Inside BLACK SWAN World Premiere Celebrates Opening Night at American Repertory Theater

Tony Award winner Sonya Tayeh (Gatsby at A.R.T., Moulin Rouge! The Musical on Broadway) returns to the A.R.T. to bring the Oscar-nominated psychological thriller Black Swan to the stage. Go inside opening night in new photos!

Pressure builds, boundaries blur, and reality begins to slip as Nina strives to rise from the ballet corps to the lead role in Swan Lake. Performed with Tayeh’s high-octane, genre-breaking chorography, this bold new musical adaptation explores ambition, power, and the cost of perfection. Black Swan features a contemporary book by Guggenheim Fellow Jen Silverman and a haunting score by Obie Award winner Dave Malloy that blends the melodies of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake with a throbbing electronic soundscape.

Black Swan features music, lyrics, and orchestrations by Obie Award winner Dave Malloy (Moby-Dick, The Great Comet, and others at A.R.T.), a book by Guggenheim Fellow Jen Silverman (The Roommate, Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties), music supervision, music direction, and additional arrangements by Or Matias (Moby-Dick, The Great Comet), and direction and choreography by Tony Award winner Sonya Tayeh (Gatsby, Moulin Rouge! The Musical). Black Swan is based on the Searchlight Pictures Film Black Swan, story by Andres Heinz.

The Black Swan cast includes Kyle Brown (Ajay/Ensemble), Jada Simone Clark (Lily), Karli Dinardo (Glory/Ensemble), Kate Jennings Grant (Barbara), Gabriel Hyman (Ensemble), Amber Iman (LeRoy), Charizma Lawrence (Ensemble), Adrian Lee (Ensemble), Caleb Marshall (Dylan/Ensemble), Melanie Moore (Nina), Ava Noble (Ensemble), Martell Ruffin (Ensemble), Ida Saki (Doppel), Anthony Santos (Ensemble), Thom Sesma (Jacques/Rothbart), Sarah Sigman (Morgan/Ensemble), Chelsea Thedinga (Ensemble), Tory Trowbridge (Beth), and Valeria Yamin (Ensemble). Alex Aquilino, Cameron Burke, Mia DeWeese, and Johanna Moise are swings. Mehry Eslaminia is an understudy.

Black Swan features scenography by AMP, featuring Marissa Todd; costume design by Shiona Turini; lighting design by Isabella Byrd; sound design by Kai Harada; hair and wig design by Mia Neal; and makeup design by Sarah Cimino. Illusion design is by Chris Fisher and Skylar Fox, blood design is by Lillis Meeh, and fight and intimacy direction is by Rociìo Mendez. Benita de Wit serves as the associate director, Camden Gonzales is the associate choreographer, James Nguyen and AC Gottlieb are the associate costume designers, Paul Toben is the associate lighting designer, and Owen Meadows is the associate sound designer. Genevieve Kersh is the production stage manager, Amy Marsico is the stage manager, and Elizabeth Emanuel is the assistant stage manager. Casting is by C12/ Stephen Kopel and Jillian Cimini.

Tickets from $43 (including fees) are available at AmericanRepertoryTheater.org/BlackSwan. Discounts are available to full-time K-12, college, or university students and anyone under age 25; Blue Star families; NAP/EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare cardholders; seniors, Harvard faculty and staff; and others. 

Photo Credit: Hawver and Hall