If you haven’t read The Fortress of Solitude, Jonathan Lethem’s semi-autobiographical bildungsroman about two friends whose lives intertwine as children in 1970s Brooklyn, you’ve got some homework to do before the musical adaptation premieres in March.
The Dallas Theater Center announced full casting details today for the production yesterday, which marks the regional theater’s second collaboration with the Public Theater in New York. Adam Chanler-Berat (Next to Normal and Peter and the Starcatcher on Broadway) will play Dylan Ebdus, and Kyle Beltran (In the Heights on Broadway and Choirboy at Manhattan Theatre Club) will play Mingus Rude. Dylan and Mingus have quite a bit in common, stuff like comic books and the fact that their mothers are gone and their fathers (played by Kevin Mambo and DTC acting company member Alex Organ, respectively) are often distracted and absent. But there was one difference that everyone around them would make sure they knew: Dylan is white, Mingus is black. The narrative follows the boys as their lives diverge on different paths.
The musical features a book by Itamar Moses (The Four of Us, Completeness) and music and lyrics by Michael Friedman (Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson). Daniel Aukin, who recently helmed the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Off-Broadway production of Bad Jews, directs.
The Fortress of Solitude Pay-What-You-Can Performance is March 7. Full release with more cast details and the creative team:
DTC Announces Cast and Creative Team of THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE
