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The Seduction of Edgar Degas to Begin Off-Broadway Aug. 14

  By Adam Hetrick
14 Jul 2008

Le Wilhelm's The Seduction of Edgar Degas will have its world premiere Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters Aug. 14.

The Seduction of Edgar Degas marks Wilhelm's fourth collaboration with 59E59 Theaters in as many years. Other Wilhelm works staged at the Off-Broadway venue include The Death in Juniper Grove, Maiden's Progeny and The Hanging of Razor Brown.

Wilhelm will also direct The Seduction of Edgar Degas that officially opens Aug. 17 and continues through Sept. 9.

"French artist Edgar Degas, considered one of the founders of the Impressionist movement, did not start out painting dancers. After seeing Eugenie Fiocre, considered to be the most beautiful woman in Paris, in the revolutionary ballet La Source, Degas desired nothing more than to paint her," press notes state.

The Seduction of Edgar Degas has been double-cast for the 59E59 run. Populating the drama are Kristin Carter, Lauren Ford, Mark A. Kinch, Bob Manus, Maria Psomas, Gabrielle Rosen, Colleen Summa, Kirsten Walsh and Tony White. The second cast features Valerie Austin, Dustin C. Burrell, Bob Manus, Jessica Mazo, Jennifer Perrotta, Maria Psomas, Gabrielle Rosen, Alan Salsbury and Colleen Summa.

Wilhelm is currently working on Thanatopia and the social comedy, Clitorides Gigantium, and a contemporary adaptation of A Doll's House, entitled, The Quem Queritius Syndrome.

Tickets, priced $20, are available by visiting ticketcentral.com, or by phoning (212) 279-4200. For further information visit 59E59.org.

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Welch, Grant, Glover, Clark, Hagerty Are All in the Family in Bette and Boo, Opening July 13

                   

Christopher Evan Welch and Kate Jennings Grant in The Marriage of Bette and Boo.
photo by Joan Marcus

Marriage, that famous sacrament, is sacrificed to darkly comic effect in the Roundabout Theatre Company's new production of Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo, opening July 13 at Off-Broadway's Laura Pels Theatre.

Walter Bobbie directs a cast that includes Tony Award winners John Glover and Victoria Clark, and Julie Hagerty ("Airplane!"), as in-laws. Previews began June 12 at Roundabout's Pels, at the troupe's Off-Broadway complex, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street).

Christopher Evan Welch and Kate Jennings Grant are the Bette and Boo of the title, whose marriage and extended families are examined in the dark comedy. The tale is told by their son, Matt (played by Charles Socarides). The limited engagement ends Sept. 7.

The Marriage of Bette and Boo, according to Roundabout, "takes a look at the complex marriage of Bette and Boo. Three decades of marriage, divorce, alcoholism, nervous breakdowns and death — all blended in a unique mix of irony, humor and farce — are played out in 33 quick scenes."

The production features Terry Beaver (Father Donnally), Heather Burns (Emily Brennan), Victoria Clark (Margaret Brennan), John Glover (Karl Hudlocke), Kate Jennings Grant (Bette Brennan), Julie Hagerty (Soot Hudlocke), Adam Lefevre (Paul Brennan), Zoe Lister-Jones (Joan Brennan), Charles Socarides (Matt) and Christopher Evan Welch (Boo Hudlocke).

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The design team includes David Korins (sets), Susan Hilferty (costumes), Donald Holder (lights) and Acme Sound Partners (sound).

Bobbie returns to Roundabout after directing the 2003 Broadway production of Twentieth Century, starring Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche (and featuring The Marriage of Bette and Boo cast member Terry Beaver). Glover returns to Roundabout and the Laura Pels Theatre after the 2004 production of The Paris Letter. He won a Tony for Love! Valour! Compassion! Clark, who won a Tony for The Light in the Piazza, was featured in the Roundabout's production of Cabaret.

The Marriage of Bette and Boo premiered Off-Broadway in May 1985 and won a number of Obie Awards including one for Durang for playwriting. The play also won the Dramatists Guild Hull Warriner Award.

For more information visit www.roundabouttheatre.org or call Roundabout Ticket Services at (212) 719-1300.

 

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AfroBeat goes off-Broadway

The propulsive music of Nigerian pop artist Fela Kuti has been an engine powering both late-night ecstasies at local dance clubs and the streaming concert work of contemporary dancemaker Ronald K. Brown. But now another famous African-American choreographer, Bill T. Jones, plans to tell the late musician's life story off-Broadway.

An international star who invented the fusion style known as AfroBeat, Kuti was also a political activist and a flamboyant personality with numerous wives. The Nigerian government, whose corruption he exposed and ridiculed, persecuted him viciously. In 1977, soldiers attacked the compound where Kuti lived with his followers, beating and raping the occupants and throwing his 82-year-old mother out of an upstairs window. Kuti survived this attack and died of complications from AIDS in 1997.

       

The new musical, titled "Fela!," is directed and choreographed by Jones, and features Kuti's music performed on stage by the band Antibalas. During previews from July 29-Aug. 31, performances will run at 7 p.m. Tuesdays and 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, with matinees at 2 on Saturdays and Sundays, at 37 ARTS, 450 W. 37th St., New York.

The performance schedule changes, with additional performances at 7 p.m. Sundays, from Sept. 2-21. Preview tickets are $51.25. (After the show opens on Sept. 5, tickets are $76.25.) Call (212) 560-8912 or visit ticketmaster.com.

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Fantasticks Cast to Offer Free Concert in Union Square July 10

Cast members from the Off-Broadway revival of The Fantasticks will perform at the annual "Summer in the Square" event in Union Square July 10.

The 5:30 PM free concert will feature Fantasticks' young lovers, Erica Piccininni and Nick Spangler, performing "Soon It's Gonna Rain." (On June 19 Spangler was named the winner of the Theater Hall of Fame's 2008 Elaine and Jerry Orbach Musical Theater Fellowship for his performance in the record-breaking musical.)

The Union Square concert will also include a performance by Fantasticks fathers Gene Jones and Steve Routman, who will offer "Never Say No." Jim Caruso — of the Broadway at Birdland series — serves as the host for the concert held at the South Plaza of Union Square Park.

Following a hiatus this past winter, The Fantasticks resumed performances at the Snapple Theater Center's Jerry Orbach Theater June 16.

The beloved tale of two young lovers and their meddling fathers is the world's longest-running musical, having played a record-breaking run of more than 17,000 performances in Greenwich Village. The Fantasticks originally opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in May 1960 and closed Jan. 13, 2002. The original company included Wedding Singer star Rita Gardner and the late Jerry Orbach. Harvey Schmidt wrote the music, and Tom Jones penned the book and lyrics. Word Baker directed the original Off-Broadway company.

Tickets for the Off-Broadway revival of The Fantasticks can be purchased by visiting Ticketmaster.com or by calling (212) 307-4100. The Snapple Theater Center is located at 210 West 50th Street at Broadway.

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New York Theatre Workshop Sets 2008-09 Season Lineup

Ruben Santiago-Hudson Directors Jo Bonney, Peter Brook and Ruben Santiago-Hudson will take on works by scribes Michael Weller, Marie-Helene Estienne and Naomi Wallace as part of New York Theatre Workshop's 2008-09 season. The 26th annual lineup will kick off with Weller's Beast, directed by Bonney, beginning August 29 and running through October 12 at the off-Broadway company's off-Broadway theater.

Beast, written by Academy Award nominee Weller (Moonchildren, Spoils of War, Loose Ends, the screenplay for Ragtime), is described as a blood-red comic road adventure. The show stars two Iraqi War veterans—badly mutilated but as fiercely patriotic as ever—as they make their way home from a military hospital in Germany. Their marauding adventure across America takes them to Crawford, Texas, where they meet up with their Commander-in-Chief and offer a surefire solution to all his problems.

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Adding Machine Sets Closing Date Off-Broadway

Cyrilla Baer and Joel Hatch in
Adding Machine The off-Broadway musical Adding Machine has set a closing date of July 20 at the Minetta Lane Theatre. The show, which began performances with little fanfare on February 7 and went on to receive an armload of awards and nominations, had previously announced that it would run through August 31. Adding Machine will have played 16 previews and 149 regular performances upon closing.

According to the closing announcement, Adding Machine "will soon be heard in European productions, regional theaters and in opera houses around the world." An original cast recording has been released on PS Classics, and the full cast and band will perform a 30-minute concert at Barnes & Noble's Lincoln Center store on July 17, followed by a CD signing

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The Strangerer to Play Off-Broadway's Barrow Street Theatre in July

Theater Oobleck's acclaimed production of Mickle Maher's The Strangerer — described as "part political satire, part classical drama, part contemporary debate, and a murder mystery with the murderers in plain view" — will begin performances at Off-Broadway's Barrow Street Theatre July 9.

The production, which ended its run at Chicago's Chopin Theatre June 29, is scheduled for a six-week engagement at the Barrow Street. The original Chicago cast — including Guy Massey, Mickle Maher, Colm O'Reilly and Brian Shaw — will star.

Opening night is scheduled for July 13.

The Strangerer, according to press notes, "collides several of Camus' works with the first Bush/Kerry presidential debate in 2004. The formalities of the debate are overturned as Bush and Kerry struggle with the question not of if or why an innocent man should be killed (the man in question being moderator Jim Lehrer), but rather what is the proper manner in which to go about killing him."

The design team comprises Maher (sets), Martha Bayne (lighting) and Chris Schoen (sound).

Show times are Tuesday-Saturday at 7:30 PM and Sunday at 2:30 and 7:30 PM.

The Barrow Street Theatre is located in Manhattan on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Barrow Street, one block south of Christopher Street. Tickets, priced $25, are available by calling (212) 239-6200 or by visiting www.telecharge.com.

For more information visit theateroobleck.com.

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