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Zero Hour Resumes Performances Tuesday

ZERO HOUR, Jim Brochu’s acclaimed play about the life of theatre legend Zero Mostel, will begin an open-ended Off-Broadway run at the DR2 Theatre (103 East 15th Street) beginning February 23rd, with opening night set for Sunday, March 7th.  ZERO HOUR recently completed a limited 11-week limited engagement at Theatre at St. Clement’s, where it opened on November 22nd to rave reviews.

“In this solo bioplay directed by Hollywood veteran Piper Laurie, writer and performer Brochu is freakishly convincing as the blustery, brilliant Mostel. It’s more than just the ridiculous comb-over, the bug eyes and the Tevye beard. Brochu seems to have captured the soul of the bombastic clown who could wring laughs out of an audience with a bit of mime or a booming punch line…a funny tribute to a funny man.” – NY1

“Singularly captivating. Zero Hour is a success. Brochu is the spitting image of the bearish Mostel, down to the strands of hair barely covering his head. His wildly expressive gestures are particularly spot on. It brings Mostel back to life, just the way his fans want him.” - The New York Times

“Very funny. Brochu's living restoration has brought Mostel's larger-than-life personality back into the spotlight for a laugh-filled, much-welcomed presentation. - Associated Press

“It all flows and provides plenty of big laughs as well as hushed drama. After a while, you stop caring whether a particular line is Brochu’s or Mostel’s; all you know is that you’ve been privy to the work of a great comedian.” - The New Yorker

****(FOUR STARS/Critic’s Pick) “We owe Jim Brochu a debt of gratitude for Zero Hour, an extraordinary act of reincarnation that restores the outsize actor to us in all of his daunting dimensions. From the moment that Brochu spins around to face the audience, he is a Hirschfeld drawing come to pulsing life. You can’t help being swept up in the tornado of energy as Brochu’s star turn conjures forth a Zero larger than life and death.” - Time Out New York

“The rumors of Zero Mostel's death have apparently been greatly exaggerated. Jim Brochu recalls his subject so uncannily in looks, voice and anarchic spirit that one immediately wants to see him in revivals of Forum and Fiddler. Thirty-two years after Mostel's untimely death, it's a pleasure to have him back on the boards.” - New York Post

Three-time Academy Award nominee Piper Laurie directs ZERO HOUR, which was originally produced in Los Angeles, winning the Ovation Award for Best New Play.  And just last month, ZERO HOUR received two Helen Hayes Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Non-Resident Production.

Starring Jim Brochu as Zero Mostel, ZERO HOUR is set at Mostel’s West 28th Street painting studio where a naïve reporter attempts to interview the famously volatile actor, prompting an explosion of memory, humor, outrage, and juicy backstage lore.  It is July 1977 and the actor is giving his final interview before leaving for the pre-Broadway tryout of The Merchant in Philadelphia.  Mostel only played one performance as Shylock before his sudden death at the age of 62.  ZERO HOUR traces Mostel's early days growing up on the Lower East Side as the son of Orthodox Jewish immigrant parents, through his rise as a stand-up comedian, from the Borscht Belt to Manhattan's most exclusive supper clubs, and from the devastation of the blacklist to his greatest Broadway triumphs, most notably as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof and working through his love-hate relationship with Jerome Robbins.

ZERO HOUR is produced Off-Broadway by Kurt Peterson and Edmund Gaynes in association with The Peccadillo Theater Company.

The playing schedule is Tuesday at 7PM, Wednesday at 2PM, Thursday & Friday at 8PM, Saturday at 2 & 8PM, and Sunday at 3PM.  Tickets are $59.50 & $35.50 and are available through Telecharge.com 212-239-6200.  For more information about ZERO HOUR, visit www.ZeroHourShow.com.

Neil LaBute's reasons to be pretty to Move to Broadway

MCC Theater's world premiere production of Neil LaBute's reasons to be pretty, now at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, will move to Broadway, beginning February 13, at a theater to be announced.

The show, to be produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, and Steve Traxler in association with MCC, will once again be directed by Terry Kinney, and star Piper Perabo, Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, and Pablo Schreiber -- all of whom are part of the MCC production.

The four-character work concerns Greg, whose life is thrown into turmoil when he makes an offhand remark about his girlfriend's face. LaBute's other plays include Wrecks, Fat Pig, The Shape of Things, and Some Girl(s), all of which have been seen Off-Broadway.

Perabo is known for her work in such films as Coyote Ugly and Because I Said So. Pill appeared in the Broadway production of Mauritius; she received a Tony Award nomination for her work in The Lieutenant of Inishmore and a Drama Desk Award for LaBute's The Distance from Here. Sadoski's many New York stage credits include Reckless, Stay and Where We're Born. Schreiber received a Tony nomination for Awake and Sing! and has appeared Off-Broadway in such shows as Dying City and Manuscript.

Conscientious Objector Opens Off-Broadway

             

John Cullum and DB Woodside
photo by Aubrey Reuben

The world premiere of Michael Roland Murphy's Conscientious Objector - directed by Keen Company artistic director Carl Forsman - officially opened at the Clurman Theatre March 18.

Press notes describe the work as such: "In early 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. informed his advisors that he intended to play a major role in the anti-war movement, advocating immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Vietnam. No major figure of Dr. King's stature had yet been willing to take such a dramatic stand, even those thought to oppose the war, such as Senators Kennedy and McGovern. King knew he would be turning past allies like President Johnson into powerful enemies and reviving the animus of old enemies as well. King’s inner circle feared he would trigger a political backlash that could undo the progress made in civil rights. The play draws upon the historical record, including the FBI's relentless surveillance, often illegal, and the White House's infamous secret telephone recordings."

Tony Award winner John Cullum (On the Twentieth Century, Shenandoah) stars as President Lyndon B. Johnson with DB Woodside ("24,""Viva Laughlin,""Grey's Anatomy") as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rounding out the cast are Chad Carstarphen, Jimonn Cole, Brian Hicks, Jonathan Hogan, Rachel Leslie, James Miles, Steve Routman, Geddeth Smith and Harold Suratt.

The Clurman Theatre is located at 410 West 42nd Street. Tickets are available by visiting www.ticketcentral.com.

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Below are some photos from the opening-night party at the lounge on the second floor of the Theatre Row Theatres:

Director Carl Forsman and playwright Michael Murphy		Rachel Leslie

Steve Routman and James Miles		Bryan Hicks

The cast takes a bow on opening night

NYC Premiere of Dead Man's Cell Phone Opens March 4

Tony Award winner Mary-Louise Parker plays a quirky, well-meaning woman who answers a stranger's ringing mobile phone — putting her on a journey that will change her life — in the New York City premiere of Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, opening March 4 at Playwrights Horizons.

The star of Broadway's Proof and TV's "Weeds" plays Jean, a mousey character who lies to the relatives of the man whose phone she picks up. In the Anne Bogart-directed play on the themes of mortality, empathy and connection in the age of cold technology and soulless transactions, Jean wants to be the agent of the survivors' happiness — she makes them feel good by suggesting the dead man was thinking of them in his last moments.

T. Ryder Smith plays the title character, Gordon, replacing Bill Camp, who created the role in previews before leaving for another job obligation. Smith last appeared at Playwrights Horizons in She Stoops to Comedy. He previously worked with playwright Ruhl in The Goodman Theatre production of her Passion Play.

The production began previews Feb. 9, one day later than originally announced.

The cast also features Drama Desk and Obie Award winner and Tony nominee Kathleen Chalfant (Wit, Angels in America and the current Vita and Virginia) as Gordon's red-meat-eating mother; David Aaron Baker (Broadway's A Raisin in the Sun, The Rainmaker, Abe Lincoln in Illinois) as Gordon's brother, Dwight, who works in the stationery business; Carla Harting (Off-Broadway's Eurydice, Orson's Shadow) as The Other Woman, Gordon's mistress and a colleague in his dark line of work; and Kelly Maurer (Broadway's The Old Neighborhood) as Gordon's widow.

According to Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons, "Gordon is dead, but his cell phone lives on. When Jean (Mary-Louise Parker), an empathetic museum worker, answers his ringing phone beside her in a café, she is soon playing unwitting comforter and confessor to the man's grieving friends and family. Before she knows it, Jean is ensnarled in the underbelly of the dead man's bizarre life. A wildly imaginative new comedy, Dead Man's Cell Phone is the odyssey of a woman forced to confront her assumptions about morality, redemption and the need to connect in a technology-obsessed world."

The production features scenic and costume designs by G.W. Mercier, lighting design by Brian H. Scott and soundscape by Darron L. West. Production stage manager is Elizabeth Moreau.

Director Anne Bogart is artistic director of SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. The troupe is known for its creation of potent images and its commitment to an ensemble ethic.

The performance schedule is Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 PM, Saturdays at 2:30 & 8 PM and Sundays at 2:30 & 7:30 PM.

For more information visit www.playwrightshorizons.org or call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200.

* Dead Man's Cell Phone had its world premiere in 2007 in a production by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC.

GUSTAFER YELLOWGOLD MAKES OFF-BROADWAY DEBUT!

NEW YORK, January 10, 2008 – Just as Gustafer Yellowgold, an intrepid explorer from the Sun, is trying to fathom the ins and outs of life here on Earth, Earthlings are demonstrating an almost insatiable curiosity toward Gustafer. Multi-media wizard/illustrator/songwriter Morgan Taylor, delighting in all this inquiry, has created Gustafer Yellowgold’s Mellow Sensation, an off-Broadway adventure that will satisfy some of these questions from the public.Gustafer Yellowgold’s Mellow Sensation makes its theatrical debut on Saturday, March 15, at the DR2 Theatre, 103 E. 15th St., NYC, with performances at 11:00am and 2:00pm The show will run on Saturdays through May 3.

 

 

Mellow Sensation affords audiences a chance to immerse themselves in the rather quirky world of our little yellow friend from the Sun. As with all Gustafer Yellowgold shows, Mellow Sensation will be narrated with live songs and stories performed by Taylor, accompanying his trademark "musical moving book" of giant, projected, animated illustrations. Magical theatrical lighting and sound effects will herald Gustafer's off-Broadway debut. Keeping his whimsical, absurdist humor intact, Morgan Taylor promises an enhanced narrative interspersed with animated “sponsor ads” for such staples of Gustafer's world as Marina Eel Chow and Crunch O' Pine Pinecone Cereal. Gustafer Yellowgold’s Mellow Sensation will be a complete theatrical experience -- like crossing Prairie Home Companion, Yellow Submarine and Schoolhouse Rock.

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'Rum & Coke' with Carmen Peláez Premieres Off-Bway Feb.1

Abingdon Theatre Company will present the Off-Broadway premiere of the critically acclaimed one-woman show Rum & Coke, featuring Carmen Peláez, February 1 – March 2, 2008 in the June Havoc Theatre. Previews begin February 1st and the production will have its official opening on Wednesday, February 13, 2008.

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Off-Broadway Dates Set for Guirgis' Little Flower of East Orange

The LAByrinth Theater Company has set dates for the upcoming Off-Broadway run of Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Little Flower of East Orange as well as two developmental readings.

LAB co-artistic director Philip Seymour Hoffman will direct Little Flower, which is scheduled to begin previews March 18 and open April 6 at the Public Theater (who co-produce the event) for a run through April 20.

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Stroili's Straight Up with a Twist to Play Off-Broadway Beginning Jan. 17

Actor Paul Stroili will bring his solo show Straight Up With a Twist to Off-Broadway's Players Theatre for an open-ended run beginning Jan. 17.

Stroili, whose television credits include appearances on "Malcolm in the Middle," "Brother's Keeper," "The Untouchables" and "Cold Justice," penned the one-man autobiographical comedy that will make its New York debut following an award-winning run in Los Angeles in 2000 and several regional engagements.

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'Deathbed' by Mark Schultz Premieres Off-Bway for 6 Weeks

Deathbed by Mark Schultz (Everything Will Be Different 2006 Kesselring Prize for playwriting) will make its Off-Broadway world premiere at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre (2162 Broadway at 76th street). Wendy C. Goldberg directs the limited six week engagement January 21 – March 1 with opening night set for Thursday, January 31.

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Pinkalicious to Play Limited New World Stages Engagement

The musical Pinkalicious will make a New York return for a limited engagement at New World Stages beginning Jan. 12, 2008.

Following productions at the Vital Theatre Company and Soho Rep this past year, the children's musical will run through Feb. 10, 2008.

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