LA Theatre Works Presents 'Broadway Bound' July 9th

L.A. Theatre Works wraps up the 2007-08 Season with the Tony Award-winning BROADWAY BOUND, the last chapter in Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical "Eugene Trilogy".  Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother) stars as Simon's alter-ego, Eugene Morris Jerome, and Jonathan Silverman, who played the role of Eugene in the film version of Brighton Beach Memoirs and both on Broadway and TV in Broadway Bound, is his older brother Stan.  Also in the cast are Dan Castellaneta, best know as the voice of Homer Simpson (replacing the previously announced Henry Winkler); Caroline Aaron (Curb Your Enthusiasm); and Alan Mandell (Trying at the Colony Theatre).  Jenny Sullivan directs the LATW production at the Skirball Cultural Center where five performances, July 9-13, will be recorded to air on LATW's nationally syndicated, weekly radio theater series, The Play's The Thing.

L.A. Theatre Works has already recorded the first and second plays in Simon's series: Brighton Beach Memoirs, which introduced us to Eugene's close-knit Brooklyn Jewish family circa 1937, and Biloxi Blues, in which the naive and newly enlisted Eugene was transplanted to Biloxi, Mississippi for basic training in 1943.  Now, in Broadway Bound, Eugene returns home from World War II and pairs up with his older brother Stanley (based on Simon's brother and early writing partner Mel) to break into the world of professional comedy writing.  Inspiration strikes when they aim their sights on their dysfunctional family - and then the network broadcasts it nationwide!

For almost forty years, Neil Simon has invigorated the stage with touching stories and zany characters, but possibly his greatest contribution has been the ability to create humor from the lives and troubles of everyday people.  Actor Jack Lemmon said, "Neil has the ability to write characters - even the leading characters that we're supposed to root for - that are absolutely flawed. They have foibles. They have faults. But, they are human beings. They are not all bad or all good; they are people we know."

"The way I see things, life is both sad and funny," Neil Simon once said in an interview.  "I can't imagine a comical situation that isn't at the same time also painful. I Used To ask myself: What is a humorous situation? Now I ask: What is a sad situation and how can I tell it humorously?"

For three decades, L.A. Theatre Works has been the leading radio theater company in the United States, committed to using innovative technologies to preserve and promote significant works of dramatic literature and bringing live theater into the homes of millions.  LATW's radio theater series, The Play's The Thing, airs weekly on 89.3 FM KPCC in Southern California; 89.7 WGBH in Boston; 91.5 FM WBEZ in Chicago; 94.9 KUOW in Seattle; 93.5 FM KRTS "Marfa Public Radio" in Texas; 90.5 FM KUT in Austin;88.9 FM KUNM in Albuquerque; 94.1 KPFA in Northern California; 91.1 FM KRCB in Sonoma County; 89.1 KUOR in Redlands; as well as on many other public radio stations nationwide and XM Satellite Radio.  Selected programs from LATW are also heard internationally over BBC World Service, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Telefis Eirann (Ireland), Radio Hong Kong, and Radio New Zealand.  The L.A. Theatre Works Audio Theatre Collection is available in bookstores, libraries, through their catalog, digitally on itunes, overdrive.com, audible.com, and on the L.A. Theatre Works website at www.latw.org.

Performances of BROADWAY BOUNDtake place on Wednesday, July 9 at 8 pm; Thursday, July 10, at 8 pm; Friday, July 11 at 8 pm; Saturday, July 12 at 3 pm; and Sunday, July 13 at 4 pm.  Tickets range from $20.00 to $47.00.  The Skirball Cultural Center is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd, off the San Diego (405) Freeway in the Santa Monica Mountains (exit Skirball Center Drive).  For tickets and information, call the L.A. Theatre Works box office at (310) 827-0889 or go to www.latw.org.

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