The New York Musical Theatre Festival and Rake Theater will present the new musical, Oedipus for Kids! Performances begin on September 12 and will run through September 25 at The Sage Theatre, located at 711 7th Avenue.
The musical's premise "revolves around three members of the Fuzzy Ducks Theatre Company, whose purpose is to bring the classics to children via theatre. Following their recently acclaimed productions
Titus Andronicus Bakes a
Cake and
Uncle Tommy's Cabin, the artistic director has decided that this week's classic should be the Greek myth of
Oedipus. As the children's production goes down into a Charybdis-like whirlpool of suck, the performers remain confounded by the question of how the hell you portray such a screwed up myth to elementary-schoolers," according to press notes. Songs include "A Little Complex" and "My Lover Is My Husband Is My Son". In other words, despite the title, this show is definitely not for kids.
Oedipus for Kids! will be directed by Dan Fields (Associate Director of Spelling Bee in
Chicago) with choreography by Jessica Redish and musical direction by Gregory M. Brown (
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at Goodspeed).
The cast includes
Laura Jordan (Broadway's
In My
Life), Gavin Lewis and
Reed Prescott (2006 Broadway Easter Bonnet,
Wicked City Blues at the
York Theatre).
"The plot mirrors the authors' own dilemma: back in early January Kimberly Patterson posed a question to Gil Varod: "Do you want to write a children's musical?" Since both have a deep love for Greco-Roman culture, they decided to do an adaptation of a Greek Myth. But what to adapt? Hercules has been done. Medusa teaches a strange lesson. Most stories about the Greek Gods were too short, or too harsh.
The Aeneid, Odyssey and everything Trojan was just too bloody. Then Gil says to Kim, 'We should adapt
Oedipus.' Kimberly's horrified response, 'But... you can't do Oedipus for Kids!' gave them their title. It was followed by an e-mail to Robert Saferstein, 'you have 2 weeks to compose the first five songs to these lyrics. Go.'" (For the full story behind the show, as well as a blog detailing the rehearsal process, visit
www.oedipusforkids.com).
Lyricist Gil Varod is best known for the website
broadwayabridged.com, a site featuring comedic "abridged" scripts of current Broadway shows. Previous productions include
Passing Aggressing at the Pearl Street Theatre Company and
The Doctor Will See You Now Without Pants, or, Will My HMO Cover This? at the Tank. Gil wrote the book with Kimberly Patterson, who has worked in Off- and Off-Off Broadway theater in almost every capacity possible (with the notable exception of acting) for the past 10 years. Patterson's plays were featured in the Midtown International Theatre Festival in 2005 and 2006, and she has produced shows for the Ice Factory and the New York Fringe Festival. The composer is Robert J. Saferstein, a multimedia artist who has been composing for years. He holds a BFA in Photography and Imaging from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and his work has been seen at the PooL Art Fair, the AAF Contemporary Art Fair, the School of Visual Arts, and New York University.
The design team will be Scott Orlesky (sets), Michael K. Berelson (lighting) and Hannah Rose Peck (costumes).
Tickets are currently available only to NYMF members. Memberships are still on sale. Members can now reserve their tickets by calling (212) 352-3101. Remaining tickets ($20) will go on sale September 1 at
theatermania.com or by calling 212 352-3101. The schedule: is Tuesday, September 12 at 8PM, Saturday, September 16 at 7:30PM, Sunday, September 17 at 4:30PM, Wednesday, September 20 at 8PM, Sunday, September 24 at 4:30PM and Monday, September 25 at 8PM.
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