Head Over Heels |
November 9 — December 12The music of The Go-Go’s fuels this non-stop, dance-filled joyride through magic, merriment and mischief. From the first notes of “We Got the Beat” to the final rapturous curtain call, you’ll be whisked away through a world of whimsy and wit. This jubilant celebration follows a royal family in search of a purpose, lovers in search of each other and a whole kingdom in search of a beat.
We’re also transforming the Playhouse to create an all-new experiential production unlike you’ve ever seen before:
Head Over Heels will transport you into the middle of a non-stop, dance-filled joyride fueled by the music of The Go-Go’s with the actors performing all over our converted theater.
It’s a party! And you’re invited.
“Shrewd, funny, sexy, and with a glorious beat, Head Over Heels will have you flipping for joy.”
Production Images
Cast
Alaska 5000
Queen Gynecia
Alaska 5000 is a drag performer and recording artist best known for competing in the fifth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the winner of the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. She has traveled the world touring her chart-topping hits from her albums (Anus, Poundcake, Vagina, and forthcoming Red 4 Filth) and has appeared in television (VH1’s Scared Famous, The Bachelorette) and film (The Quiet Room, The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time). She currently co-hosts the hit podcast Race Chaser with Willam, and continues to inspire the people of Earth with her unmistakable brand of irreverent humor and extraterrestrial glamour.
Lea DeLaria
King Basilius
Lea DeLaria seems to have achieved overnight stardom with her three time, SAG Award winning, stand-out role as “Carrie ‘Big Boo’ Black” in the Netflix hit series Orange is the New Black. However, DeLaria’s multi-faceted career as a comedian, actress, and jazz musician, has in fact, spanned decades.
Lea holds the distinction of being the first openly gay comic on television in America which led to countless Television and Film roles portraying Police Lieutenants, PE Teachers, and the Lesbian who inappropriately hits on straight women.
Selected TV credits: The Code, Shameless, Broad City, Baroness Von Sketch, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Awkward, Clarence, Californication, The Oblongs, One Life to Live, Law and Order: SVU, Will & Grace, Friends, and Matlock. Selected Film credits: Cars 3, Support the Girls, First Wives Club, Dear Dumb Diary, Edge of Seventeen.
She’s received Obie & Theater World Awards, and a Drama Desk nomination for her portrayal as “Hildy” in the Public Theater’s revival of On the Town, and has played both “Eddie” and “Dr. Scott” in the gender-bending Broadway musical The Rocky Horror Show.
Lea was the featured vocalist at the 50th Anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival, and has performed in some of the most prestigious houses in the world including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Chicago Symphony, Hollywood Bowl, The Royal Albert Hall, and the Sydney Opera House.
Lea has five records on the Warner Jazz and Classics label and her book Lea’s Book of Rules for the World is in its third printing at Bantam Doubleday and Dell. Her sixth record, House Of David delaria+bowie=jazz, was released in the Summer of 2015 to critical acclaim.Lea can currently be seen as ‘Professor Mendelson’ in Apple TV’s Physical, ‘Queenie’ in Hulu’s Reprisal, and as ‘Molly Yarnchopper’ in the Netflix and DreamWorks animated series Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts.
Yurel Echezarreta
The Player
Yurel Echezarreta is making his Pasadena Playhouse Debut. Broadway: Moulin Rouge!, Head Over Heels, Aladdin, Matilda, La Cage aux Folles, West Side Story. TV/ Film: Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (Dec. 2021), The Last Five Years, Alternatino, Odd Mom Out, among others.
Tiffany Mann
Pamela
TV: NBC’s New Amsterdam, NBC’s Rise, and Orange Is the New Black. Broadway: Be More Chill and Waitress. Off-Broadway: Jerry Springer the Opera (Lucille Lortel Award), Invisible Thread, and Cabin in the Sky. Other theater: Smokey Joe’s Cafe at The Muny, Dreamgirls, Live from Lincoln Center: Sweeney Todd.
George Salazar
Musidorus
George Salazar was last seen onstage as “Seymour” in Pasadena Playhouse’s critically acclaimed production of Little Shop of Horrors and is beyond thrilled to return to the Playhouse in Head Over Heels. He is best known for originating the role of “Michael Mell” in Be More Chill (Lucille Lortel Award, two Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards, and Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle Award nominations). Other NY theater credits include Godspell (2011 Bway revival), The Lightning Thief (Drama Desk nom.); tick, tick…BOOM!; Here Lies Love. TV credits include “George Conway” in Impeachment: American Crime Story; “Eric Sosa” in Superstore; Nancy Drew; Bull; Divorce. Albums: Two-Player Game, Be More Chill, The Lightning Thief, The Jonathan Larson Project, Godspell.
Freddie
The Oracle
Freddie is a musician and drag performer from Oakland, California. Last year, Freddie released their debut Melanin Monroe EP, which has now amassed over 1,000,000 streams. Now based in Los Angeles, Freddie is making their theater debut at the Pasadena Playhouse for Head Over Heels.
Emily Skeggs
Mopsa
Emily Skeggs is a Tony and Grammy Award-nominated actor, writer, and vocalist. A born and bred New Yorker, she was nominated for both a Tony and Grammy award for her work in the Broadway award-winning production of Fun Home, directed by Sam Gold. Her off-Broadway and regional theater credits include Take Me Along and Transport at the off-Broadway Irish Rep, David Cromer’s Our Town at the Huntington Theater Company, and Naomi Wallace’s And I and Silence at the Signature Theatre Company. Film and television credits include WGN’s Salem, Dustin Lance Black’s ABC miniseries When We Rise, and Lifetime’s Love You To Death starring opposite Marcia Gay Harden, the American High feature The Ultimate Playlist of Noise on Hulu, and the anticipated feature Dinner in America, from director Adam Rehmeier, which debuted at Sundance 2020. You can currently find her in Los Angeles, where she maintains a small urban food farm. She recently taught her cat to sit.
Shanice Williams
Philoclea
Shanice Williams is an American actress and singer best known for her performance as “Dorothy” in the televised live performance of NBC’s The Wiz Live! Recently, Shanice played a recurring role in the NBC comedy Perfect Harmony with Bradley Whitford and Anna Camp and will be seen guest starring in the upcoming season 4 of The Last O.G., opposite Tracy Morgan and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Shanice is 25 and lives in Los Angeles.
Creative Team
The Go-Go’s (Music & Lyrics)
The Go-Go’s are band members Charlotte Caffey, Belinda Carlisle, Gina Schock, Kathy Valentine, and Jane Wiedlin and they will forever have the beat! These female pioneers formed The Go-Go’s in 1978 and were an integral part of the LA punk scene. The Go-Go’s made history as the first, and to date only, all-female band that both wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to ever top the Billboard charts. Their 1981 debut album, Beauty and the Beat, was #1 on the charts for six consecutive weeks and it remains one of the most successful debut albums of all time. Other albums include Vacation (1982), Talk Show (1984) and God Bless The Go-Go’s (2001). With a 1982 Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a place in history that no other band can claim, it is assured that The Go-Go’s will keep going with a classic catalog of songs that transcends time, trends, and genres. In 2021 The Go-Go’s were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
James Magruder (Adaptation)
James Magruder made his Broadway debut with the book for Triumph of Love. His adaptations of Marivaux, Molière, Lesage, Labiche, Gozzi, Hofmannsthal, Dickens, and Giraudoux have been staged across the country in Germany and Japan, and his dissertation, Three French Comedies, was named an “Outstanding Literary Translation of the Year” in 1997. Also a fiction writer, he has published Sugarless, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist; Let Me See It, a story collection; Love Slaves of Helen Hadley Hall; and the just-released Vamp Until Ready. He teaches dramaturgy at Swarthmore College and French drama at the Yale School of Drama.
Jenny Koons (Director/Choreographer)
Jenny Koons is a theater director and organizer. Theater Projects: 2021 Vision Resident (Ars Nova), Now Becomes Then (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Men on Boats (Baltimore Center Stage), Speechless (New Blue Man Group North American Tour), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Public Theater Mobile Unit), Burn All Night (American Repertory Theatre), Gimme Shelter (Why Not Theatre, 2015 Pan American Games commission), A Sucker Emcee (National Black Theatre, LAByrinth Theater Company). Jenny was the 2017 curator of the Encores! Off-Center Lobby Project, co-curator of the 2016 ThisGen Conference, and co-founder of Artists 4 Change NYC (National Black Theatre). She has been a facilitator and educator in creating anti-racist spaces and engaging in conversations around race and equity for over a decade, in both non-profit and artistic spaces. She is a steering committee member of The Ghostlight Project, founded and leads Let’s Talk About Hard Stuff, an AAPI anti-racist affinity space, and is co-author of the Open Letter to Biden/Harris demanding cabinet-level representation for Arts and Culture.
Sam Pinkleton (Director/Choreographer)
Sam Pinkleton is a Tony Award-nominated director, choreographer, educator, and organizer based in Los Angeles. In LA his work has been seen in the Center Theatre Group productions of Soft Power, Amélie, and Kansas City Choir Boy, starring Courtney Love. His work on Broadway includes Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 – starring Josh Groban and Denée Benton – as well as Significant Other, Heisenberg, Amélie, and Machinal. Collaborations with Jenny Koons include the electropop club musical Burn All Night at American Repertory Theater and the youth-led civic spectacular Runaways at New York City Center and in Central Park. Other recent highlights of his work include Untitled DanceShowPartyThing (created with Ani Taj) for Virgin Voyages and new opera productions for The Dutch National Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Opéra National de Montpellier. He’s a collaborating artist with The Civilians, The Dance Cartel, and Pig Iron Theater Company and a lecturer at Princeton University. The New York Times has described his work as “how the Ramones might have danced if Bob Fosse choreographed them.” He does not own any dance shoes.
