The first production photos are out for the North American tour of Mystic Pizza: A New Musical, which this week plays the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota, October 6–11, on a route that runs into April 2027.
The tour launched in New York State in late September. The earliest date still listed on its schedule is the Forum Theatre in Binghamton, September 29–30, followed by the Palace Theatre in Waterbury, Connecticut, October 2–4. After St. Paul it moves quickly through the fall: one-nighters in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Sioux City, Iowa, a weekend at the Lincoln Center in Fort Collins, Colorado, October 16–18, and then a run of Northeastern stops in Erie, Scranton, Burlington, Portland, Maine, and New Bedford before the year closes at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, November 20–22.
The 2027 leg picks up in Sarasota, Florida, January 6–8, with Detroit’s Fox Theatre on January 22–23, the Herberger Theatre Center in Phoenix on March 12–14 and, last on the current schedule, Capital One Hall in Tysons, Virginia, on April 2–4. Most stops are short — one night to a long weekend — so the full itinerary is worth checking on the production’s tour page.
The photographs, by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade, are the first look at the touring company, which centers on three friends working at a small-town pizza place. Kendall Becerra plays Kat, Chloë Lezotte plays Daisy and Lexxi Frilles plays Jojo; Becerra won Best Lead Actress at the 2022 Jimmy Awards and makes a national tour debut here. Tieisha Thomas is Leona, Jack Baylis is Charles, Mike Leadbetter is Tim and Matt Woodward is Bill.
The ensemble is Nina-Simone Diaz, Sam Foti, Albert Igbinigie, Will Ingram, Richard Morgan, Catherine Rodriguez O’Connor, Abby Scalici and Gabe Tobierre, with Lizzie Fitzpatrick-Cárcamo and Travis Flynt as swings.
The musical is written by Sandy Rustin, from the MGM film whose story and characters are by Amy Holden Jones, and it is directed and choreographed by Jennifer Werner, with arrangements and orchestrations by Carmel Dean. The score is built from 1980s and ’90s hits, among them Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Hold On, Manic Monday, Lost in Your Eyes and Take My Breath Away. Big League Productions is touring it, after earlier stagings at the La Mirada Theatre in California and Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey.
