diego Critics' Circle and Playbill awards. Maggie Carney, playing Mrs. Bumbrake, appeared in La Jolla Playhouse's 2008 POP Tour production of Salsalandia! She has also appeared in The Tempest, Largely/NY and Bad Dates. Irungu Mutu, playing Ammm, recently appeared in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and Pericles. He also appeared in the La Jolla Playhouse production of Memphis. Charlie Reuter, playing Captain Scott, recently appeared as Roger in A New Brain and played Harold Hill in The Music

Man. Jared Dagar, a recent graduate of UCSD, cast as Hawking Clam. Past credits include Surf Orpheus and Buried Child. Kevin Johnston; is playing the final lost boy Jim. He recently appeared in Spring Storm and

Dead Man Walking at California State University, Fullerton. Johnny-Wu, playing Mullins, has recently appeared in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead. He also appeared in UCSD productions Bureau of Missing Persons and The Physicists.

More Articles by This Author...