Kate Baldwin (Finian’s Rainbow, Hello, Dolly!) and Nicholas Rodriguez (Tarzan, The Sound of Music national tour) are leading the cast of the Tony-winning musical The Bridges of Madison County at Bucks County Playhouse, 70 S. Main St., New Hope, Aug. 11 through Sept. 10.
The production will be directed by Bucks County Playhouse artistic associate Hunter Foster (BCP’s Million Dollar Quartet). Winner of two 2014 Tony Awards, The Bridges of Madison County features music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown (Parade) and a book by Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winner Marsha Norman (The Secret Garden).
Baldwin is recreating her performance from Foster’s previous mounting originally produced by Axelrod Performing Arts Center, Deal Park, New Jersey, in March 2022. Rodriguez is a new addition to the Playhouse cast. Foster is revisiting a musical for which he has a long history. He originated the role of Bud, Francesca’s husband, in the Broadway cast, and brings considerable experience and insight from having worked with the original creative team.
“I was deeply moved by Hunter’s production of The Bridges of Madison County when I saw it in New Jersey in 2022,” said executive producer Robyn Goodman. “The show has some of the most beautiful music written for the stage. You may have read the book or seen the film, but there is nothing like the live depiction of this romance onstage.
“I’ll never forget discovering Kate Baldwin in Finian’s Rainbow on Broadway: beautiful, charming, quirky with a quicksilver voice. And again as ‘Mrs. Malloy’ opposite Bette Midler in Hello, Dolly!. She has a great sense of humor. Nicholas Rodriguez, his Some Enchanted Evening blew me away when I first saw him at the Maltz Jupiter’s South Pacific, and then as a dashing Captain von Trapp at the Kimmel Center. We couldn’t be more excited to follow Tick, Tick … Boom! with what promises to be an unforgettable evening at the Playhouse.”
The musical romance The Bridges of Madison County is a rapturous love story based on the bestselling novel by Thomas Waller. Francesca Johnson (Baldwin), an Italian woman who married an American soldier to flee war-ravaged Italy, looks forward to a rare four days alone on her Iowa farm when her family heads to the 1965 State Fair. Her plans change, however, when a chance encounter with a ruggedly handsome National Geographic photographer leads to a whirlwind relationship that forever alters the course of Francesca’s life.
The cast also features Bart Shatto (Broadway’s War Paint and BCP’s Million Dollar Quartet Christmas) as Bud, Thomas Cromer as Michael, Emily Pellecchia as Carolyn, Giulian Augello (BCP’s Million Dollar Quartet Christmas) as Marion/Chiara, Mark S. Megill (A Christmas Story: The Musical national tour) as Charlie, Nikki Yarnell as Marge and Sealth Grover as Paolo. The ensemble includes Natalie Myrick, Lucy Horton, Lara Hayhurst and Rutledge Varley.
Tickets start at $39 and can be purchased at BucksCountyPlayhouse.org or by calling 215-862-2121.
