Rick Elice's PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS Opens At La Jolla

La Jolla Playhouse welcomes back Rick Elice, co-writer of the Tony Award-winning Jersey Boys, as the playwright of Peter and the Starcatchers. Alex Timbers and Roger Rees are set to direct with choreography by Kelly Devine and music by Wayne Barker. Peter and the Starcatchers will be playing at the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre at La Jolla Playhouse February 13 -March 8, 2009.

Based on the best-selling novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Peter and the Starcatchers dares to tell the real story of precisely how a desperate orphan in Victorian England became The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up. It's a tale that travels halfway round the world and straight up to the stars. It's a comedy that takes aim at social injustice. It's a romance of young heroes who risk everything for the sake of doing right. It's an exposé of extravagant villains possessed of a single-minded ferocity from which no good shall ever spring. In short, it's an awfully big adventure. La Jolla Playhouse will present Peter and the Starcatchers, a new play, as a part of its Page To Stage program, by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions.

Adam Green has been cast in the role of Peter. He has appeared in Off-Broadway productions such as Election Day, All This Intimacy and None of the Above. Molly will be played by Celia Keenan-Bolger who most recently appeared on Broadway in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. She also appeared in Saved. Lost boy Prentiss will be played by Carson Elrod, who appeared in the La Jolla Playhouse production of Our Town. Elrod has also appeared on Broadway in Reckless and Noises Off. David Rossmer is cast as the ever - peckish lost boy Teddy. His Broadway credits include Fiddler on the Roof and Titanic.

Christian Borle, who will be playing the ravenous Black Stache, received acclaim for his roles in Spamalot. He also received a 2007 Tony Award nomination for his role in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde. Andrew McGinn is set to play Slank. His New York credits include Coast of Utopia and The Invention of Love. Playing Lord Aster is John G. Preston, who recently appeared as Cameron Parker in the Off-Broadway production of Taboos. Greg Hildreth, playing the good hearted Alf, recently appeared in Dance Dance Revolution and Gentlemen of Verona. Teddy Bergman will be playing Fighting Prawn. His New York theater credits include Dance Dance Revolution and Nobody Likes the Mormons.

Ron Choularton, playing the merciless Smee, has been seen in Moon for the Misbegotten and Sight Unseen, and has won numerous San Diego Critics' Circle and Playbill awards. Maggie Carney, playing Mrs. Bumbrake, appeared in La Jolla Playhouse's 2008 POP Tour production of Salsalandia! She has also appeared in The Tempest, Largely/NY and Bad Dates. Irungu Mutu, playing Ammm, recently appeared in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and Pericles. He also appeared in the La Jolla Playhouse production of Memphis. Charlie Reuter, playing Captain Scott, recently appeared as Roger in A New Brain and played Harold Hill in The Music

 

Man. Jared Dagar, a recent graduate of UCSD, cast as Hawking Clam. Past credits include Surf Orpheus and Buried Child. Kevin Johnston; is playing the final lost boy Jim. He recently appeared in Spring Storm and

 

Dead Man Walking at California State University, Fullerton. Johnny-Wu, playing Mullins, has recently appeared in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead. He also appeared in UCSD productions Bureau of Missing Persons and The Physicists.

The creative team for Peter and the Starcatchers includes Jeff Croiter (Lighting Designer), who recently designed Jerry Springer The Opera. Kelly Devine (Choreographer) was the associate choreographer for Jersey Boys on Broadway, and also choreographed Rock of Ages off Broadway. She has choreographed for commercials including Cingular Wireless, American Idol and Oldsmobile. Other creative team members include Paloma Young (Costume designer) whose credits include Current Nobody and Salsalandia! at La Jolla Playhouse; Wayne Barker (Composer) composed the finale of the 2006 Commonwealth Games and wrote music and lyrics for Dame Edna's appearance at the 75th Royal Command Variety Performance.

Neil Patel (set designer), whose Broadway credits include Sideman, [title of show], ‘Night Mother and Ring of Fire. Jeff Croiter, (lighting designer), who recently designed Jerry Springer The Opera. Other creative team members include Paloma Young (costume designer) whose credits include A Current Nobody and Salsalandia! at La Jolla Playhouse. Phil Allen (sound designer) has designed over 80 theatrical shows, including Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks on Broadway, Jesus Christ Superstar, and the epic premiere of The Ten Commandments starring Val Kilmer. Clifford Schwartz (production stage manager) has worked on Broadway productions such as The Little Mermaid, Tarzan, as well as Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida.

Rick Elice (playwright) co-wrote Jersey Boys (LJP World Premiere/2006 Tony ® Award, Best Musical) with Marshall Brickman, directed by Des McAnuff. Elice and Marshall Brickman also wrote Turn of the Century, directed by Tommy Tune (coming to Broadway next year), and The Addams Family. Along with Roger Rees, Elice wrote the popular thriller, Double Double (translated to 16 languages).

Roger Rees (director) served as the Artistic Director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival from 2005-2007. As the Associate Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic Theater from 1984-1985, he directed numerous productions including Julius Caesar, Turkey Time and John Bull. Other credits include Red Memories (New York Stage and Film); Mud, River, Stone (Playwrights Horizons); The Merry Wives of Windsor, Love's Labour's Lost (Old Globe Theatre); Arms and the Man (Roundabout); Here Lies Jenny (Zipper Theater, Post Street Theater); The Taming of the Shrew, played Petruchio opposite Bebe Neuwirth, The Rivals, Simon Grey's The Late Middle Classes, Anything Goes, The Film Society, Double Double, Herringbone (WTF, McCarter Theater); Treemonisha, Juniper Tree, White House Cantata, Collegiate Chorale; and "Variety," an episode of Oz.

Alex Timbers (director) is an Obie Award-winning writer/director and Artistic Director of Les Freres Corbusier. Recent directing credits include: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Center Theatre Group), Gutenberg! The Musical! (Drama Desk nomination - Best Director of a Musical), Hell House (Drama Desk nomination - Unique Theatrical Experience), A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant (Obie Award, two Garland Awards including Best Director), Boozy, Heddatron and four seasons at Williamstown Theatre Festival. Mr. Timbers is currently developing a half-hour comedy pilot for 20th Century Fox.

Page To Stage: Peter and the Starcatchers is part of the Playhouse's Page To Stage new play development program. The Playhouse began Page To Stage in 2001 to facilitate the development of new plays and musicals, offering audiences the rare opportunity to experience the "birth" of a play and take part in its evolution. As a Page To Stage workshop, this production will feature minimal sets and costumes, and will be revised throughout its entire process, including performances. After the performance, audience feedback sessions will provide insight and suggestion for both the creative team and the actors.

La Jolla Playhouse: The nationally acclaimed, Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is known for its tradition of creating the most exciting and adventurous new work in regional theatre. The Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and is considered one of the most well respected not-for-profit theatres in the country. Numerous Playhouse productions have moved to Broadway, including The Farnsworth Invention, Big River, The Who's Tommy, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Walk in the Woods, Dracula, Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, and Jersey Boys.

Disney Theatrical Productions (DTP), a division of Disney Theatrical Group, operates under the direction of Thomas Schumacher and is among the world's most successful commercial theatre enterprises. Reaching a global annual audience of more than 10 million people in over 40 countries, DTP produces and licenses Broadway musicals around the world including Grammy®, Tony® and Olivier-award winning The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Elton John & Tim Rice's Aida, TARZAN ® and Mary Poppins, a co-production by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh which is about to launch its national touring engagement. Its most recent Broadway production, The Little Mermaid, debuted in 2007 and immediately became a Broadway sensation. That same year, DTP launched the professional touring stage version of Disney's High School Musical. In addition, DTP licenses musical titles for local schools and community productions through Musical Theatre International and on its recently launched website, DisneyMusicals.com.