Tony Speciale To Direct Industry Reading Of Michael Weller's BUYER BEWARE

The Vicious Circle will present two private industry readings of Academy Award-nominee Michael Weller's new play, BUYER BEWARE or How Lenny Bruce Found a Safe Space (and lost it again), directed by Tony Speciale. Casting to be announced.

BUYER BEWARE tells the story of Ron Avakian, an underperforming legacy student, who discovers the work of Lenny Bruce in his university's archives and is blown away by Bruce's ferocious and transgressive voice. Bruce's humor is so much a revelation to Ron, that he plans a "tribute" performance to honor the legendary comic. Instead, he provokes a campus protest, administrative panic, and escalating missteps that threaten the institution by putting a critical endowment in jeopardy.

BUYER BEWARE was commissioned by the playwright's alma mater as part of his Brandeis Creative Arts Award in 2016-17. It was designed as a tribute to Lenny Bruce, whose papers the university acquired, and whose provocative humor inspired the piece. Its planned premiere in November 2017 instead provoked an outcry by some students that the play not be performed on campus and the production was subsequently canceled. Stimulated by the surprising life-imitating-art turn of events at Brandeis, Weller has since retooled and deepened the play.

The readings of BUYER BEWARE will be held on Tuesday, February 26 that 2:30pm and 6:00pm at HERE, located at 145 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10013. For more information on the play or to make a reservation, call (929) 264-7085 or email rsvp@theviciouscircle.org.

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