The Legendary CARMEN DE LAVALLADE Joins the Upcoming Broadway Production of TENNESSEE WILLIAMS’ A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

Directed by EMILY MANN
Original Music by TERENCE BLANCHARD
THE BROADHURST THEATRE
BEGINNING APRIL 3, OPENING APRIL 22, 2012
Other cast includes:
AMELIA CAMPBELL, AARON CLIFTON MOTEN,
JACINO TARAS RIDDICK, MATTHEW SALDÍVAR,
COUNT STOVALL

New York: Stephen Byrd, Alia Jones and Anthony Lacavera are proud to announce that Ms. Carmen DeLavallade will join the cast of their much anticipated production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Ms. DeLavallade will join the cast led by Blair Underwood as Stanley, Nicole Ari Parker as Blanche, Daphne Rubin-Vega as Stella and Wood Harris as Mitch, completing the cast of Broadway’s A Streetcar Named Desire. This production of A Streetcar Named Desire will take over the Broadhurst Theatre beginning its limited run on Tuesday, April 3, 2012 and will celebrate its opening Sunday, April 22, 2012.

In addition to Ms. De Lavallade, the remaining Streetcar cast includes Amelia Campbell (Film: What Maisie Knew, Leaves of Grass. Broadway: Waiting in the Wings, Our Country’s Good – Tony Nom Best Feature Actress), Aaron Clifton Moten (Regional: Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, Sweeney Todd), Jacino Taras Riddick (Regional: Yellowman, Jittney TV: “White Collar,” “Army Wives”), Matthew Saldívar (The Wedding Singer, Grease), Count Stovall (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Inacent Black, A Philadelphia Story), Streetcar’s creative team includes: Set Design by Eugene Lee, Lighting Design by Edward Pierce, Costumes by Paul Tazewell, Sound Design by Mark Bennett, and Choreography by Camille Brown.

Tennessee Williams’ sultry drama, A Streetcar Named Desire is set against the sexy backdrop of New Orleans’ gritty French Quarter. A Streetcar Named Desire tells the tale of former school teacher and socialite Blanche DuBois (Nicole Ari Parker), as she’s forced to move in with her sister Stella (Rubin-Vega) and her animalistic husband Stanley (Blair Underwood). But the fragile, Blanche quickly gets a gritty life lesson in the seamy, steamy underbelly of 1950’s New Orleans. The legendary Terence Blanchard has signed on to provide an original soundscape for the production.

Carmen De Lavallade was born to Afro-Creole parents in New Orleans, Louisiana. At the age of 18, she became a member of the Lester Horton Dance Theater where she danced as a lead dancer until her departure for New York City with Alvin Ailey in 1954. De Lavallade made her Broadway debut partnered with Alvin Ailey in Truman Capote’s House of Flowers a year later she married dancer and actor Geoffrey Holder. It was with Holder that De Lavallade choreographed her signature solo, Come Sunday, to a black spiritual sung by Odetta Gordon. De Lavallade danced as the prima ballerina in Samson and Delilah, and Aida at the Metropolitan Opera. She also made her television debut in John Butler’s ballet “Flight,” and appeared in the television production of Duke Ellington’s “A Drum is a Woman”. De Lavallade also appeared in several off-Broadway productions, including Othello and Death of a Salesman. She appeared in several films including Carmen Jones with Dorothy Dandridge and Odds Against Tomorrow with Harry Belafonte. De Lavallade was a principal guest performer with Alvin Ailey’s Dance Company on the company’s tour of Asia and in some countries the company was billed as De Lavallade-Ailey American Dance Company. Other performances included dancing with Donald McKayle and appearing in Agnes DeMille’s American Ballet Theater productions of The Four Marys and The Frail Quarry. Between 1990 and 1993, De Lavallade returned to the Metropolitan Opera as choreographer for Porgy and Bess and Die Meistersinger. In 2003 she appeared in the rotating cast of the Off-Broadway staged reading of Wit & Wisdom. In 2010, she appeared in a one-night only concert semi staged reading of Evening Primrose by Stephen Sondheim. De Lavallade received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Juilliard in 2007.

This multi-racial production of A Streetcar Named Desire is a follow-up to the award winning producers, Byrd and Jones’ highly successful Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which starred Terrence Howard, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose and James Earl Jones, and was directed by Debbie Allen. Cat subsequently moved to London’s West End (with Jones and Rashad joined by Sanaa Lathan as Maggie and Adrian Lester as Brick) where it received glowing notices and was awarded the prestigious “Olivier” Award for Best Revival (Byrd and Jones are the first producers of color to receive the coveted award) as well as the “What’s Onstage” Award.