A.R.T Extends JOHNNY BASEBALL Thru 7/11

The American Repertory Theater (Diane Paulus, Artistic Director) continues its landmark season with its production of Johnny Baseball, a world premiere musical about the Red Sox, directed by Diane Paulus.

After the Red Sox's stunning collapse in the 2003 playoffs, a baseball-obsessed team of musical theater writers (one long-suffering Sox fan and two smug yet oddly sympathetic Yankees fans) began searching for the source of Red Sox's infamous "curse." In Johnny Baseball, writer Richard Dresser, composer Robert Reale, and lyricist Willie Reale have embarked on a journey that has yielded surprising conclusions and an original new musical - an exhilarating blend of fact and fiction that chronicles the stranglehold of the infamous curse and its ultimate, divine release. 

Johnny Baseball traces the origin of the Red Sox curse to a collision of three orphaned souls: Johnny O'Brien, a hard-luck right-hander on the 1919 Sox; his idol, Babe Ruth; and Daisy Wyatt, a dazzling African American blues singer and the love of Johnny's life. The entanglements of love, friendship, and betrayal in these lives contain both the reason for the Curse and the secret to its end off the bat of Big Papi in 2004.

Johnny Baseball is a thoughtful investigation of the complicated issues of race in Major League Baseball as a bellwether for American societal attitudes through the twentieth century. At the heart of the play is a touching love story between a white baseball player and an African American singer. With lively music and an engaging story, Johnny Baseball celebrates the new ownership and the 2004 World Series victory in the context of the full integration of the game. It packs a thoughtful commentary on American social history into a funny, heartfelt and spirited musical that will bring cheers and tears to baseball fans everywhere.

Johnny Baseball features choreography by Peter Pucci, musical direction by Wendy Bobbitt Cavett, scenic design by Scott Pask, costume design by Michael McDonald and lighting design by Donald Holder.

Tickets are priced from $25-$75, with $20 student rush seats available and a $10 discount for seniors, and are available in person by phone at (617) 547-8300 and online at www.americanrepertorytheater.org.

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