THE STARRY MESSENGER With Broderick & More Set For New Group's 2009-10 Season

The New Group, currently represented Off-Broadway by Ian Bruce's play Groundswell, is pleased to announce its upcoming 2009-2010 season. Leading next season with previews beginning in October 2009 is the world premiere of The Starry Messenger by Kenneth Lonergan, featuring Matthew Broderick. The season continues with a major revival of A Lie of the Mind by Sam Shepard, directed by Ethan Hawke (previews begin January 2010).

The New Group's coming season also features the world premiere of The Kid, a new musical based on Dan Savage's book The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant, with book by Michael Zam, music by Andy Monroe and lyrics by Jack Lechner. Scott Elliott directs this new musical, with previews beginning in Spring 2010.

The Starry Messenger:

Kenneth Lonergan's playwriting credits include This is Our Youth (Drama Desk nominee, The New Group - 1996), The Waverley Gallery (Pulitzer Prize nomination) and Lobby Hero (Drama Desk nomination). His screenwriting credits include Analyze This, You Can Count on Me (Oscar and Golden Globe nominations) and Gangs of New York (Oscar nomination), among others. The Starry Messenger marks Lonergan's return to the New York stage following 2002's Lobby Hero and is the first stage collaboration between him and childhood friend Matthew Broderick.

Matthew Broderick made his stage debut at 17 in Horton Foote's On Valentine's Day opposite his father, James Broderick. Off-Broadway: Torch Song Trilogy (OCC, Villager Award), The Widow Claire. Broadway: Brighton Beach Memoirs (Tony, OCC, Theatre World awards), Biloxi Blues, How to Succeed in Business... (Tony, DD, OCC awards), Night Must Fall, Taller Than a Dwarf, The Producers (Tony, DD, OCC nominations), Roundabout's The Foreigner, The Philanthropist. Films include Deck the Halls, Max Dugan Returns, WarGames, 1918, On Valentine's Day, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Project X, Ladyhawke, Biloxi Blues, Glory, Family Business, The Freshman, The Night We Never Met, The Lion King (voice of Simba), Infinity (directed by Mr. Broderick and written by his mother Patricia Broderick), The Cable Guy, Addicted to Love, Godzilla, Inspector Gadget, Election, You Can Count on Me, The Last Shot, Marie

and Bruce, Strangers With Candy, The Producers. TV: "The Music Man" (ABC), "'Master Harold'...and the boys" (Showtime) and "A Life in the Theatre." Most recently seen in Bee Movie, Then She Found Me, Finding Amanda, Diminished Capacity and The Tale of Despereaux. He last appeared in Wonderful World, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival.

A Lie of the Mind:

Writer, director and actor Sam Shepard's playwriting credits include the Pulitzer Prize-winning Buried Child, which won the 1986 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Critics' Circle Awards. His other plays include Curse of the Starving Class, True West (Pulitzer Prize nominee, Tony Award) and A Lie of the Mind. A Lie of the Mind opened at the Promenade Theater in 1985 and won with the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards. This marks the first New York revival of the play.
Ethan Hawke's directing credits include: Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want at The New Group (2007-08 season), Lisa Loeb's "Stay" music video (1994), film "Straight to One" (1994), film "Chelsea Walls" (2001), film "The Hottest State" (2006). In 1992, Hawke co-founded Malaparte Theatre Company (nonprofit theater company in NYC), where he is Artistic Director.

The Kid:

The Kid is a new musical based on the book by Dan Savage entitled The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant. The creators of the musical, Michael Zam (book), Andy Monroe (music) and Jack Lechner (lyrics), were recently honored with the 2009 BMI Foundation Jerry Bock Award for Best New Musical for The Kid.
Dan Savage is widely recognized as author of the internationally syndicated relationship and sex column "Savage Love" and the weekly podcast "Savage Lovecast." He is editorial director of the Seattle weekly The Stranger, where he was formerly Editor-in-Chief. He is a regular contributor to PRI's "This American Life," as well as a regular contributor to the opinion pages of The New York Times. He has been featured as a "Real Time Reporter" on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC and "The Colbert Report." Other published works include a memoir entitled The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage and My Family, and contributions to the collected work Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me, among others. The Kid was represented to The New Group by Amy Schiffman of the Intellectual Property Group (IPG); Elizabeth Wales of Wales Literary Agency place the title with Penguin USA, Carole DeSanti aquiring and Brian Tart editing for Dutton, which published the memoir in 1999. The Kid won a PEN USA West Award for Creative Nonfiction.
Scott Elliott's directing credits include Mourning Becomes Electra, Ayub Khan-Din's Rafta, Rafta..., Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years and Abigail's Party, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Wallace Shawn's The Fever and Aunt Dan and Lemon and David Rabe's Hurlyburly, among many others. Broadway credits: The Threepenny Opera, Barefoot in the Park, The Women, Three Sisters and Present Laughter.
The New Group (Scott Elliott, Artistic Director; Geoff Rich, Executive Director): The company's 2008-2009 launched with Kevin Elyot's Mouth to Mouth and Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra. Its current production Groundswell directed by Scott Elliott began previews began May 4 for a May 18 Official Opening Night. Last season featured Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want, Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years and Ayub Khan-Din's Rafta, Rafta.... Past hits included Jay Presson Allen's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Wallace Shawn's The Fever, David Rabe's Hurlyburly, Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party, Smelling a Rat, Goose-Pimples and Ecstasy, Wallace Shawn's Aunt Dan and Lemon, Kenneth Lonergan's This is Our Youth, Kevin Elyot's My Night With Reg, and more. A recipient of the 2004 Tony® Award for Best Musical (Avenue Q), The New Group marks its 15th season next year.

For more information, visit www.thenewgroup.org.