Theater News

Will Swenson, Beth Leavel, and More Set for Reading of Brave New World Musical

Dave Thomas Brown, Gerard Canonico, and Tess Soltau will also participate.

Will Swenson will lead a private reading of Brave New World: The Musical.
Will Swenson will lead a private reading of Brave New World: The Musical.
(© David Gordon)

Tony nominee Will Swenson (Hair!) and Tony winner Beth Leavel (The Drowsy Chaperone) have been announced to star in a private developmental reading of Brave New World: The Musical. BNW Developmental, LLC will present the event in midtown Manhattan in early December 2016.

Swenson and Leavel will lead a cast that includes Dave Thomas Brown (American Psycho), Gerard Canonico (Dear Evan Hansen), and Tess Soltau (Wicked) in this musical adaptation of the classic novel by Aldous Huxley. Brave New World: The Musical features a book by Ben Andron, music by Jonnie Rockwell and John McDaniel, and lyrics by Side Show Tony nominee Bill Russell. Thomas Caruso, who helmed the show's developmental premiere in North Carolina, will provide direction for the reading.

In Brave New World: The Musical, World Controller Thomas Mond (Will Swenson) is responsible for keeping his genetically engineered citizens happy, content, and distracted at all times. But when two of his subjects, Lenina and Bernard (Soltau and Canonico) journey to a savage reservation, and return with a mysterious savage, John (Brown), and his even more mysterious mother, Linda (Leavel), the foundations of Controller Mond's World State will be rocked to its core.

Brad Simmons will be the music director for the reading with John McDaniel providing musical arrangements and supervision.