George Sidney, the prolific 20th Century movie director who helmed the 1952 movie version of Rafael Sabatini’s 1921 novel SCARAMOUCHE as well as Hollywood musicals from SHOW BOAT to VIVA LAS VEGAS, is reported to have said, “I always thought SCARAMOUCHE should be a musical.” And now it is. The world premiere musical adaptation of SCARAMOUCHE, with music and lyrics by City Lit Artistic Associate Kingsley Day and book by Day and James Glossman, will close City Lit’s 45th season, playing from May 1 to June 14.
The classic adventure story follows the exploits of a sardonic provincial lawyer who is radicalized by his friend’s brutal murder on the eve of the French Revolution. He repeatedly evades disaster by taking on a series of new identities—first as an insurgent orator, then a traveling comic actor, and finally a master swordsman. Beth Wolf, recently named one of New City’s “Players 2026: 50 People Who Really Perform for Chicago,” will direct this full-scale, swashbuckling musical that will take audiences to 18th Century France with such visual delights as sword fighting, Commedia dell’arte, projections, and costumes of the French elite and peasantry. A score of some 30 musical numbers will be performed by a 10-person cast with extensive musical theater credits from across the Chicagoland areas, accompanied by a three-piece pit band. The press opening will be Saturday, May 9 at 7:30 pm.
Cast in the title role as Andre-Louis Moreau, the young lawyer from Britanny who assumes a secret identity as Scaramouche, will be Ethan Smith, seen recently in Music Theater Works’ GODSPELL. The story will be told by a troupe of players, led by their Manager, who will be played by Actors’ Equity member Henry Michael Odum. Odum has played such iconic musical theater roles as Fagin in OLIVER! (Citadel Theatre) and The Narrator/Mysterious Man in INTO THE WOODS (Porchlight). Odum will additionally play Gavrillac, Moreau’s godfather – a man who many believe is secretly Moreau’s father. Gavrillac’s orphaned niece Aline will be played by Laura Michele Erle, who earlier this year was Mina in Lazy Susan’s DRACULA: A COMEDY OF TERRORS. Erle’s character Aline is betrothed to the powerful nobleman Marquis de la Tour, who challenges Moreau’s best friend, the idealistic Phillipe (Conor Ripperger of GODSPELL, PIPPIN and LEGALLY BLONDE with Music Theater Works), to an outrageously lopsided dual, killing him. De la Tour will be played by Kent Joseph, who is experienced in playing French villains, having been cast twice as Frollo in THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (Music Theater Works and Metropolis Arts Center).
The cast also includes Alicia Berneche (Penelope Pennywise in URINETOWN for Theo Ubique) as Madame de Sautron, Shea Lee (THE CONDUCTORS, Lifeline) as Columbine, Ed Rutherford (Pseudolus in A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, Madkap Productions) as Chapelier, India Huy (URINETOWN, Theo Ubique) as Climene, and Rushil Byatnal (THE UNKNOWN VARIABLE, Momentary Theatre) as Pierrot. Understudies are Ryan Smetana (u/s Moreau), Brian James (u/s Manager, Gavrillac), Matthew Benenson Cruz (u/s Marquis de la Tour), Will Ehrlich (u/s Philippe), Alex Stetkevich (u/s Aline), and Emma Jean Eastlund (u/s Madame de Sautron).
Top Row L-R: Alicia Berneche, Rushil Byatnal, Laura Michele Erle, India Huy, Kent Joseph.
Lower Row L-R: Shea Lee, Henry Michael Odum, Conor Ripperger, Ed Rutherford, Ethan Smith.
Kingsley Day’s many musical theater works include the one-act musical “Text Me,” produced at City Lit in 2024; and with Philip LaZebnik, the musicals SUMMER STOCK MURDER and STATE STREET (the latter produced at City Lit in 2012). Co-Bookwriter James Glossman enjoyed a two-decade-long collaboration with author and journalist Jim Lehrer that included the plays KICK THE CAN, THE SPECIAL PRISONER, and FLYING CROWS. More recently, he collaborated with actor Tom Hanks on the plays SAFE HOME and THIS WORLD OF TOMORROW. SCARAMOUCHE will be directed by Beth Wolf, two-time Jeff nominee for Direction (for OUTSIDE MULLINGAR and SILENT SKY at Citadel Theatre) and Founding Artistic Director of Midsommer Flight. SCARAMOUCHE will open to the press on Saturday, May 9 at 7:30 pm, following previews from May 1 and will play through June 14, 2026.
The designers who will bring the look of late 18th Century France to City Lit’s stage in Edgewater are Trevor Dotson (Scenic Designer), Jackson Mikkelsen (Lighting Designer), Jennifer Mohr (Costume Designer, Commedia Consultant), Meg X. McGrath (Props Designer), Kevin Zhou (Music Director), Tyeese Braslavsky (Assistant Music Director), DJ Douglass (Projections Designer), Maureen Yasko (Violence and Intimacy Design), Ray Post (Assistant Director). The production team also includes Grace Elizabeth Mealey (Stage Manager), Dylan Hirt (Assistant Stage Manager), Alexa Berkowitz (Production Manager), Becca Holloway (Casting Director), Teseela Sokolin-Maimon (Technical Director), Sara Johnson (Production Electrician), Bruce Bennett (Scenic Charge), and Aubrey Pierce (Production Carpenter).
Tickets to SCARAMOUCHE are priced at $37 for previews and $45 for regular performances and may be ordered online at www.citylit.org or purchased over the phone by calling 773-293-3682. Senior prices are $5.00 off regular prices. Students and military are $22.00 for all performances.
SCARAMOUCHE
Music and Lyrics by Kingsley Day
Book by Kingsley Day and James Glossman
Adapted from the novel SCARAMOUCHE by Raphael Sabatini
Directed by Beth Wolf
World Premiere
May 1 – June 14, 2026
Previews May 1 – 8
Press opening Saturday, May 9 at 7:30 pm
Regular run May 9 – June 14
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Monday, June 1 at 7:30 pm
Understudy performance Monday, June 8 at 7:30 pm
Tickets $37 for previews and $45 for regular performances. Senior prices $5.00 off regular prices. Students and military are $22.00 for all performances.
Tickets available online at www.citylit.org or by phone at 773-293-3682.
All performances at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, on the second floor (accessible via elevator) of the Edgewater Presbyterian Church.
A musical based on the rip-roaring novel by Rafael Sabatini. Radicalized by his friend’s brutal murder on the eve of the French Revolution, a sardonic provincial lawyer repeatedly evades disaster by taking on a series of new identities—first an insurgent orator, then a traveling comic actor, and finally a master swordsman.
Kingsley Day (Composer/Lyricist and Co-Bookwriter), a City Lit Artistic Associate, is active in the Chicago area as a composer-lyricist, playwright, musical director, and actor-singer. Most recently, his musical AZTEC HUMAN SACRIFICE (music and lyrics; book with Philip LaZebnik) and his one-act musical TEXT ME (book, music, and lyrics) premiered at Chicago’s City Lit Theater. SUMMER STOCK MURDER (music and lyrics; book with LaZebnik) ran for 18 months at the old Theatre Building and won eight Jeff Awards, including one for New Work; it has since been produced at Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace and elsewhere. Day and LaZebnik have written a number of other musicals produced successfully in Chicago, including STATE STREET (City Lit), DEAR AMANDA (Pheasant Run Theater), BYRNE, BABY, BYRNE (Zanies), and THE JOY OF SOCKS (Chicago Premiere Society). Their comedy TOUR DE FARCE premiered at Wisdom Bridge Theater with Steve Carell and Hollis Resnik, transferred to the Apollo Theater, and has since been produced around the United States and numerous times in Europe. Day and LaZebnik were twice awarded grants by Sheldon Patinkin’s New Musicals Project, supported by the Paul and Gabriella Rosenbaum Foundation.
Day’s new score for Gilbert and Sullivan’s lost operetta THESPIS has been heard in productions at the Theatre Building, the Chicago Gilbert & Sullivan Society, and (twice) the Savoyaires, which more recently produced his one-act SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF GILBERT & SULLIVAN. For City Lit, he has composed incidental music for PROMOTHEUS BOUND (a new translation by Nicholas Rudall), LONDON ASSURANCE, and Patinkin’s productions of THE TEMPEST and VOLPONE.
James Glossman (Co-Bookwriter) has had a busy summer, fall, and winter. After Portland Stage produced a week-long workshop of his latest play co-written with Tom Hanks (then titled SEE YOU TOMORROW) in November, the new Hanks and Glossman play (now titled THIS WORLD OF TOMORROW) continued its development in a 3-day performance workshop at The Shed at Hudson Yards (NYC). His previous play co-written with Hanks, SAFE HOME, premiered at Shadowland in 2022, and his music-theatre piece SHOSTAKOVICH AND THE BLACK MONK – co-written with Philip Setzer – was performed in concert halls from Tanglewood to Ravinia to Wolf Trap to LA to Seoul, South Korea by the Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet and a rotating cast. His two-decade-long collaboration with author & journalist Jim Lehrer produced the plays KICK THE CAN, THE SPECIAL PRISONER, and FLYING CROWS. His adaptation of Suzanne Berne’s A CRIME IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD premiered at City Lit, directed by Terry McCabe. A proud graduate of Northwestern University’s Department of Interpretation, he is equally proud to have gotten his Equity card at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theatre. He has taught at Johns Hopkins University for over 20 years.
Beth Wolf (Director), recently cited as one of NEW CITY STAGE’s 2026 “50 Players Who Really Perform for Chicago,” is delighted to return to City Lit many years after some earlier credits with the company: assistant directing for Mike Nussbaum on DASHIELL HAMLET in 2009, as well as winning first place at the 2012 City Lit Art of Adaptation Festival alongside playwright Jordan Mann. Now, she is a twice Jeff-nominated Chicago theatre director as well as the founder and Producing Artistic Director of Midsommer Flight, where she has directed a dozen Shakespeare plays in Chicago parks since the company’s inception in 2012, including critically acclaimed productions of LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST, ROMEO AND JULIET, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, CYMBELINE, and TWELFTH NIGHT, among others. Recognition for Beth’s work includes Equity Jeff Award Nominations for Best Director for SILENT SKY (2024) and OUTSIDE MULLINGAR (2022) at Citadel Theatre, both of which were also nominated for Best Production. Other recent credits include ADMISSIONS and THE ROOMMATE at Citadel Theatre; NON-PLAYER CHARACTER (Non-Equity Jeff nomination, Projection Co-design) at Red Theater; and THE SUFFRAGE PLAYS at Artemisia. Beth is also a co-founder and the former Artistic Director of Promethean Theatre Ensemble, where she directed THE BOOK OF WILL, ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, SEASCAPE WITH SHARKS AND DANCER, BURY THE DEAD, THE FANTASTICKS, and multiple EVENINGS OF SHAKESPEARE. She is a proud Northwestern graduate with a double major in theatre and gender studies.
Brian Pastor (they/them, Executive Artistic Director) is a trans/non-binary director, actor, playwright, and Jeff Award-winning producer (AUGUST WILSON’S SEVEN GUITARS), and the Executive Artistic Director of City Lit Theater. Brian previously spent ten and a half years on staff at City Lit, including nine as Managing Director. From 2019 to 2024, Brian served as City Lit’s Resident Director, where they have directed GLASSHEART, THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD, ARMS AND THE MAN, J.B., and their own acclaimed adaptation of Robert Kennedy’s THIRTEEN DAYS. Most recently, Brian directed the World Premieres of John Weagly’s SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CHRISTMAS CLOWNS and Bo List’s R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). Recently, they were named one of Newcity’s "Players 2026: The Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago." Brian is a founder and Emeritus Artistic Director of Chicago’s Promethean Theatre Ensemble, where they directed THE LION IN WINTER, THE WINTER’S TALE, GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE, and HENRY V. Brian also directed the world premiere of THE BLACK KNIGHT by Angeli Primlani, the inaugural show for Lifeboat Productions. As an actor, Brian has worked with Strawdog, Raven, WildClaw, Promethean, Accomplice, and City Lit, among others. Brian is the former Executive Director of both Sideshow Theatre and Raven Theatre. They also served as a board and company member of The Mime Company and as a founding company member of Chicago dell’Arte. A Pittsburgh native, Brian has called Chicago home since their graduation from Northwestern University in 2003.
ABOUT CITY LIT THEATER
City Lit is the eighth oldest continuously operating theatre company in Chicagoland, behind only Goodman, Court, Northlight, Oak Park Festival, Black Ensemble, Steppenwolf, and Pegasus theatres. It was founded in 1979 with $210 pooled by Arnold Aprill, David Dillon, and Lorell Wyatt. For its current season, its 45th , it operates with a budget slightly under $300,000. It was the first theatre in the nation devoted to stage adaptations of literary material. There were so few theatres in Chicago at the time of its founding that at City Lit’s launch event, the founders were able to read a congratulatory letter they had received from Tennessee Williams.
For four decades and counting, City Lit has explored fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoirs, songs, essays and drama in performance. A theatre that specializes in literary work communicates a commitment to certain civilizing influences—tradition imaginatively explored, a life of the mind, trust in an audience’s intelligence—that not every cultural outlet shares.
City Lit is located in the historic Edgewater Presbyterian Church building at 1020 West Bryn Mawr Avenue. Its work is supported in part by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events CityArts program. An Illinois not-for-profit corporation and a 501(c)(3) federal tax-exempt organization, City Lit keeps ticket prices below the actual cost of producing plays and depends on the support of those who share its belief in the beauty and power of the spoken written word.