Artistic Statement: From Barry Edelstein, The Old Globe’s Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director:
“The Old Globe was honored to receive a grant from The Edgerton Foundation which allowed us to extend the rehearsal period for The Heart of Rock & Roll to four weeks, with the creative team in residence. The show is a huge hit, one of the best-selling musicals in Globe history and a source of joy for audiences every night. Its creators found a way to integrate the unusually robust Huey Lewis and the News songbook into the form of a classic book musical. They fused a modern pop sensibility to these barroom classics, making them work in precisely the way a musical theatre song is supposed to: they express a character's needs and wants in heightened form, and propel the character and story forward in every case. The complexity of the undertaking was daunting: this is a big show. The extra time made possible by the generosity of the Edgerton grant facilitated much experimentation on the book and score, and gave the company the resources they needed to develop ideas to their fruition. Discussions are already underway for the show’s life beyond The Old Globe, making it yet another new work that Edgerton largess will help shepherd into to the American repertoire.”

Grant Statement: A grant from the Edgerton Foundation allowed the Globe to extend the standard three-week rehearsal period to four weeks, with the creative team in residence. The Heart of Rock & Roll is currently running in the Old Globe Theatre, which has a proscenium thrust stage and a house that seats an audience of 580 to 620, depending on the use of the vomitoria, orchestra pit and stage extensions. This venue was selected for both artistic and economic reasons. This production is a full-scale musical with a large cast. The selected venue has been previously used to launch other successful musicals of a similar scale because it offers the greatest technical capacity and can accommodate larger audiences than the Globe’s other indoor theatre.

Director:Gordon Greenberg
Set Designer: Derek McLane
Lighting Designer:Howell Binkley
Costume Designer: Paloma Young
Sound Designer:David Patridge and John Shivers
Music Director:Matt Doebler
ChoreographyLorin Latarro
Production Stage Manager:Anjee Nero
Music Supervision, Arrangements, and Orchestrations::Brian Usifer
Casting:Tara Rubin Casting/Eric Woodall, CSA
Cast:Bryan Banville, Katie Banville, Nicolette Burton, Lindsay Nicole Chambers, Katie Rose Clarke, Patrice Covington, John Dossett, Matt Doyle, James Royce Edwards, Paige Faure, F. Michael Haynie, Oyoyo Joi, Orville Mendoza, Lucas Papaelias, Robert Pendill, Zachary Noah Piser, Christopher Ramirez, MiMi Scardulla, Salisha Thomas, Billy Harrigan Tighe, Josh Tolle

Additional funders: Terry Atkinson, Elaine and Dave Darwin, Rhona and Rick Thompson, Pam Wagner and Hans Tegebo, Sheryl and Harvey White, HME, Viasat, Mandell Weiss Charitable Trust