Beth Leavel, Brad Oscar and More to Star in MY FAVORITE YEAR Workshop at Asolo Rep

Asolo Repertory Theatre will develop My Favorite Year, with a score by the Tony Award-winning team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, and book by Joseph Dougherty, in a workshop taking place September 25 to October 1 in New York City.

Josh Rhodes (Spamalot) directs a cast that includes Tony nominee Chris Hoch (The Lost Boys) as Alan Swann, Tony nominee Ben Levi Ross (Ragtime, Dear Evan Hansen) as Benjy Stone, Julie Benko (Ragtime, Funny Girl) as Alice Miller, Marina Kondo (Ragtime, Frozen national tour) as K.C. Downing, Tony nominee Brad Oscar (The Producers, Something Rotten!) as King Kaiser, and Tony winner Beth Leavel (The Drowsy Chaperone, The Prom) as Belle Carroca Steinberg.

The company also includes Orville Mendoza (Swept Away, Pacific Overtures) as Rookie, Briana Carlson-Goodman (Ragtime) as Aunt Sadie, Robert Anthony Jones (Finding Neverland) as Sy, Lyrica Woodruff (Schmigadoon!, Anastasia) as Tess, Stuart Zagnit (Caroline, or Change) as Uncle Morty, and Rob Tucker (Wonder, A.R.T.) as Herb.

Based on the 1982 film, My Favorite Year is set in New York in 1954, during the golden age of live television. Young comedy writer Benjy Stone is handed the assignment of a lifetime: keep the show’s guest star, the hard-drinking, swashbuckling screen idol Alan Swann, sober and out of trouble for one week leading up to the live broadcast. The musical premiered on Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater in 1992.

The workshop features a revised version of the musical, with new material from Ahrens, Flaherty, and Dougherty developed in collaboration with Asolo Rep. It continues the theatre’s relationship with Ahrens and Flaherty, whose Knoxville (retitled All the Way Home) premiered at Asolo Rep in 2022 and is scheduled for a developmental New York production in April 2027 as part of The York Theatre’s NEW2NY Series.

The creative team includes David Holcenberg (music director), Jack Richman (music assistant), and James Monaghan (dramaturg), with Nia Sciarretta as stage manager and Esther Chilson as assistant stage manager.