“LEMPICKA” THE SWEEPING NEW MUSICAL WILL HAVE WEST COAST PREMIERE THIS SPRING AT LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE
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Rick Miramontez / Aaron Meier / Sammy Wolfin
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
“LEMPICKA”
THE SWEEPING NEW MUSICAL
WILL HAVE WEST COAST PREMIERE THIS SPRING
AT LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE
BOOK AND LYRICS BY
CARSON KREITZER
MUSIC BY
MATT GOULD
DIRECTED BY
TONY AWARD® WINNER RACHEL CHAVKIN
New York, NY (October 16, 2019) – Greg Nobile and Jana Shea of Seaview Productions and Jenny Niederhoffer announced today that Lempicka, the sweeping new musical portrait celebrating the gripping true story of renowned artist Tamara de Lempicka, will have its West Coast premiere this spring at La Jolla Playhouse (Christopher Ashley, Artistic Director) prior to a Broadway run during the 2020-2021 season.
Directed by Tony Award winner Rachel Chavkin, Lempicka features book and lyrics by Carson Kreitzer, music by Matt Gould, and choreography by Raja Feather Kelly.
When it had its world premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival (Mandy Greenfield, Artistic Director) in 2018, it became the must-see musical of the summer. The New York Times asked, “Is Lempicka the new Evita? A politically tumultuous tale of blond ambition with epic sweep has arrived,” and Ben Brantley called the show, “Incandescent! An exciting new work which gives musical theater fans who’ve been wondering why they don’t write dominating parts for women anymore have reason to cheer. Matt Gould’s stirring, richly polyphonic music with lyrics by Carson Kreitzer layers voices against each other like lovers between the sheets and Rachel Chavkin is a miracle worker.”
Amidst the violence of the Russian Revolution, a young painter named Tamara de Lempicka and her aristocrat husband are forced to abandon their luxurious lifestyle and flee to the dubious safety of Paris. Relying on her raw talent and relentless ambition, Tamara claws her way from penniless refugee to in-demand portraitist, earning a place among Parisian high society. Her world is upended once again when she meets Rafaela, a free spirit from the city slums, who introduces Tamara to a new world of decadence and passion. Torn between her new muse and her husband, fighting to leave her mark on an ever-changing world, Tamara must discover the depths of her own strength to survive.
Spanning decades of political and personal turmoil and told through a thrilling, pop-infused score, Lempicka boldly explores the contradictions of a world in crisis, a woman ahead of her era, and an artist whose time has finally come.
The creative team for Lempicka includes Tony Award nominee Riccardo Hernandez (scenic design), Drama Desk Award winner Anita Yavich (costume design), two-time Tony Award winner Bradley King (lighting design), Tony Award winner Nevin Steinberg (sound design), Cian McCarthy (orchestrations), Remy Kurs (music supervision), and Peter Duchan (creative consultant).
Casting for Lempicka will be announced in the coming weeks.
BIOGRAPHIES
Seaview Productions aims to amplify new voices with a focus on developing stories not traditionally told in the Broadway space. This Tony and Olivier Award-winning production company is led by Greg Nobile and Jana Shea, along with Managing Director Carly Callahan and Associate Producer Julia Dunetz. Seaview is committed to redefining on-stage storytelling through strategic innovation in creative development, audience experience, consumer engagement, and investment management. Select Seaview producing credits include Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play now playing at the Golden Theatre, the recent hit production of Sea Wall / A Life at the Hudson Theatre, the Lortel Award-winning revival of Sweeney Todd at the Barrow Street Theatre, the Tony Award-winning musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, the Olivier Award-winning revival of Gypsy and Showboat on London’s West End, Hundred Days, Invisible Thread and OSCAR at The Crown Off-Broadway. Seaview also produced the Peabody Award-winning documentary India’s Daughter and Gypsy: Live from the Savoy Theatre in collaboration with the BBC. www.seaviewprods.com
Jenny Niederhoffer is a commercial and non-profit producer and philanthropist. Most recently, she was a co-producer on Broadway’s Be More Chill by Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz. Previously, she produced The Flying Karamazov Brothers 4Play at the Minetta Lane Theater and the Vaudeville Theatre in London, England. She chairs the Off-Broadway theatre company, Transport Group which is the recipient of multiple Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Dramatist Guild awards as well as a special citation by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle. Niederhoffer curates a reading/development series which has included Miracolo by Jarlath Barsanti-Jacobs and Emilio Solla, One Good Day by Liz Suggs and Rona Siddiqui, Red Rum by Joe Lovero and Jon Hugo Ungar, Huzzah! by Nell Benjamin and Laurence O’Keefe, The Bad Years by Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk, A Walk with Mr. Heifetz by James Inverne, and Death House Jamboree by Michael Panes. www.jennynproductions.com
La Jolla Playhouse is a place where artists and audiences come together to create what’s new and next in the American theatre, from Tony Award-winning productions, to imaginative programs for young audiences, to interactive experiences outside our theatre walls. Founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, and Mel Ferrer, the Playhouse is currently led by Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley, the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse, and Managing Director Debby Buchholz. The Playhouse is internationally renowned for the development of new plays and musicals, including mounting 103 world premieres, commissioning 52 new works, and sending 32 productions to Broadway – including the currently-running hit musical Come From Away – garnering a total of 38 Tony Awards, as well as the 1993 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. www.lajollaplayhouse.org
Carson Kreitzer (Book and Lyrics) is a playwright, lyricist, librettist and a recent Guggenheim, MacDowell, and McKnight Fellow. Current projects include Capital Crime!, a play with songs set in Gilded Age New York, and a series of plays about the climate crisis: green, Timebomb, and a third play inspired by her time on a ship in the Arctic, exploring the Svalbard Archipelago as part of The Arctic Circle Artist and Scientist Residency Program. Her plays include The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Rosenthal New Play Prize, Steinberg New Play Citation, and Stavis Award), The Slow Drag (New York and London), and Lasso of Truth (NNPN Rolling World Premiere). She is a Core Writer with The Playwrights’ Center, an alumna of New Dramatists, and was the first Playwrights of New York (PoNY) Fellow at the Lark. Her collection SELF DEFENSE and other plays is available from No Passport Press.
Matt Gould (Music) is a two-time Richard Rodgers Award winner (2012 and 2014) and Jonathan Larson Award winner. His musical Witness Uganda (aka Invisible Thread), written with Griffin Matthews, had its NY premiere at Second Stage Theater and its world premiere at the American Repertory Theater at Harvard. His original musical Lempicka, written with Carson Kreitzer, premiered at the Williamstown Theater Festival in 2018. Other works include The Family Project for LA’s Center Theatre Group and Twilight in Manchego (directed by Tony Winner Billy Porter). Gould has written and arranged music for Playwrights Horizons and translated, adapted and directed Romeo and Juliet in Pulaar (Mauritania, West Africa). Gould has performed around the world including Uganda, Mauritania and Japan, and across the US. A graduate of Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, he is a frequent speaker and guest lecturer at schools and universities. He is the co-director of UgandaProject but mostly just wants to be home with his husband and kid watching Sesame Street and walking the dogs. #Zaddy @FakeMattGould
Rachel Chavkin (Director) received the 2019 Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Director of a Musical for Hadestown. She is a director, writer and dramaturg, as well as the founding Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based ensemble the TEAM (www.theteamplays.org), whose work has been seen all over London and the UK, including the National Theatre, Royal Court and multiple collaborations with the National Theatre of Scotland. Selected freelance work: Dave Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (Ars Nova, A.R.T., Broadway), Lempicka (Williamstown), Caryl Churchill’s Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (New York Theatre Workshop), Marco Ramirez’s The Royale (Old Globe, Lincoln Center), Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds (Ars Nova, Off-Broadway, national tour), Sarah Gancher’s I’ll Get You Back Again (Round House) and multiple collaborations with Taylor Mac including The Lily’s Revenge, Act 2 (HERE). In addition to her awards for Hadestown, Chavkin is a recipient of a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Musical, three Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, multiple Lortel Award nominations, two Doris Duke Impact Award nominations and the 2017 Smithsonian Award for Ingenuity along with Dave Malloy, with whom she is working on an upcoming adaptation of Moby Dick (A.R.T., December 2019). Her first film, Remind Me, was an official selection of the Venice and Beverly Hills Film Festivals. Proud NYTW Usual Suspect and Member SDC.
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