©Sony Sony Classical will make Original Cast recording
of New Broadway Musical SWING!
All-singing, All-Dancing,
Musical Celebration of the Swing Era.

Directed & Choreographed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett
Opens Dec. 9 At Broadway's St. James Theatre.

NEW YORK, Nov 30, 1999 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Sony Classical will make the original cast recording of the new Broadway musical Swing!, an all-singing, all-dancing musical celebration of the Swing era that opens December 9 at Broadway's St. James Theatre. Directed and choreographed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett, in a production supervised by four-time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks, Swing! features a company of world-class Swing dancers, a contemporary Swing band and acclaimed jazz/pop singers in 30 dance numbers that reflect the current neo-Swing dance movement sweeping the country, embracing West Coast, country-&-western, Latin and traditional Swing dancing. Grammy winner Steven Epstein will produce the recording, which is scheduled to be made December 13. In-store date is set for Tuesday, January 25, 2000.

Swing! features the Broadway debut of jazz vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway, as well as singers Laura Benanti, Everett Bradley and Casey MacGill. The score for Swing! blends original songs with such Swing classics as "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," "Harlem Nocturne," "I'm Beginning to See the Light," "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," "Jumpin' at the Woodside," "Sing, Sing, Sing!," "Stomping at the Savoy" and "Blues in the Night." Driving the entire show are the sounds of The Gotham City Gates, a new Swing band made up of former members of the Blues Jumpers, Illinois Jacquet and Lionel Hampton bands.

Featured in the cast are Ryan Francois and Jenny Thomas, billed as one of the foremost Lindy couples in the world -- the first to win, in the same year, the Lindy division in both The American Swing Dance Championships and The U.S. Open Championships. The cast also includes Swing Dance Champions Robert Royston and Laureen Baldovi, who are also Lindy champions and have won more Country Western Championships than any other couple in the history of country dance.

Other featured dancers are Carol Bentley, Caitlin Carter, Geralyn Del Corso, Beverly Durand, Scott Fowler, Aldrin Gonzalez, Edgar Godineaux, Michael Gruber, Carlos R. Sierra, Keith Lamelle Thomas and Maria Torres.

Jonathan Smith, the musical director for Swing!, has been playing with big bands since he was 14. He studied in New Orleans with jazz patriarch Ellis Marsalis, and he has also conducted several productions at the Goodspeed Opera House and been musical director for a number of Off-Broadway shows. His arrangements are featured regularly by such New York Swing bands as Jump Jive and Wail and The Make-Believe Ballroom Orchestra.

Scenic design for Swing! is by Thomas Lynch, the costumes are by two-time Tony Award winner William Ivey Long. Kenneth Posner is the lighting designer, and the orchestrations are by Harold Wheeler.

Director/choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett has worked extensively in theater, ballet, film and TV. For TV, she co-created and choreographed the "Dancing Muppets" for Sesame Street, as well as directing and choreographing "Where In the World is Carmen San Diego?" for PBS. Taylor-Corbett's film credits include the choreography for Footloose and My Blue Heaven. On Broadway, she choreographed the original productions of Titanic and Chess. She has also created works for American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet, as well as music videos for George Michael and Natalie Cole.

Zaks has won Tony Awards for his direction of The House of Blue Leaves, Lend Me a Tenor, Six Degrees of Separation and the 1992 revival of Guys and Dolls. He has also directed acclaimed revivals of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anything Goes and The Front Page, as well Smokey Joe's Cafe, Assassins, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, The Foreigner, Beyond Therapy and the film version of Marvin's Room, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton and Robert DeNiro.

Swing! is produced by Marc Routh, Richard Frankel, Steven Baruch, Thomas Viertel and Jujamcyn Theatres. After its opening, the performance schedule for Swing! will be Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m.; and Sundays at 3 p.m.


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