Broadway production of "Memphis" taking its Seattle stars to NYC

"Memphis," a musical that played at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre in February, opens at New York's Shubert Theatre this fall — and it's taking its star, Seattle native Chad Kimball, with it.

Directed by Christopher Ashley ("Xanadu") from a book and score by David Bryan (of the band Bon Jovi) and Joe DiPietro ("I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change"), the musical is set in the 1950s in the segregated South, where a white DJ (Kimball) falls in love with black music in general, and with one African-American singer (Montego Glover) in particular.

Kimball and Glover were in the Seattle and La Jolla Playhouse productions of the show. Glover is to join Kimball in the cast of the Broadway production, which will also retain J. Bernard Calloway, James Monroe Iglehart, Cass Morgan and Derrick Baskin from the 5th Avenue Theatre production. Michael McGrath ("Spamalot") will be new to the Broadway run.

For information, go to www.shubertorganization.com/theatres/shubert.asp. For tickets, call 212-239-6200 or go to www.telecharge.com.

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com