Alex Bechtel's PENELOPE Will Return to Joe's Pub For Live Album Recording Concerts
Performances will take place October 17, 18 and 19.
By: Stephi Wild Aug. 20, 2025
Following productions at Hudson Valley Shakespeare, Signature Theatre in DC, and Theatre Horizon/Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Alex Bechtel's Penelope will return to Joe's Pub with co-creator Grace McLean (Suffs, Bad Cinderella, Great Comet: Broadway; Cold War Choir Practice, In the Green: Off-Broadway) in the title role.
These three special concert performances, directed by co-creator Eva Steinmetz, will be recorded to create a live album of the show, to be released later this year by Joy Machine Records.
At the beginning of the pandemic, composer Alex Bechtel was forced to quarantine in separate cities from his romantic partner of many years. He began writing songs from the point of view of Penelope from Homer's Odyssey. Through the metaphor of that character's story, Bechtel - along with co-book writers Grace McLean and Eva Steinmetz - have created an experimental musical for one actor and a 5-piece band by turns raucous, tender, and haunting.
Biographies
Alex Bechtel creates new works of music, theatre, and musical theatre. He is a graduate of The University of the Arts, The Pig Iron School (Inaugural Class, 2013), and a Company Member of Lightning Rod Special. Bechtel has received two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Original Music, and Barrymores for Outstanding Music Direction and Outstanding Leading Actor in a Musical. In 2015, he was awarded an Independence Fellowship in the Arts to study with New Music Composer Rachel Grimes on new approaches to the use of music in theatre. Bechtel's musicals include Penelope (World Premiere, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival; Signature Theatre DC), The Appointment (Off Broadway: "Best of 2019" - NYTimes, Vulture, TimeOut NY; "Best of 2023" - The New Yorker), Poor Judge (World Premiere, Pig Iron Theatre Co), Peter Panto and Alice in Wonderland: A Musical Panto (World Premieres, People's Light & Theatre Co), The Light Princess (World Premiere, Arden Theatre Co), The West, Philadelphia Nocturne, and Cheer Up, Dostoevsky. He has also composed new music for the plays of William Shakespeare over 8 seasons at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. See and hear more at alexbechtel.com | photo by Kate Raines
Grace McLean (she/her) is a performer, writer, composer. In addition to performing on Broadway (Suffs; Bad Cinderella; Natasha, Pierre....), Off-Broadway and Regionally (MCC, LCT3, The Public, Vineyard, La MaMa, BAM, Weston Playhouse, ART, WTF) and TV (The First Lady [Showtime], The Other Two [HBOMax]) she also writes and composes for theater (Penelope; Lunar Eclipse; The Apiary; In The Green, Richard Rodgers, Lortel Awards) and film (Marina, Gotham Award; The Photographer; Our Mine, Best Score Brooklyn Film Festival, Black Bear Award for Best Score Athens International Film Festival). She toured Pakistan and Russia as an artistic ambassador with the US State Department and released her first full length album My Lovely Enemy May 2024 with Rolling Stone calling her "avant-garde" tracks "brilliant". Lincoln Center Writer-in-residence, Vivace Award ('23), Larson Grant ('21), Broadway Women's Fund's Woman to Watch ('21), Civilians R&D Group ('19-'20), MacDowell Fellow ('18), Lincoln Center Emerging Artist ('17). www.gracemclean.com | photo by Shervin Lainez
Eva Steinmetz (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based theater director, filmmaker, and educator. She has directed and co-created more than a dozen new works including Poor Judge (Pig Iron Theatre Company), Penelope (Alex Bechtel & Grace McLean), The Appointment (Lightning Rod Special - two-time NY Times Critic's Pick; Time Out NY Critics Pick; New Yorker "Best of 2023;" 6 Barrymore nominations, including Best Director), Sad Boys in Harpy Land (Alexandra Tatarsky), Art Houses (Theatre Horizon), The Caregivers (Pig Iron), Hart Island Requiem (Ty Defoe & Tidtaya Sinutoke), Wolfthicket (Lily Kind), and Krapp Hour (Anne Carson & Lightning Rod Special). Her short film, Marina, starring Grace McLean and Succession's Peter Friedman, received a Gotham Award and distribution through Focus Features. Eva was also a performer/creator in Josephine Decker's acclaimed movie, Madeline's Madeline. In collaboration with her producing partner Tommy Butler, Eva is currently developing her own first feature-length films. Eva serves as Artistic Producer for the Pig Iron Theater Company, creating digital and live performances, and piloting educational and workshop-based initiatives. She is a graduate of Bard College (BA, theater directing), the Pig Iron School (Graduate Certificate, devised performance), and Temple University (MFA, film). www.evasteinmetz.org
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