Jonathan Estabrooks in world premiere of Anna Christie

Melanie Lang and Jonathan Estabrooks

Jonathan Estabrooks, who appeared in the very first Barihunks calendar, will be appearing in the world premiere of Edward Thomas and Joseph Masteroff's opera Anna Christie. The Juilliard-trained singer and producer, who continues to look better with each passing year, will take on the role of Mat Burke, the stoker who falls in love with the title character.

The opera will be presented by Encompass New Opera Theatre in New York on October 4 and will run through October 21, 2018 at the Baruch Performing Arts Center.

The cast includes also includes Frank Basile as Chris Christopherson, Melanie Long as Anna Christie, Joy Hermalyn as Marthy Owen and Mike Pirozzi as Larry the Bartender.

Anna Christie, based on Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning play explores the lost relationship of a woman and her father, and the sailor she falls in love with. The sea is a powerful symbol in the play and O'Neill having lived by the docks in New York City's waterfront, was acquainted with the sailors, booze, saloons and night life that he wrote about with such passion and authenticity. Abandoned by her father when she was five years old, Anna suffered a life of hardship and carries a dark secret from her past. An emotionally charged reunion with her father, a captain of a coal barge, intensifies when a merchant sailor is pulled from the cold, dark waters of the Atlantic on a foggy night. When the fog clears, Anna, the sailor and her father are caught in a riveting struggle between love and the sea, changing their lives forever.

The play made its Broadway debut at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921 and was made into a 1930 Hollywood film starring Greta Garbo in her first talking picture.

Tickets and additional information is available online.