HANDS ON A HARDBODY, RENT, & More Set for New Line Theatre's 2013-2014 Season

New Line Theatre, "the bad boy of musical theatre," announces its 23rd season of adult, alternative musical theatre, including the regional premiere of the new musical thriller NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, running Oct. 10-Nov. 2, 2013; the Pulitzer Prize winning rock opera RENT, running March 6-29, 2014; and the regional premiere, straight from Broadway, of the new rock musical HANDS ON A HARDBODY, running May 29-June 21, 2014.

The season opens in October with the taut musical thriller NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, based on the iconic 1968 George Romero film that reinvented the zombie movie for our contemporary culture. From the dynamic, up-and-coming team of writer-lyricist Stephen Gregory Smith and composer-lyricist Matt Conner (Nevermore, Partial Eclipse, The Hollow) comes this powerful psychological thriller, re-imagining Romero's iconicwalpurgisnacht for a new century, zeroing in on the relationships among seven doomed strangers, who just may be the living dead themselves. Could it be that these seven are trapped in this house for eternity, reliving the last night of their lives over and over, as a deadly force from the outside threatens to find its way in? In this post-9/11 world, the metaphor is clear: Who are "they" and can we ever really be safe?

The cast includes Zachary Allen Farmer (Ben), Marcy Wiegert (Barbara), Mike Dowdy (Harry), Sarah Porter (Helen), Joseph McAnulty (Tom), Mary Beth Black (Judy), and Phoebe Desilets (Karen). The show was workshopped in New York and has had only one production so far, at a small theatre in Maryland. New Line is very proud to present the regional premiere and the first professional production of this thrilling new work from these talented young writers.

The season continues in March with one of the shows that breathed new life into the American musical theatre in the 1990s, the world-famous rock opera RENT, a contemporary rock/pop riff on Henri Murger's comic French novel, Scenes de la Vie de Bohème and (to a lesser extent) the famous Puccini opera La Bohème, but now set in New York City's East Village. In the words of the show's creator Jonathan Larson, "In these dangerous times, where it seems the world is ripping apart at the seams, we can all learn how to survive from those who stare death squarely in the face every day and we should reach out to each other and bond as a community, rather than hide from the terrors of life at the end of the millennium." It's a show about celebrating life, anywhere we can find it, even in the face of death.

Opening on Broadway in 1996, The New York Times called it an "exhilarating, landmark rock opera," and said it "shimmers with hope for the future of the American musical." Time magazine called it "the most exuberant and original American musical to come along this decade." The Wall Street Journal called it "the best new musical since the 1950s." Frank Rich, New York Times political columnist and former senior theatre critic, wrote in a Times op-ed piece, "At so divisive a time in our country's culture, Rent shows signs of revealing a large, untapped appetite for something better." RENT was nominated for ten Tony Awards and won four, including Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book. It won six Drama Desk Awards, three Obie Awards, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Drama League Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

New Line's season closes in May and June with the regional premiere of the new rock musical HANDS ON A HARDBODY, inspired by true events, with music and lyrics by Amanda Green (High Fidelity, Bring It On), music by Trey Anastasio (of the rock band Phish), and a script by Doug Wright (Pulitzer Prize winner, I Am My Own Wife), adapted from the 1997 documentary of the same name.

Set at a Texas truck dealership that holds an endurance contest every year to win a hardbody pickup truck, a new lease on life feels so close for ten hard-luck Texans that they can touch it. Under a scorching sun for days on end, armed with nothing but hope, humor and ambition, they'll fight to keep at least one hand on a brand new truck in order to win it. In the hilarious, hard-fought contest that is HANDS ON A HARDBODY, only one winner can drive away with the American Dream.

The New York Times said about the show, "You can hear the sound of America singing in Hands on a Hardbody, the daring new musical. . . With a bravado to match the gumption of its characters, this new show drives onto the Broadway lot without the high-gloss blandishments that adorn most big musicals. Instead it concentrates its energies on giving voice to a story of average people fighting to hold onto hope in the face of fierce economic headwinds and bad breaks, not to mention buckling knees." The Times went on, "This scrappy, sincere new musical brings a fresh, handmade feeling to Broadway, which mostly traffics in the machine tooled. Burrowing into the troubled hearts of its characters, it draws a clear-eyed portrait of an America that's a far cry from the fantasyland of most commercial musicals. Hands on a Hardbody simply sings forth a story of endurance, hardship and the dimming American dream, which increasingly seems to hover on the distant horizon like some last-ditch motel whose neon lights are blinking out one by one." New Line is proud to present the regional premiere of this new musical.

New Line Theatre is a professional company dedicated to involving the people of the St. Louis region in the exploration and creation of daring, provocative, socially and politically relevant works of musical theatre. New Line was created back in 1991 at the vanguard of a new wave of nonprofit musical theatre just starting to take hold across the country. New Line has given birth to several world premiere musicals over the years and has brought back to life several shows that were not well served by their original New York productions. Altogether, New Line has produced 67 musicals since 1991, and the company was recently given its own entry in the Cambridge Guide to American Theatre. New Line receives funding from the Regional Arts Commission, the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation, and the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

Mainstage shows run Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, at 8:00 p.m., at the Washington University South Campus Theatre (formerly CBC High School), 6501 Clayton Road, just east of Big Bend. Tickets for the 2013-2014 season will go on sale in August. For other information, including audition details, visit New Line Theatre's full-service website at www.newlinetheatre.com. All programs are subject to change.

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