Joe Mantello to Direct 'Pal Joey' Roundabout Revival, Fall 2008

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director), in association with Marc Platt, is proud to present a new Broadway production of Pal Joey, with music by Richard Rodgers  and lyrics by Lorenz Hart.

Pal Joey will feature a new book by Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg, based on the original book by John O'Hara, with music direction by Tony Award winner Paul Gemignani, choreography by Graciela Daniele and directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello at Studio 54 on Broadway.

Pal Joey will begin previews on Friday, November 21, 2008 and open officially Thursday, December 11, 2008 at Studio 54 on Broadway (254 West 54th Street).  This will be a limited engagement.

The cast will be announced shortly.

The design team will includes two-time Tony Award winner Scott Pask (Sets), five-time Tony Award winner William Ivey Long (Costumes), two-time Tony Award winner Peggy Eisenhauer and eight-time Tony Award winner Jules Fisher (Lights), Tony Meola (Sound) and Don Sebesky (Orchestrator).

The production is the first Broadway revival of Pal Joey in over 30 years.

"Set in Chicago in the late 1930s, Pal Joey is the story of Joey Evans, a brash, scheming song and dance man with dreams of owning his own nightclub.   Joey abandons his wholesome girlfriend Linda English, to charm a rich, married older woman, Vera Simpson, in the hope that she'll set him up in business," describe press notes.

In 1939, author John O'Hara approached Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart to collaborate on a musical adaptation of his popular "Pal Joey" stories that had originally run in The New Yorker.  The musical premiered on Broadway on December 25, 1940, in a production directed and produced by George Abbott, and starring Gene Kelly and Vivienne Segal.  While considered a success in 1940, a smash hit 1952 Broadway revival revealed the show as a true landmark Broadway musical, breaking new ground in subject matter, and featuring a score by Rodgers & Hart in their penultimate collaboration. 

The 1952 production of Pal Joey won 3 Tony Awards including Best Choreography and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical. A film of the musical was made in 1957, starring Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth, and Kim Novak.  Bob Fosse received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in the 1963 production and the 1976 production at Circle in the Square starred Dixie Carter.  The most recent production of Pal Joey was featured in the second season of Encores! at New York City Center in a 1995 concert version starring Patti LuPone and Peter Gallagher.

The Rodgers & Hart score for Pal Joey includes such classic songs as "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," "I Could Write a Book," "You Mustn't Kick It Around," and "Zip," among others.   The new production of Pal Joey will also feature "I'm Talking to My Pal," a song that had been dropped from the score during its out-of-town tryout, and will be heard on Broadway for the first time.

Tickets will be available in the Fall of 2008, by phone at (212) 719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the Studio 54 Box Office (254 West 54th Street).

Pal Joey will play Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8PM with a Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinee at 2PM.