Kennedy Center Presents COME FLY AWAY, 4/18-29

The Kennedy Center presents Come Fly Away in the Eisenhower Theater from April 18–29, 2012. Conceived, choreographed, and directed by Tony Award^® winner and Kennedy Center Honoree Twyla Tharp (Movin' Out) and by special arrangement with the Frank Sinatra Family and Frank Sinatra Enterprises, Come Fly Away blends the legendary vocals of Frank Sinatra with a live on-stage big band and 14 of the world's finest dancers. The show's score combines classic and newly discovered vocal performances from the Sinatra archives, along with Sinatra's signature arrangements by Nelson Riddle, Billy May and Quincy Jones, among others, and brand new charts, for this fresh innovative musical. Press night will take place on Wednesday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m.

Come Fly Away follows four couples as they fall in and out of love during one song and dance-filled evening at a crowded nightclub and weaves an unparalleled hit parade of classics, including "Fly Me To The Moon," "My Way," and "That's Life," into a soaring musical fantasy of romance and seduction.

Direct from the original Broadway cast of Come Fly Away and the Las Vegas production of Sinatra Dance With Me are principal dancers Matthew Stockwell Dibble, Meredith Miles, and Ron Todorowski (Helen Hayes Award winner – Movin' Out). Also starring in the tour as principals are Ioana Alfonso, Anthony Burrell, Ashley Blair Fitzgerald, Stephen Hanna, Ramona Kelley, and Christopher Vo. The ensemble includes Mallauri Esquibel, Jeffery B. Hover, Jr., Marina Lazzaretto, Nathan Madden, Marceea Moreno, Candy Olsen, Julius Anthony Rubio, Amy Ruggiero, Justin Urso, Tanairi Sade Vazquez, Mindy Wallace, Chehon Wespi-Tschopp, and Michael Williams.

Come Fly Away premiered at the ALLIANCE THEATRE in Atlanta, Georgia in September 2009 and opened on Broadway in March 2010.  Twyla Tharp's creative relationship with the music of Frank Sinatra began in 1976 with the premiere of Once More Frank, a duet created for the American Ballet Theatre, performed by Ms. Tharp and Mikhail Baryshnikov.  The collaboration continued with Nine Sinatra Songs, Ms. Tharp's piece for fourteen dancers, which had its world premiere with Twyla Tharp Dance in 1982, and was followed by Sinatra Suite, a duet featuring Mr. Baryshnikov and Elaine Kudo, which had its world premiere in 1984 with American Ballet Theatre at the Kennedy Center.   Mr. Sinatra requested that Sinatra Suite be performed when he received his Kennedy Center Honors, citing it as one of the purest expressions of his body of work.

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