#1
Posted: 4/14/06 at 2:07pm
Yeah, I know its a press release. But I gotta share the GG love...
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PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS
ANNOUNCES TWO DEVELOPMENTS IN
THE LIFE OF ITS HIT SOLD-OUT MUSICAL
GREY GARDENS
Musical to EXTEND a third and final time to Sunday, April 30
Acclaimed score to be RECORDED by PS Classics
Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) today announced two major developments in the life of its acclaimed, hit new musical GREY GARDENS
by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie, based on the legendary 1975 documentary Grey Gardens. The production will have a third and final extension through Sunday, April 30 and a recording of the acclaimed score will be produced by PS Classics.
The completely sold-out run – with overwhelming ticket demand prompting WCBS-TV to proclaim the musical “Off-Broadway’s Hottest Ticket!” – will have a third and final extension, adding one additional week through Sunday, April 30. The limited engagement was last extended to Sunday, April 23, which was the latest the musical could play due to the tech schedule for Playwrights Horizons’ next production, Keith Bunin’s The Busy World Is Hushed. As luck would have it, GREY GARDENS set designer Allen Moyer also designed the set for The Busy World Is Hushed, and together with Playwrights Horizons’ in-house production team, was able to figure out a schedule that would allow the musical to play one additional and final week without delaying the schedule for the Bunin play.
Following weeks of speculation, the score of GREY GARDENS – praised as “a flavorful score [that] sings in an original and enthralling way” (Peter Marks, The Washington Post) – will be preserved. The World Premiere recording featuring the entire Playwrights Horizons cast, will be produced by PS Classics, the Grammy-nominated label that last partnered with Playwrights Horizons on the musical My Life with Albertine by Richard Nelson and Ricky Ian Gordon. The GREY GARDENS cast and orchestra will go into a New York recording studio on Thursday, April 27. A release date will be announced in the near future. For future updates, visit www.psclassics.com.
Since opening on March 7, reviews have praised GREY GARDENS as “A weird and wonderful, boldly-imaginative musical” (David Rooney, Variety), “A dark and fascinating work with a stylish score that hearkens back to the sound of George Gershwin and Cole Porter” (David Cote, NY-1 News), “Madly enjoyable” (Michael Sommers, Star-Ledger), “First-rate – a beautiful production, beautifully-crafted writing and sumptuous performances” (Michael Feingold, Village Voice) and “Lusciously designed and stunningly performed. GREY GARDENS brings great wit and luster to the musical season” (Howard Kissel, Daily News). Praising the show in Time Magazine, Richard Zoglin wrote, “GREY GARDENS might have been the best Broadway musical of the season, except that it can’t move to Broadway because all the theaters are filled.”
Critics have also unanimously bestowed landmark status on the performance of leading lady Christine Ebersole (who actually gives two performances in the musical: as Edith Beale in Act One and her daughter “Little” Edie Beale in Act Two). Ben Brantley of The New York Times raved that her performance is “One of the most gorgeous ever to grace a musical.” Linda Winer of Newsday called it “the performance of her amazing career,” Jeremy McCarter of New York magazine praised it as “The best performance in New York” and Variety proclaimed it “the kind of performance that comes around once in a decade and will be talked about for decades more.”
GREY GARDENS recently earned 5 Lucille Lortel Award nominations, including Best Musical, receiving more Lortel nominations than any other musical this season. GREY GARDENS is also the winner of a 2006 Richard Rodgers Production Award, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Based on the 1975 cult documentary Grey Gardens (a Maysles Brothers Films Inc. Production), it features a book by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife, which premiered at Playwrights Horizons, and the film Quills – based on his own play), music by Scott Frankel (musical director for Broadway’s Falsettos, Putting It Together) and lyrics by Michael Korie (Harvey Milk). Musical staging is by Tony Award nominee Jeff Calhoun (the recent Big River, Grease!).
Directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif (Rent), the musical began previews on Friday, February 10 and opened on Tuesday, March 7. The original limited engagement (through March 26) was sold out before the musical even opened. A pair of two-week extensions (first through April 9 and then through April 23) also quickly sold out. Now with a third and final extension, GREY GARDENS is playing through Sunday, April 30 at Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).
GREY GARDENS concerns the deliciously eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who were once among the brightest names in the pre-Camelot social register, and became East Hampton’s most notorious recluses, living in a dilapidated 28-room mansion. Facing an uncertain future, Edith Bouvier Beale and her adult daughter, “Little” Edie, are forced to revisit their storied past and come to terms with it – for better, and for worse.
The cast of GREY GARDENS features Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole (42nd Street, Dinner at Eight, Steel Magnolias) and Tony nominee Mary Louise Wilson (Cabaret, Full Gallop) as The Beales, with Matt Cavenaugh (Urban Cowboy, national tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie, “One Life to Live”), Sara Gettelfinger (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Nine), Sarah Hyland (title role in Paper Mill’s Annie), five-time Tony nominee John McMartin (Follies, Show Boat, Into the Woods), Obie winner Michael Potts (Lennon), two-time Tony nominee Bob Stillman (Dirty Blonde, Grand Hotel) and Audrey Twitchell (stage debut).
The production features scenic design by Allen Moyer, costume design by five-time Tony Award winner William Ivey Long, lighting design by Tony Award winner Peter Kaczorowski, sound design by Brian Ronan and projections by Wendall K. Harrington. Orchestrations are by Tony Award winner Bruce Coughlin and Music Director is Lawrence Yurman.
PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is a writer’s theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. In its 35 years,
Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 350 writers and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles, Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Sunday in the Park with George, as well as Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting), Craig Lucas’s Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero, Kirsten Childs’s The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey’s James Joyce’s The Dead, William Finn’s March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Christopher Durang’s Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You and Betty’s Summer Vacation, Richard Nelson’s Goodnight Children Everywhere and Franny’s Way, Jon Robin Baitz’s The Substance of Fire, Scott McPherson’s Marvin’s Room, A.R. Gurney’s Later Life, Adam Guettel and Tina Landau’s Floyd Collins and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley’s Violet.
PS CLASSICS, the Grammy-nominated label, was founded in 2000 by Tommy Krasker and Philip Chaffin. It’s been profiled in publications such as The New York Times for its diverse line of show albums, solo CDs and songbook recordings. Its cast albums celebrate Broadway (Assassins, Nine: The Musical, Fiddler on the Roof), Off-Broadway (My Life with Albertine, Lone Star Love) and regional theater (First Lady Suite). Its solo albums range from jazz (Jessica Molaskey’s Make Believe) to pop (Johnny Rodgers’s Box of Photographs) to folk (Rebecca Luker’s Leaving Home). The composers highlighted range from Jerome Moross and Billy Strayhorn to Maury Yeston and John Bucchino. PS Classics is distributed exclusively by Image Entertainment. www.psclassics.com.
The performance schedule for GREY GARDENS is Tuesdays through Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 2:30 PM & 8PM and Sundays at 2:30 PM & 7:30PM. Tickets are $75.
For its final extension week (April 25-30), the musical will play a special 7-performance schedule: Tuesday through Wednesday and Friday at 8PM, Saturday at 2:30 PM & 8PM and Sunday at 2:30 PM & 7:30 PM. There will be no performance on Thursday, April 27.
For ticket information to all PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS productions,
call TICKET CENTRAL at (212) 279-4200, Noon to 8 pm daily,
or purchase online at the Playwrights Horizons website at
www.playwrightshorizons.org
******************************************************
PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS
ANNOUNCES TWO DEVELOPMENTS IN
THE LIFE OF ITS HIT SOLD-OUT MUSICAL
GREY GARDENS
Musical to EXTEND a third and final time to Sunday, April 30
Acclaimed score to be RECORDED by PS Classics
Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) today announced two major developments in the life of its acclaimed, hit new musical GREY GARDENS
by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie, based on the legendary 1975 documentary Grey Gardens. The production will have a third and final extension through Sunday, April 30 and a recording of the acclaimed score will be produced by PS Classics.
The completely sold-out run – with overwhelming ticket demand prompting WCBS-TV to proclaim the musical “Off-Broadway’s Hottest Ticket!” – will have a third and final extension, adding one additional week through Sunday, April 30. The limited engagement was last extended to Sunday, April 23, which was the latest the musical could play due to the tech schedule for Playwrights Horizons’ next production, Keith Bunin’s The Busy World Is Hushed. As luck would have it, GREY GARDENS set designer Allen Moyer also designed the set for The Busy World Is Hushed, and together with Playwrights Horizons’ in-house production team, was able to figure out a schedule that would allow the musical to play one additional and final week without delaying the schedule for the Bunin play.
Following weeks of speculation, the score of GREY GARDENS – praised as “a flavorful score [that] sings in an original and enthralling way” (Peter Marks, The Washington Post) – will be preserved. The World Premiere recording featuring the entire Playwrights Horizons cast, will be produced by PS Classics, the Grammy-nominated label that last partnered with Playwrights Horizons on the musical My Life with Albertine by Richard Nelson and Ricky Ian Gordon. The GREY GARDENS cast and orchestra will go into a New York recording studio on Thursday, April 27. A release date will be announced in the near future. For future updates, visit www.psclassics.com.
Since opening on March 7, reviews have praised GREY GARDENS as “A weird and wonderful, boldly-imaginative musical” (David Rooney, Variety), “A dark and fascinating work with a stylish score that hearkens back to the sound of George Gershwin and Cole Porter” (David Cote, NY-1 News), “Madly enjoyable” (Michael Sommers, Star-Ledger), “First-rate – a beautiful production, beautifully-crafted writing and sumptuous performances” (Michael Feingold, Village Voice) and “Lusciously designed and stunningly performed. GREY GARDENS brings great wit and luster to the musical season” (Howard Kissel, Daily News). Praising the show in Time Magazine, Richard Zoglin wrote, “GREY GARDENS might have been the best Broadway musical of the season, except that it can’t move to Broadway because all the theaters are filled.”
Critics have also unanimously bestowed landmark status on the performance of leading lady Christine Ebersole (who actually gives two performances in the musical: as Edith Beale in Act One and her daughter “Little” Edie Beale in Act Two). Ben Brantley of The New York Times raved that her performance is “One of the most gorgeous ever to grace a musical.” Linda Winer of Newsday called it “the performance of her amazing career,” Jeremy McCarter of New York magazine praised it as “The best performance in New York” and Variety proclaimed it “the kind of performance that comes around once in a decade and will be talked about for decades more.”
GREY GARDENS recently earned 5 Lucille Lortel Award nominations, including Best Musical, receiving more Lortel nominations than any other musical this season. GREY GARDENS is also the winner of a 2006 Richard Rodgers Production Award, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Based on the 1975 cult documentary Grey Gardens (a Maysles Brothers Films Inc. Production), it features a book by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife, which premiered at Playwrights Horizons, and the film Quills – based on his own play), music by Scott Frankel (musical director for Broadway’s Falsettos, Putting It Together) and lyrics by Michael Korie (Harvey Milk). Musical staging is by Tony Award nominee Jeff Calhoun (the recent Big River, Grease!).
Directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif (Rent), the musical began previews on Friday, February 10 and opened on Tuesday, March 7. The original limited engagement (through March 26) was sold out before the musical even opened. A pair of two-week extensions (first through April 9 and then through April 23) also quickly sold out. Now with a third and final extension, GREY GARDENS is playing through Sunday, April 30 at Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).
GREY GARDENS concerns the deliciously eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who were once among the brightest names in the pre-Camelot social register, and became East Hampton’s most notorious recluses, living in a dilapidated 28-room mansion. Facing an uncertain future, Edith Bouvier Beale and her adult daughter, “Little” Edie, are forced to revisit their storied past and come to terms with it – for better, and for worse.
The cast of GREY GARDENS features Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole (42nd Street, Dinner at Eight, Steel Magnolias) and Tony nominee Mary Louise Wilson (Cabaret, Full Gallop) as The Beales, with Matt Cavenaugh (Urban Cowboy, national tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie, “One Life to Live”), Sara Gettelfinger (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Nine), Sarah Hyland (title role in Paper Mill’s Annie), five-time Tony nominee John McMartin (Follies, Show Boat, Into the Woods), Obie winner Michael Potts (Lennon), two-time Tony nominee Bob Stillman (Dirty Blonde, Grand Hotel) and Audrey Twitchell (stage debut).
The production features scenic design by Allen Moyer, costume design by five-time Tony Award winner William Ivey Long, lighting design by Tony Award winner Peter Kaczorowski, sound design by Brian Ronan and projections by Wendall K. Harrington. Orchestrations are by Tony Award winner Bruce Coughlin and Music Director is Lawrence Yurman.
PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is a writer’s theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. In its 35 years,
Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 350 writers and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles, Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Sunday in the Park with George, as well as Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting), Craig Lucas’s Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero, Kirsten Childs’s The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey’s James Joyce’s The Dead, William Finn’s March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Christopher Durang’s Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You and Betty’s Summer Vacation, Richard Nelson’s Goodnight Children Everywhere and Franny’s Way, Jon Robin Baitz’s The Substance of Fire, Scott McPherson’s Marvin’s Room, A.R. Gurney’s Later Life, Adam Guettel and Tina Landau’s Floyd Collins and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley’s Violet.
PS CLASSICS, the Grammy-nominated label, was founded in 2000 by Tommy Krasker and Philip Chaffin. It’s been profiled in publications such as The New York Times for its diverse line of show albums, solo CDs and songbook recordings. Its cast albums celebrate Broadway (Assassins, Nine: The Musical, Fiddler on the Roof), Off-Broadway (My Life with Albertine, Lone Star Love) and regional theater (First Lady Suite). Its solo albums range from jazz (Jessica Molaskey’s Make Believe) to pop (Johnny Rodgers’s Box of Photographs) to folk (Rebecca Luker’s Leaving Home). The composers highlighted range from Jerome Moross and Billy Strayhorn to Maury Yeston and John Bucchino. PS Classics is distributed exclusively by Image Entertainment. www.psclassics.com.
The performance schedule for GREY GARDENS is Tuesdays through Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 2:30 PM & 8PM and Sundays at 2:30 PM & 7:30PM. Tickets are $75.
For its final extension week (April 25-30), the musical will play a special 7-performance schedule: Tuesday through Wednesday and Friday at 8PM, Saturday at 2:30 PM & 8PM and Sunday at 2:30 PM & 7:30 PM. There will be no performance on Thursday, April 27.
For ticket information to all PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS productions,
call TICKET CENTRAL at (212) 279-4200, Noon to 8 pm daily,
or purchase online at the Playwrights Horizons website at
www.playwrightshorizons.org
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