Today, producers Ken Davenport and Bob Gaudio announced that Robyn Hurder, who received the Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Dancer in a Broadway Show and a Drama Desk Award nomination for her portrayal of Marcia Murphey will play her final performance at the Broadhurst Theatre in A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical on Sunday, December 17. Casting for the role of Marcia Murphey will be announced at a future date.
Hurder said, “It’s truly been the most beautiful noise for the past couple of years with this production. It’s amazing when something so unexpected can slip into your life and make an everlasting impact. This experience has brought me so much joy. It has challenged me, and it has changed me… all for the better. I will never forget the incredible group of humans I’ve had the honor of working with and the audiences that have made this moment in my life so memorable.”
The cast of A Beautiful Noise also features “American Idol” winner Nick Fradiani as Neil Diamond – Then, Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominee Mark Jacoby as Neil Diamond – Now, and Shirine Babb as Doctor. They are joined by Jessie Fisher as Jaye Posner; Michael McCormick as Fred Weintraub, Tommy O’Rourke; Tom Alan Robbins as Bert Berns, Kieve Diamond; and Bri Sudia as Ellie Greenwich, Rose Diamond.
The ensemble, swings, and standbys include Neal Benari (standby Neil Diamond – Now), Jordan Dobson (swing), Ninako Donville (swing), Paige Faure (ensemble), Kalonjee Gallimore (ensemble), Samantha Gershman (swing), Becky Gulsvig (standby for Ellie Greenwich, Jaye Posner, Marcia, and Rose Diamond), Jess LeProtto (ensemble), Tatiana Lofton (ensemble), Aaron James McKenzie (ensemble), Mary Page Nance (ensemble), Robert Pendilla (swing), Max Sangerman (ensemble), Aveena Sawyer (swing), MiMi Scardulla (ensemble), Deandre Sevon (ensemble), Vanessa Aurora Sierra (ensemble), and Sean Watkinson (swing).
A Beautiful Noise includes a score of Diamond’s most beloved songs, a book which four-time Academy Award-nominee Anthony McCarten (I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Theory of Everything) distilled from hundreds of hours of conversations between himself and the legendary singer-songwriter, direction by Tony Award winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, American Idiot), and choreography by Olivier Award winner and four-time Tony Award nominee Steven Hoggett (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Once, Sweeney Todd).
The design team for A Beautiful Noise features Tony Award winner David Rockwell (scenic design), Tony Award nominee Emilio Sosa (costume design), four-time Tony Award winner Kevin Adams (lighting design), Tony Award winner Jessica Paz (sound design), and Luc Verschueren (hair and wig design). The production has music supervision and arrangements by Sonny Paladino, incidental music and dance music arrangements by Brian Usifer, vocal design by AnnMarie Milazzo, and orchestrations by Bob Gaudio, Sonny Paladino, and Brian Usifer. The team also includes Bonnie Panson (production supervisor), Jamie Harrison (illusion consultant), Kathy Fabian (properties designer), Jim Carnahan, CSA (casting), and Amy Jacobs of Bespoke Theatricals (general manager).
With his first break into songwriting in the 1960s and his meteoric rise in the 1970s, and plenty of crushing disappointments and heart-stopping triumphs along the way, Neil Diamond has maintained an almost unthinkable level of superstardom for five straight decades. How did a poor Jewish kid from Brooklyn become one of the most universally adored showmen of all time? There’s only one way Diamond wanted to tell it: a musical set to his era-defining smash hits that entranced the world.