The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces the full cast for the highly anticipated Broadway Center Stage production of Bye Bye Birdie. As previously announced, Bye Bye Birdie will star two-time Tony Award® winner Christian Borle (Some Like It Hot, Something Rotten!) as Albert Peterson, Krysta Rodriguez (Into the Woods, Spring Awakening) as Rosie Alvarez, and Tony Award® nominee Ephraim Sykes (Ain’t Too Proud, NBC’s Hairspray Live!) as Conrad Birdie. They will be joined by SAG Award winner Caroline Aaron (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as Mae Peterson, Ashlyn Maddox (Parade) as Kim MacAfee, Tony Award® nominee Richard Kind (The Big Knife, The Producers) as Harry MacAfee, and Tony Award® nominee Jennifer Laura Thompson (Dear Evan Hansen, Nice Work If You Can Get It) as Doris MacAfee.
The cast will also include Allison Blackwell, Sarah Chiu, David Aron Damane, Jackera Davis as Ursula Merkle, Victor de Paula Rocha, Miguel Gil as Hugo Peabody, Jalen Michael Jones, Evan Kinnane, Henry Kirk as Randolph MacAfee, Kevin Ligon, Kelly LoMonte, Luke Kolbe Mannikus, Linda Mugleston, Megan Sikora as Gloria Rasputin, Maria Cristina Posada Slye, Renell Taylor, and Dori Waymer.
This new production, dedicated to the memory of original Bye Bye Birdie star and 2002 Kennedy Center Honoree Chita Rivera, will be directed by Marc Bruni (Beautiful; the Kennedy Center’s Guys and Dolls, The Music Man, and How to Succeed…), with choreography by Denis Jones (Tootsie, the Kennedy Center’s Guys and Dolls) and music direction by John Bell (Spamalot, Into the Woods).
In this ebullient winner of four Tony Awards®, teen idol Conrad Birdie is drafted into the Army, but before he leaves, he’ll perform a new song on The Ed Sullivan Show and give one last kiss to a lucky fan. Bye Bye Birdie features a hilarious script by Tony Award® winner Michael Stewart (Hello, Dolly!) and a score with more pop than a pack of bubble gum by Tony Award®–winning composer Charles Strouse (Annie) and Tony Award®–winning lyricist Lee Adams (Applause).
Bye Bye Birdie will have scenic design by Lee Savage, lighting design by Cory Pattak, costume design by Linda Cho, sound design by Haley Parcher, video and projection design by Nathan Scheuer, and wig design by Tom Watson. Geoff Josselson is the casting director. The production will also feature the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra.
The Broadway Center Stage series, led by Artistic Director and Kennedy Center Vice President and Executive Producer of Theater Jeffrey Finn, is now in its fifth season and has been acclaimed by the Washington Post as “a raging success at the Kennedy Center reflecting a Broadway sheen.” Its hit production of Monty Python’s SPAMALOT is currently playing on Broadway at The St. James Theater through April 7, and a National Tour will lanch in September 2025.
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