EXCLUSIVE: Scott Bakula will return to the New York stage this winter in an Off Broadway, world premiere production of the new musical The Connector, conceived and directed by Daisy Prince with music and lyrics by Tony winner Jason Robert Brown (Parade) and a book by Jonathan Marc Sherman.
A production of the acclaimed Off Broadway non-profit company MCC Theater, The Connector will begin performances at MCC Theater’s Newman Mills Theater on January 12, 2024, with an opening night set for February 6. The limited engagement will run through February 18, 2024.
Set in the rapidly changing media and magazine worlds of the late 1990s (the title refers to a revered publication), The Connector also will feature choreography by Karla Puno Garcia, co-choreographer of the Broadway-found Days of Wine and Roses.
In addition to Bakula, who will play a character named Conrad, the large cast of The Connector will include Sweeney Todd‘s Joanna Carpenter, Max Crumm, Hannah Cruz, George Dvorsky, Ashley Pérez Flanagan, Parade‘s Danielle Lee Greaves, Mylinda Hull, Daniel Jenkins, Cedric Lamar, Jessica Molaskey, Fergie Philippe, Eliseo Román, Ben Levi Ross, Ann Sanders, Kyle Sherman and Michael Winther.
Ben Levi Ross
Courtesy Production
Though most widely known for his work in television, in particular Quantum Leap and NCIS: New Orleans, Bakula has a long history of stage performances, starting with his 1983 Broadway debut as Joe DiMaggio in Marilyn: An American Fable. In 1988, he was Tony-nominated for his starring role in Romance/Romance. He played Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls at the Hollywood Bowl, and in recent years appeared in Dancing in the Dark at San Diego’s Old Globe Theater, and in Jane Anderson’s Quality of Life at the Geffen Playhouse.
His other recent theater credits include No Strings at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse, and a production of the Tony Award-winning musical Shenandoah at the Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC. He was in the critically lauded Off Broadway and Los Angeles productions of Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down and the Los Angeles and Boston productions of Nite Club Confidential. He has appeared in musical performances at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center Honors, and at the Hollywood Bowl.
Bakula will next be seen on the screen in the feature film Divinity, produced by Steven Soderbergh.
Hannah Cruz
Courtesy Production
The Connector will reunite director Prince with composer Brown, following their collaborations on the original Off Broadway productions of The Last Five Years and Songs for a New World. Prince has also directed productions at Los Angeles’ Rubicon Theatre, among other credits. As a performer, she was in the original Broadway cast of Merrily We Roll Along, and productions of Follies in Concert, Pal Joey, and Michael John LaChiusa’s The Petrified Prince.
The Connector‘s A-list creative team includes scenic design by Beowulf Boritt (New York, New York), costume design by Márion Tálan De La Rosa (Oratorio For Living Things), lighting design by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (Kimberly Akimbo), sound design by Jon Weston (Parade), and orchestrations and arrangements by Jason Robert Brown.
The project was announced today by MCC Theater (Bernie Telsey and Will Cantler, Co-Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director).
The official synopsis: Set in the late 1990s amid a rapidly changing media landscape we meet a fast-rising journalist, Ethan Dobson, and an assistant copy editor, Robin Martinez, at the revered magazine The Connector. In a world that values the next big sensation, Ethan’s writing prowess and ambition force him to confront how far he’ll go for the ultimate scoop and Robin to consider how far she’ll go to stop him.
Dobson will be played by Ben Levi Ross, whose credits include Broadway’s Dear Evan Hansen and Lin Manuel Miranda’s feature directorial debut Tick, Tick… Boom! Hannah Cruz, whose Off Broadway credits include Andy Blankenbuehler’s Only Gold and The Public Theater’s Suffs, will play Martinez.
