SM Playhouse Presents FINE LINES 1/8-9, 2011

Santa Monica Playhouse and Venture Productions present a first look staged reading/singing of a new musical by Melanie Chartoff, featuring Chartoff and James Morrison and directed by Harry Mastrogeorge. In FINE LINES a therapist experiments with a new way to heal artists, while treading the precarious edge of the precipice between professional and personal intimacy. Two nights only January 8 and 9, 2011.

This show marks lyricist/composer/performer Chartoff's return to stage at Santa Monica Playhouse, where her musical memoire Taught 2 Dance debuted in 2007. Off stage she is perhaps best known for the diverse roles she's created on ABC's late night comedy, Friday's, Parker Lewis Can't Lose, The Newhart Show, Ally McBeal, and Touched by an Angel. On Broadway she played opposite Jim Dale in the Young Vic's Scapino and opposite the late Raoul Julia in Via Galactica. She can be heard daily in the animated hit Rugrats or its spinoff All Grown Up.

Co-star James Morrision has appeared at the La Jolla Playhouse, the Mark Taper Forum, Princeton's McCarter Theatre, the Salt Lake Acting Company, The Old Globe in San Diego and on London's West End at the Donmar Warehouse. He is the recipient of a Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle Award and three Drama-Logue Awards for performance. In addition to four seasons on TV's 24 as Bill Buchanan, Morrison starred as McQueen on FOX's cult sci-fi classic series Space: Above and Beyond and has guest-starred on countless other TV shows such as Law and Order, Los Angeles; The Mentalist; Six Feet Under; The West Wing; and the PBS production of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People.

FINE LINES is directed by Harry Mastrogeorge. Mastrogeorge has directed more than 200 productions in New York, Los Angeles, and throughout the country. He has been a member of the faculty of the Department of Theater Arts Graduate School at Brandeis University, and also a member of the faculty and administration at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York for many years. In film, he wrote and directed Richard Burton in The Mystery of the Sacred Shroud, wrote and directed Cabbages and Kings starring Danny DeVito and directed Venus and Mars starring Lynn Redgrave.

Additional music by Joseph Clonick and Doug Katsorus.

FINE LINES plays Saturday, January 8 at 8:00 pm and Sunday, January 9 at 7:00 pm. Tickets are $15 online at www.SantaMonicaPlayhouse.com or by phone at 1-(310)-394-9779 x1.

The Main Stage at Santa Monica Playhouse, currently celebrating its 50th year of continuous education and entertainment to the community, is located at 1211 4th Street (between Wilshire & Arizona), Santa Monica, CA 90401-1391. Convenient parking is located across the street in city lot #1. By public transportation take LA Metro Rapid 720 or the Santa Monica Blue Bus, exit 4th and Wilshire.

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