Michael Greif to Direct 'Boys' Life' at Second Stage

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) has announced that Tony-nominated director Michael Greif, who recently staged the company's musical Next to Normal, will direct this fall's 20th Anniversary production of Howard Korder's comedy BOYS' LIFE.  The production is scheduled to begin previews on October 2.
Twenty years after its acclaimed world premiere, Howard Korder's BOYS' LIFE will receive its first major New York remounting.  A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1988, Boys' Life is a stinging and candid look at three college buddies making their way in the big city.  As they maneuver between life and sex in New York, Korder lacerates the prolonged adolescence that often takes the place of modern manhood.

Michael Greif returns to Second Stage Theatre, where he directed this year's acclaimed musical Next to Normal.  He was nominated for a 2007 Tony Award for the Broadway production of Grey Gardens and both Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle awards for its off-Broadway world premiere. His other Broadway credits include Jonathan Larson's Rent (Tony nomination) and Never Gonna Dance. Recent productions include Romeo and Juliet (NYSF), Courtney Baron's A Very Common Procedure (MCC), Diana Son's Satellites (Public), John Guare's Landscape of the Body (Signature), Noah Haidle's Mr. Marmalade (Roundabout), Nilo Cruz's Beauty of the Father (MTC). NYSF: Suzan-Lori Parks' f-ing A, Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters (Obie), Jose Rivera's Marisol, Pericles, Connie Congdon's Casanova, Tony Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day, Sophie Treadwell's Machinal (Obie). NYTW (Artistic Associate): Kate Ryan's adaptation of Cavedweller; Paul Scott Goodman's Bright Lights, Big City; Rent (Obie). Other Off-Broadway: Neal Bell's Spatter Pattern (Playwrights Horizons), LaBute's The Distance From Here (MCC), Betty Rules (Zipper), Guare's A Few Stout Individuals (Signature), Bell's Monster (CSC). Selected regional: La Jolla Playhouse (Artistic Director 1995-1999): Our Town, Sweet Bird of Youth, Son's Boy, Randy Newman's Faust (also Goodman), Kushner's Slavs (also Taper), Bell's Therese Raquin. Williamstown: Kaufman and Hart's Once in a Lifetime, Rice's Street Scene, Coward's Tonight at 8:30, Chekhov's The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard.

Playwright Howard Korder's other plays include Search and Destroy (Broadway, South Coast Rep, Yale Rep, and London's Royal Court), Sea of Tranquility (Atlantic Theater Company), The Hollow Lands (South Coast Rep), The Lights (Obie Award), Fun (Humana Festival), and Nobody (O'Neill Playwrights Conference), among others.  He also wrote The Passion of Ayn Rand for Showtime, starring Helen Mirren and Peter Fonda, and co-wrote the screenplay for the upcoming film Lakeview Terrace starring Samuel L. Jackson and Patrick Wilson.

Founded in 1979 under the leadership of Artistic Director Carole Rothman, SECOND STAGE THEATRE produces a diverse range of premieres and new interpretations of America's best contemporary theatre, including Tiny Alice by Edward Albee; The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry; Little Murders by Jules Feiffer; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin; A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller; Painting Churches and Coastal Disturbances by Tina Howe; Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants and On the Stem by Ricky Jay; Living Out by Lisa Loomer; This Is Our Youth and The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan; Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo's Greatest Hits by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy; Saturday Night by Stephen Sondheim; Crowns by ReGina Taylor; Uncommon Women and Others by Wendy Wasserstein; Spoils of War by Michael Weller; Before It Hits Home, Jar the Floor and Birdie Blue by Cheryl L. West; Jitney by August Wilson; Lemon Sky, Serenading Louie and Sympathetic Magic by Lanford Wilson; Metamorphoses and The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci by Mary Zimmerman; The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane; Some Men by Terrence McNally; and eurydice by Sarah Ruhl.  The company's more than 125 citations include the 2007 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed), 2005 Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin, ...Spelling Bee) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dan Fogler, ...Spelling Bee), 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play (Mary Zimmerman for Metamorphoses), the 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, 23 Obie Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Clarence Derwent Awards, nine Drama Desk Awards, five Theatre World Awards, 11 Lucille Lortel Awards, the Drama Critics Circle Award and 15 AUDELCO Awards. In 1999, Second Stage Theatre opened its state-of-the art 296-seat theatre at 43rd Street, designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.

Second Stage Theatre's current mainstage season concludes this month with Richard Nelson's SOME AMERICANS ABROAD, directed by Gordon Edelstein, beginning previews June 26 and officially opening on July 15, and featuring Emily Bergl, Tom Cavanagh, John Cunningham, Fiona Dourif, Halley Feiffer, Enid Graham, Cristin Milioti, Pamela Payton-Wright, Anthony Rapp, Corey Stoll, and Todd Weeks.

The SECOND STAGE THEATRE UPTOWN SERIES was inaugurated in 2002 to showcase the work of emerging artists at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre at 76th Street, including The Mystery Plays by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Spanish Girl by Hunt Holman, The Triple Happiness by Brooke Berman and Swimming in the Shallows by Adam Bock. The Theatre supports artists through several programs that include residencies, fellowships and commissions, and engages students and community members through education and outreach programs.
This summer's sixth Uptown series features Carly Mensch's LEN, ASLEEP IN VINYL, directed by Jackson Gay, which was called "thoroughly entertaining" by The New York Times.  The production runs through June 22.
The series continues with Rajiv Joseph's ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER, directed by Giovanna Sardelli, from July 15 - August 24.  Both plays are presented at Second Stage Theatre's uptown home, the McGinn/Cazale Theatre on Broadway at 76th Street.
For more information, please visit www.2ST.com.

Photo Credit  Walter McBride/Retna

To post a comment, you must register and login.