Barrow Street Theatre Launches New “Sounds of Summer” Music Series Beginning June 13
Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Philip Carrubba
rick@oandmco.com / philip@oandmco.com
212-695-7400
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
BARROW STREET THEATRE
LAUNCHES NEW
“SOUNDS OF SUMMER”
A MUSICAL STORYTELLING CELEBRATION
BY ACCLAIMED COMPOSERS TODD ALMOND,
MICHAEL FRIEDMAN, JOSH SCHMIDT, KENNY VANCE
GLEN BERGER AND PIGPEN THEATRE COMPANY
TO PRESENT TALES FROM THE FAUCET & OTHER STORIES:
AN EVENING OF ORIGINAL MATERIAL
AND A SPECIAL ENCORE CONCERT OF “GONE MISSING” BY THE CIVILIANS
THE MUSICAL STORYTELLING BEGINS JUNE 13th
New York, NY – (May 25, 2011) Producers Scott Morfee, Jean Doumanian and Tom Wirtshafter have announced the debut of Sounds of Summer, a musical storytelling celebration by acclaimed composers Todd Almond, Michael Friedman, Josh Schmidt and Kenny Vance. In addition, Glen Berger (SPIDER-MAN Turn Off the Dark) and PigPen Theatre Company will collaborate on an evening of new material and Off-Broadway’s The Civilians will present a concert version of the their hit musical, Gone Missing.
The music begins Monday, June 13th with Kenny Vance and The Planotones at 7:30 p.m. with subsequent performances on Monday evenings beginning at 8:00 p.m. at the Barrow Street Theatre (27 Barrow Street).
2011 Sounds of Summer Lineup:
Monday, June 13 at 7:30 p.m.
Up Close and Personal: An Evening with Kenny Vance and the Planotones
An evening of song and stories
Running time is 2 hours with intermission.
Kenny Vance and the Planotones offer their audience an invitation into their “basement” rehearsal studio for an intimate evening of song and stories spanning Vance's varied and accomplished 50-year career, and the music that has been its unique soundtrack. It is a story only Vance and The Planotones can tell, with a historical perspective framed by a multi-faceted career that began on the Brooklyn street corners, and rose through Jay and the Americans, the Brill Building, his stint as musical director for “Saturday Night Live,” and numerous music-driven film classics like Animal House, Eddie and The Cruisers, Hairspray, and the movie in which The Planotones were “born,” American Hot Wax. After a short intermission, as an added treat, the audience is able to interact with Vance during a warm and informative “Question and Answer” session followed by a Kenny Vance and The Planotones concert.
All tickets for Up Close and Personal: An Evening with Kenny Vance and the Planotones are priced $35.00.
* * * * *
Monday, June 20 at 8:00 p.m.
Todd Almond: Wyoming and Parts of Kansas
A concert of new music
Running time is 85 minutes
Todd Almond's Wyoming and Parts of Kansas is a travelogue-in-song inspired by the songwriter's journey across the American plains. With his band and special guests, Wyoming and Parts of Kansas is told with Almond's singular blend of humor and plaintiveness.
“Almond's brilliant lyrics and music are reminiscent of Hoagy Carmichael's songs,
with their bemused and fragmented stylings.”
– New York Times
About last season's On the Levee:
“Delicate and blunt, drawing oblique energy from classical past shows-most notably Show Boat and Caroline, or Change-while forcing a space for itself…Todd Almond's exemplary score is framed as existing blues songs and spirituals that the characters know.”
– Time Out New York
All tickets for Todd Almond's Wyoming and Parts of Kansas are priced $25.00.
* * * * *
Monday, June 27 at 8:00 p.m.
Joshua Schmidt: Songbook
Directed by Michael Padden
Running time is 85 minutes.
Featuring guest artists Todd Almond (BST’s Wyoming and Parts of Kansas), Cyrilla Baer (Adding Machine, the Musical), Elizabeth Baltes (LCT’s A Minister’s Wife), Drew Gehling (LCT's A Ministers Wife, Jersey Boys), Joel Hatch (Billy Elliott, Adding Machine, The Musical), Marc Kudisch (LCT’s A Minister’s Wife, 9 to 5), 2011 Obie Award winner Austin Pendleton, Margo Seibert (Shakespeare Theatre Company's Candide), Bobby Steggert (Ragtime, 110 in The Shade, LCT’s A Minister’s Wife), Amy Warren (August: Osage County, Adding Machine the Musical), Lauren Worsham (ENCORE’s Where's Charley? ).
Featuring musical guests Tim Splain, Richard Carsey, Steve Gilweski, and Brad Carbone.
All tickets for Joshua Schmidt: Songbook are priced $25.00.
* * * * *
Monday July 18 at 8:00 p.m.
Tales from the Faucet & Other Stories: An Evening with Glen Berger
Featuring original music by PigPen Theatre Company
Directed by Michael Page
Running time is 75 minutes
Join BST for an evening of stories by Glen Berger, featuring original music by PigPen Theatre Company. The evening will be presented by an ensemble of performers, including cast members of Broadway's SPIDER-MAN Turn Off The Dark.
All tickets for Tales from the Faucet & Other Stories: An Evening with Glen Berger are priced $25.00.
* * * * *
Monday, July 25 at 8:00 p.m. ENCORE PERFORMANCE
Todd Almond: Wyoming and Parts of Kansas
A concert of new music
All tickets for Todd Almond: Wyoming and Parts of Kansas are priced $25.00.
* * * * *
Monday August 8 at 8:00 p.m.
The Civilians in Concert: GONE MISSING
Directed & Written by Steven Cosson, from interviews by the company
Music & Lyrics by Michael Friedman
Running time is 75 minutes
Barrow Street Theatre is proud to present a concert performance of The Civilians in Gone Missing, a wry and whimsical musical documentary, crafted from company interviews with real-life New Yorkers about things gone missing, from keys cell phones to dogs and friends…even sanity! BST produced, with The Civilians, the critically acclaimed commercial Off-Broadway production of Gone Missing that ran for 7 months in 2007. Directed and written by Steven Cosson with music by award-winning composer Michael Friedman, The Civilians portray more than thirty characters in their signature storytelling cabaret style.
*FIVE STARS*
“A witty, quick-footed, entertaining evening of theatre. Miss it and weep.”
– Time Out New York
*CRITIC’S PICK*
“Gone Missing is fresh, breezy, and very funny indeed, A PERFECT SUMMER NTERTAINMENT.”
– The New York Times
“A RARE FIND. Ask me to name a show I’ve seen recently that I’ve enjoyed more:
I’d be at a total loss.”
– New York Daly News
“ENGROSSING and INVENTIVE…a reflection on loss that’s both RIDICULOUS and PROFOUND.”
– Variety
All tickets for The Civilians in Concert: Gone Missing are priced $25.00.
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Subscription packages are available — hear all the Sounds of Summer for only $72.50.
Tickets and subscriptions may be purchased online at www.smartix.com, by phone at (212) 868-4444, or at the Barrow Street Theatre Box Office (27 Barrow Street) open daily at 1 p.m. Additional information is available online at www.barrowstreettheatre.com
Barrow Street Theatre is located at 27 Barrow Street at 7th Avenue South in the heart of Greenwich Village. Nearby subway stops are the 1 at Christopher Street (walk 1 block South on 7th Avenue to Barrow) and the A, C, E, B, D, F and M at West 4th (walk West on 4th Street, left on Barrow).
Bios____________________________________________________________
Scott Morfee (Producer) is an independent producer whose past productions include Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (Barrow Street Theatre), Adding Machine: A Musical (Minetta Lane Theatre), Gone Missing, No Child…, Orson’s Shadow, Bug, TJ & Dave, Eat the Taste (all at Barrow Street Theatre); Underneath the Lintel (SoHo Playhouse), and Killer Joe (SoHo Playhouse; Theatre 2851, Chicago), Edinburgh productions include finer noble gases by Adam Rapp and Flash and Blood and Fish and Fowl by Geoff Sobelle and Charlotte Ford (Fringe Firsts).
Jean Doumanian (Producer) produces theatre, film, and television. Recent Broadway productions include The Book of Mormon, The Motherf**ker With The Hat, The House of Blue Leaves, and August: Osage County, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize® and Tony Award® for Best Play. Recent Off-Broadway credits include: When The Rain Stops Falling, Mistakes Were Made and David Cromer’s acclaimed production of Our Town (Lortel Award®) at the Barrow Street Theatre. Doumanian is now adapting August: Osage County for the screen. Upcoming Broadway productions include: The Mountaintop (Olivier Award), Funny Girl, as well as film adaptations of Woman's World, Blackbird, and Galveston. Doumanian has produced over 20 films by directors such as David Mamet, David Gordon Green, Woody Allen, and Barbara Kopple, earning multiple Academy Award® and Golden Globe® nominations.
Tom Wirtshafter (Producer) Past productions include the recent landmark production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (Barrow Street Theatre), Adding Machine: A Musical (Minetta Lane Theatre), Gone Missing, No Child…, TJ & Dave, Orson’s Shadow, Bug, Eat the Taste (all at the Barrow Street Theatre), Sarah Jones’ Bridge and Tunnel (Culture Project and on Broadway – Tony Winner 2005), White Chocolate (Century Center for Performing Arts), Underneath the Lintel (Soho Playhouse), and Stars in Your Eyes (Cherry Lane Theatre).
Todd Almond is a composer, lyricist and performer. His musicals include the award-winning People Like Us (dir: Gus Kaikkonen), Girlfriend (Berkeley Rep., dir: Les Waters), Ahraihsak (Theater Mitu, dir: Ruben Polendo), Kansas City Choir Boy (dir: Sam Gold) We Have Always Lived In The Castle (with Adam Bock), and On The Levee (with Marcus Gardley and Lear deBessonet). Almond served as Music Director for the world premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's Tres Niñas, and has written musicals for both Juilliard and NYU Grad, as well as music-directed and reconceived classic works, most notably Hair at Skirball Auditorium . In addition to having some of the Theater world's top singers perform his music (Victoria Clark, Cheyenne Jackson, Jayne Houdyshell, Laura Benanti, Steven Pasquale, and more), Almond regularly performs his own material in NYC's top venues and recently released a CD of original songs entitled Mexico City. He has been an artist-in-residence at Sundance (both Utah and Ucross, Wyoming), Vassar (with New York Theatre Workshop), and The Orchard Project. In collaboration with composer Ellen Mandel, he has recorded two albums of songs with music by Mandel and texts by E.E. Cummings, W.B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, and other great poets. He will be joined on-stage by special guests and musicians for this one-of-a-kind musical storytelling event.”
Joshua Schmidt's credits include Lincoln Center: When the Rain Stops Falling, A Minister's Wife. Broadway: The House of Blue Leaves and Brighton Beach Memoirs. Off-Broadway: Adding Machine, The Musical, Fifty Words, Crime and Punishment, Whida Peru, and many others. Regional: Merry Wives of Windsor (Stratford Theatre Festival Ontario, Canada), Ten Chimneys (Arizona Theatre Company, Tucson), A Christmas Carol, Fords Theatre, Washinton,DC,; Detroit; Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago.). Associate Artist: Alley Theatre Houston, Writers' Theatre in Glencoe. Awards: Outer Critics, Lortel, Jeff, ASCAP, NEA/TCG.
Glen Berger is the co-writer of the book for the new Broadway musical, SPIDER-MAN Turn of the Dark currently in performance at the Foxwoods Theatre. His plays include Underneath the Lintel (more than 450 performances Off-Broadway, 150 productions worldwide), O Lovely Glowworm (Portland Drammy Best Script Award) and Great Men of Science, Nos. 21 & 22 (L.A. Weekly Best Play Award). Glen has also collaborated on two new musicals: On Words and Onwards and Loewe Award winner A Night in the Old Marketplace, with commissions from theatres including Berkley Rep and the Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis. In television, Glen has won two Emmys (12 nominations) and has written more than 200 episodes for children’s television seen on PBS, NBC and the BBC including “Arthur,” “Curious George” and “Peep.” He was the head writer for all five seasons of “Fetch with Ruff Ruffman.” He is a New Dramatists alumnus and an artist under commission at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
PigPen Theatre Company creates atmospheric theatrical fables with a unique blend of shadow puppetry, group movement, live music, and clever lighting effects. Formed at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in 2008, PigPen has gone on to perform regionally in playhouses around the country. PigPen was awarded the top honor for a play at the 2010 New York City International Fringe Festival for their show “The Nightmare Story.”
Steve Cosson (Writer and Director) is the founding Artistic Director of The Civilians. With The Civilians: co-writer/director of This Beautiful City (Drama Desk, Drama-League, Lortel Nominations); co-writer/director of Paris Commune; writer/director of the long-running hit Gone Missing (New York Times’ Top 10 of 2007 list.); writer/director (I Am) Nobody’s Lunch, (2006 Fringe First award). He has directed at theaters including Kansas City Rep, Hartford Stage, Soho Rep, Williamstown Theater Festival, O’Neill Conference, New Harmony Project and others. He has been a Fulbright Scholar in Colombia, a MacDowell Fellow, and was Resident Director at New Dramatists. He’s taught at ACT Conservatory, Carnegie Mellon, Colorado College, and Princeton with master classes and workshops at many other institutions. His plays have been published by Oberon Books, Dramatists Play Service, and a Civilians anthology published by Playscripts Inc.
Michael Friedman (Music and Lyrics) Composer/lyricist for The Civilians' This Beautiful City, Gone Missing, [I Am] Nobody's Lunch and Canard Canard Goose? and co-author of Paris Commune. Most recently represented by Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson on Broadway and Angels in America at the Signature Theater. Also: Saved, The Brand New Kid, In the Bubble, Hoover Comes Alive! Dramaturg on A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway. He recently performed in Lincoln Center's American Songbook in a concert of his songs. Barron Visiting Professor: Princeton University. Artistic associate: NYTW; founding associate artist: the Civilians; MacDowell Fellow; Hodder Fellow. Obie Award: Sustained Achievement.
The Civilians is the center for investigative theater, supporting the development and production of new theater from creative inquiries into the most vital questions of the present. The Civilians expands the scope of American theater and champions innovation by tackling complex and under-explored subjects, enabling artists to enrich their processes through in-depth interaction with their topics, diversifying artistic voices and audiences, and integrating theater with new media. Development often involves community residencies, travel, face-to-face conversations, and extensive research. This high degree of engagement with the public continues into production, inviting the audience to be active participants through ongoing channels of dialogue. The company provides a home for a multidisciplinary group of artists and partners with regional theater and arts presenters in New York, nationally, and internationally.
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