Marlo Thomas Returns to New York Stage in Joe DiPietro’s “Clever Little Lies”
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Rick Miramontez / Michael Jorgensen / Lily Robinson
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
EMMY®, GRAMMY®, & GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD® WINNER
MARLO THOMAS
RETURNS TO THE NEW YORK STAGE IN
TONY® AWARD-WINNER
JOE DiPIETRO’S
NEW COMEDY
“ C L E V E R L I T T L E L I E S ”
AT THE WESTSIDE THEATRE
DIRECTED BY DAVID SAINT
PREVIEWS BEGIN SEPTEMBER 18
OPENING NIGHT SET FOR OCTOBER 14
New York, NY (July 14, 2015) – Joan Raffe, Jhett Tolentino, and Douglas Denoff announced today that two time Tony Award®-winner Joe DiPietro‘s “delightfully deceitful” comedy, Clever Little Lies, will play off-Broadway’s Westside Theatre Upstairs (407 West 43rd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues), following critically acclaimed, sold-out runs at George Street Playhouse in 2013 and Guild Hall last summer. Starring Emmy®, Grammy®, and Golden Globe Award®-winner Marlo Thomas and direction by David Saint, Clever Little Lies will begin previews on Friday, September 18th for an exclusive limited engagement through January 3rd, 2016. The official opening night is set for Wednesday, October 14th.
A mother always knows when something is wrong. When Alice (Marlo Thomas) notices her beloved husband Bill has returned home on edge after a tennis match with their son, she grows suspicious and springs into action. Determined to piece together the puzzle, she invites her son and daughter-in-law over for drinks and dessert. Sidesplitting chaos ensues as Alice digs for the truth, resulting in even more honesty than anyone expected. Shattering and hilarious, Clever Little Lies is a story of long-term love and marriage… for better and for worse.
Additional information, including complete casting, will be announced shortly.
Marlo Thomas (Alice) is an award-winning actress, author and activist. She remains a constant presence on television and Broadway, most recently in 2012, in Elaine May’s George is Dead, in the Relatively Speaking trilogy. Among her many honors, she has been inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame; and in 2014, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian honor—by President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony. Ms. Thomas burst onto the scene as television’s “That Girl”, which broke new ground for independent women, and which she conceived and produced. Her pioneering spirit continued with her creation of Free to Be…You and Me, which became a platinum album, best-selling book and Emmy Award-winning television special, and has produced seven bestselling books. She serves as National Outreach Director of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which was founded by her father, Danny Thomas, in 1962.
Joe DiPietro (Playwright) is happy to be returning to The Westside Theatre, where his revue, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change ran for 12 years. He has won two Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award and two Outer Critics Awards. His historical drama, The Second Mrs. Wilson, plays George Street Playhouse this fall. Broadway: Memphis, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Living on Love, All Shook Up. Off-Broadway: The Toxic Avenger; The Thing About Men; Over the River and Through the Woods; I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Recent regional: Chasing the Song (La Jolla Playhouse), Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (Arts Emerson), Creating Claire (George Street Playhouse).
David Saint (Director) has been Artistic Director of the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, N.J. for the past 18 years. In that time he has premiered The Spitfire Grill, The Toxic Avenger, Proof, Down the Garden Paths, Gettin’ the Band Back Together, Clever Little Lies, It Shoulda Been You, Elaine May’s George is Dead and Arthur Laurents’ New Year’s Eve (both with Marlo Thomas) among many others. His tenure there has been noteworthy for collaborations with Uta Hagen, A.R.Gurney, Anne Meara, Eli Wallach, Joe DiPietro, Lee Blessing, Kathleen Marshall, John Rando, Jack Klugman, Lewis Black, Elizabeth Wilson, Boyd Gaines, Rosemary Harris, Jane Alexander, Chita Rivera, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents and many more. He directed Anne Meara’s After-Play at Manhattan Theatre Club and has directed at Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, Circle in the Square, and many regional theatres around the country. In addition he has directed the Broadway national tour of West Side Story for the last four years around the country and in Japan. Winner of the Alan Schneider Award, Helen Hayes Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, L.A. Drama Critics’ Award and others, Mr. Saint is the Literary Executor of The Laurents Estate and serves as President of the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation, which gives out almost a million dollars a year towards the development of new work in theatres around the country.
The Westside Theatre, constructed in 1889 as a German Baptist Church, was renovated and opened in 1991 under the management of Reno Productions, Inc./Peter Askin. Clever Little Lies will join a host of successful productions that have been presented on these stages, including The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey; Disenchanted; The Belle of Amherst; Satchmo at the Waldorf; My Name is Asher Lev; Love, Loss, and What I Wore; I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (a record-breaking twelve-year run); Trumbo; The Vagina Monolouges; Nixon’s Nixon; Full Gallop; The Food Chain; The Cryptogram; Spic-o-rama; and And The World Goes ‘Round. The Westside Theatre produced the Off-Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which ran for two and a half years at the Jane Street Theatre (Westside’s downtown sister theatre), garnered the Outer Critics Circle award for Outstanding Off-Broadway musical of 1998, along with two OBIE awards. The Westside Theatre also produced Trumbo: Red, White and Blacklisted, featuring a rotation of actors in the role of Dalton Trumbo, including Nathan Lane, Ed Harris, Richard Dreyfuss, Tim Robbins, Chris Cooper, Alec Baldwin, and Brian Dennehy. Other New York producing credits: John Leguizamo’s Spic-o-rama, Doug McGrath’s Political Animal, and the New York Musical Theatre Festival production of Feeling Electric, which later evolved into the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Next to Normal.
“Splendid! A first rate cast! Genuinely funny.
Marlo Thomas effortlessly handles the script’s dry humor…it’s poignant
ending is particularly affecting”
–New York Times
“Sharply directed by David Saint, Joe DiPietro crafts a neat stage quartet.
Thomas is a dynamo, one moment exuding easy charm, the next fierce authority”
–The Star-Ledger
“Clever Little Lies is a hit!”
–Examiner.com
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