A.R.T. Presents World Premiere of JOHNNY BASEBALL, 5/14-6/27

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 begins performances on Friday, May 14 and is scheduled to run through Sunday, June 27 the Loeb Drama Center (64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA).

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.

The performance schedule is as follows: Tuesdays at 7:30 P.M., Wednesdays at 7:30 P.M., Thursdays at 7:30 P.M., Fridays at 8:00 P.M., Saturdays at 2:00 P.M. and 8:00 P.M. and Sundays at 2:00 P.M. and 7:30 P.M. Please note: there will be no 2:00 P.M. matinee on Saturday, February 27 and no 8:00 P.M. evening performance on Sunday, February 28.

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) is one of the country's most celebrated resident theaters and the winner of numerous awards, including the Tony Award, the Pulitzer Prize and numerous local Elliot Norton and I.R.N.E. Awards. In 2002 A.R.T. was the recipient of the National Theater Conference's Outstanding Achievement Award and in May of 2003 it was named one of the top three theaters in the country by Time magazine.

Founded by Robert Brustein in 1980, over its twenty-nine-year history the A.R.T. has welcomed major American and international theater artists, presenting a diverse repertoire that includes new American plays, bold reinterpretations of classical texts, and provocative new music Theater Productions. A.R.T. has performed throughout the U.S. and worldwide in twenty-one cities in sixteen countries on four continents. It has presented over two hundred productions, over half of which were premieres of new plays, translations and adaptations.

A.R.T. is also a training ground for young artists. The theater's artistic staff teaches undergraduate classes in acting, directing, dramatic literature, dramaturgy, design and playwriting at Harvard University, and in 1987 the A.R.T. founded the Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. In conjunction with the Moscow Art Theater School, the Institute provides world-class graduate level training in acting, dramaturgy and voice.

Last fall A.R.T. welcomed its new Artistic Director, Diane Paulus., who is currently represented on Broadway with her direction of the Public Theater's Tony Award-winning production of Hair. Under her leadership, and with major funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Theater has developed a new initiative, EXPERIENCE THE A.R.T., which seeks to revolutionize the theater experience through a sustained commitment to empowering the audience. This initiative recognizes that theater is not just a play on the stage, but also a social occasion for people to come together and experience community. This audience-driven vision speaks directly to the A.R.T.'s core mission - "to expand the boundaries of theater." By expanding its focus to include the audience's total theater experience, the A.R.T. seeks to give audiences a voice, a sense of ownership and a feeling of importance in the theatrical event.

To learn more about the A.R.T. and its season visit www.americanrepertorytheater.org or call the A.R.T. InfoLine at (617) 547-8300.

Biographies ___ _________
Willie Reale (Lyricist) and his brother Robert Reale (Composer) have three Tony nominations and an Oscar nomination between them. Their musicals have been performed at Second Stage Theatre in New York, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and The Arden in Philadelphia. Their musical A Year with Frog and Toad, which was performed at The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis, the New Victory Theatre, and the Cort Theatre on Broadway, where it was nominated for best musical. It has been among the top ten produced plays in the America for nearly a decade.

 

Richard Dresser (Playwright) has had his plays produced throughout the United States and Europe. His recently published trilogy of plays about happiness in America includes Augusta (working class), The Pursuit of Happiness (middle class) and A View of the Harbor (upper class).

 

Diane Paulus (Director) is the Artistic Director of the A.R.T. She is the creator and director of The Donkey Show, which ran for six years Off-Broadway, toured internationally to London, Edinburgh, Madrid, and Evian, France, and is currently at the A.R.T. Recent theater work includes the Tony Award-winning revival of HAIR on Broadway; Kiss Me Kate at Glimmerglass Opera; Lost Highway, based on the David Lynch film, an ENO co-production with the Young Vic in London; Another Country by James Baldwin at Riverside Church; Turandot: Rumble for the Ring at the Bay Street Theatre; The Golden Mickey's for Disney Creative Entertainment; Best of Both Worlds, a gospel/R&B adaptation of A Winter's Tale produced by Music-Theatre Group and The Women's Project; and The Karaoke Show, an adaptation of "Comedy of Errors" set in a karaoke bar, produced by Jordan Roth Productions. Also for Music-Theatre Group, she directed the Obie award-winning and Pulitzer Prize finalist Running Man by jazz composer Diedre Murray and poet Cornelius Eady; and Swimming with Watermelons, created in association with Project 400, the theater company she co-founded with her husband Randy Weiner. Other work Off-Broadway: Brutal Imagination, and the Obie-award winning Eli's Coming, featuring the music and lyrics of Laura Nyro. Opera credits include Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Turn Of The Screw, Cosi fan tutte; and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, L'incoronazione di Poppea, and Orfeo at the Chicago Opera Theater. She is a frequent collaborator with British conductor Jane Glover; in 2002, their critically acclaimed production of Orfeo was presented as part of The Monteverdi Cycle at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music in New York City. Most recently she directed Best of Both Worlds at the A.R.T. part of the Shakespeare Exploded Festival and Il mondo della luna at the Hayden Planetarium in New York. Upcoming works include Death and The Powers, a new opera by Tod Machover in collaboration with MIT Media Lab and Opera Boston.

For more information, visit www.americanrepertorytheater.org

 

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