"Hooray for Joey Slotnick!" Director Henry Wishcamper has tapped Goodman Theatre, Chicago native Joey Slotnick for the lead role of the African explorer "Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding"—the heightened vaudevillian persona created by Groucho Marx for the 1929 stage and screen original—in Goodman Theatre's season opening musical Animal Crackers, written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.
Director Henry Wishcamper (Horton Foote's Talking Pictures at the Goodman) has strategically cast nine versatile actors to fill 15 roles, as well as those of harem girls, party guests and ensemble. Joining Slotnick (Ethan Cohen's Offices off-Broadway at Atlantic Theatre Company and Lookingglass' Our Town) in the three roles originated by the other Marx Brothers are Molly Brennan as "The Professor," Harpo Marx's role (Second City's Fatty Arbuckle's Spectacular Musical Review, 500 Clown's Theatrical Essays); Jonathan Brody as Emanuel Ravelli, Chico Marx's role (Broadway's Spamalot); and Ed Kross as "Horatio Jamison," Zeppo Marx's role (American Theatre Company's Stalag 17 and films Ocean's 12 and The Road to Perdition. Ora Jones (the Goodman's Proof and Steppenwolf's The Violet Hour) portrays Mrs. Rittenhouse.
Animal Crackers runs September 18 – October 25, 2009 in the Goodman's Albert Theatre.
In Animal Crackers, chaos ensues at the estate of Mrs. Rittenhouse when a celebrated sculpture is stolen during a party honoring the African explorer Captain Spaulding. A series of madcap Marx Brothers antics follows as the guests set out to find the burglar.
Rounding out the cast are Jessie Mueller as Grace Carpenter (Chicago Shakespeare Theater's The Three Musketeers, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2); Tony Yazbeck as Wally Winston (Broadway's A Chorus Line, Oklahoma!, Gypsy); Mara Davi as Arabella Rittenhouse (Broadway's The Drowsy Chaperone, A Chorus Line); and Stanley Wayne Mathis as Hives (Goodman's Faust, Broadway's Kiss Me, Kate, You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Lion King). -- www.goodmantheatre.org
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