Paulus to Helm THE CAPEMAN Concert at the Delacorte for The Public, 8/14 - 8/16

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis, Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) will present a concert version of Paul Simon's THE CAPEMAN, August 14-16, at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park following the eight week Shakespeare in the Park repertory of The Winter's Tale and The Merchant of Venice. All performances for THE CAPEMAN will be at 8 p.m. Free tickets will be distributed the day of the show.

THE CAPEMAN, featuring music by Paul Simon and book and lyrics by Paul Simon and Derek Walcott, will be directed by Tony Award nominee Diane Paulus, who directed the concert version of HAIR at the Delacorte in 2007. Sergio Trujillo will provide choreography and the Grammy-winning Oscar Hernandez and an extraordinary 12-piece orchestra will play Simon's haunting score. Casting and full creative team to be announced at a later date.

Originally on Broadway in 1998, Simon's musical THE CAPEMAN tells the true story of a Nuyorican street gang member whose story exploded on to the front pages of the tabloids in 1959, ultimately revealing the cultural and racial tensions beneath the surface of New York in that era. THE CAPEMAN's score is a dazzling blend of Latin music, Doo Wop and artful ballads to tell a gripping and controversial New York story.

"I think the Delacorte is the ideal place to hear the music from The Capeman," said Paul Simon. "It's going to be a great musical night."

"The Capeman has incredible music, and a very powerful and evocative story," said Director Diane Paulus. "I am thrilled to have the opportunity to revisit this important show."

"The story of The Capeman is compelling and powerful, and Paul Simon's score is brilliant, memorable and gorgeous," said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "We are delighted to offer New Yorkers the chance to experience this wonderful concert in the most beautiful theater in the city, the Delacorte."

Free tickets will be distributed the day of the show in person at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park beginning at 1 p.m. or by registering for Virtual Ticketing online at ShakespeareInThePark.org the day of the performance you want to attend. Virtual Ticketing recipients are chosen at random to receive tickets, not in the order requests are received.

Reserved Concert Seats can now be reserved for a tax-deductible donation of $175 per seat. These seats are available only at The Public Theater box office or by calling (212) 967-7555.

Priority Concert Seating, for a tax deductible donation of $250 or $500, is available through The Public Theater Development Office at partners@publictheater.org. The $500 Priority Seats for the final performance on Monday night, August 16 includes admission to a post-show cast party.

Priority Concert Seating availability is limited to ensure that that highest number of free seats are available for the general public on the day of the show.

Paul Simon (Music, Book and Lyrics) is a twelve-time Grammy Award winner, Oscar nominee, Kennedy Center honoree, and a member of the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame as both a solo artist and as part of the legendary duo of Simon & Garfunkel. His songwriting catalog includes four of the most-broadcast songs in the world, "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Mrs. Robinson," "Scarborough Fair," and "The Sound of Silence," which have been heard on radio airwaves an estimated 75 million times. In 2006, Time magazine named him one of "100 People Who Shaped the World." Simon wrote and starred in the 1980 film One Trick Pony; The Capeman was his first composition for musical theater and ran on Broadway in 1998.

Derek Walcott (Book and Lyrics) is a poet and playwright who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. He wrote the book and lyrics for the musical Ti-Jean and His Brothers, which premiered at the Delacorte Theater in 1971. He is best known for the epic poem Omeros, a book-length poetic adaptation of Homer's Odyssey set in part in the Caribbean. Walcott has published more than 20 collections of poetry and written dozens of plays, including the OBIE-winning The Dream on Monkey Mountain, He is the founder of Trinidad Theatre Workshop as well as Boston Playwrights' Theatre at Boston University, where he also served as a professor of drama and poetry until 2007. He is currently a distinguished scholar-in-residence at Canada's University of Alberta and a professor of poetry at the University of Essex in England.

Diane Paulus (Director). Her most recent theater credits include The Public Theater's revival of Hair on Broadway (2009 Tony Award winner for Best Revival of a Musical, nominated for 8 Tony Awards including Best Director, as well as winner of a Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and Drama League Award for Best Revival of a Musical) and London's West End. She is the creator and director of The Donkey Show, a disco adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which ran for six years Off-Broadway, and toured internationally. Other recent work includes Il Mondo Della Luna at the Hayden Planetarium, Kiss Me, Kate at Glimmerglass Opera; and Lost Highway, an ENO co-production with the Young Vic. She is the Artistic Director of American Repertory Theater in Boston, where she is currently directing the new musical, Johnny Baseball.

The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Executive Director) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, and productions of classics at its downtown headquarters and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day onstage and through extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related productions and events at six downtown stages, including Joe's Pub, and Shakespeare in the Park. The Public has won 42 Tony Awards, 149 Obies, 40 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. The Public has brought 52 shows to Broadway, including Sticks and Bones; That Championship Season; A Chorus Line; The Pirates of Penzance; The Tempest; Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk; On the Town; The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Topdog/Underdog; Elaine Stritch at Liberty; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Well; Passing Strange; and, most recently, the current Tony Award-winning revival of Hair. www.publictheater.org.