THE POOR OF NEW YORK Plays The Lonny Chapman Theatre June 3
By: Gabrielle Sierra
The Group Repertory Theatre, under the direction of Larry Eisenberg, will bring to its stage on June 3 probably the greatest and most revered of the classic melodramas, "The Poor of New York" by Dion Boucicault. The play runs June 3 through July 10; Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sunday matinees at 2pm, at the Lonny Chapman Theatre in the NoHo Arts District of North Hollywood.
Cast features Roy Allen, Michele Bernath, Van Boudreaux, Max Bunzel, Klair Bybee, Larry Eisenberg, Trisha Hershberger, Francisco Medina, Jimmy Ogburn, Juliana Olinka,Kate O'Toole, Alex Parker, Michael Robb, and Chris Winfield.The plot involves the rise and fall of banker, Gideon Bloodgood, during the financial panics of 1837 and 1857, and chronicles the parallel lives of the Bloodgood and Fairweather families over the course of the those twenty years. Staged in 1857, it enraged an entire nation with its depiction of Wall Street corruption and thrilled its audiences as an entire three-story set burned to ground during its Act V climax.Whenever one hears the term "Melodrama", imagined are those comic Dudley Do-Right, "You Must Pay the Rent!" kind of melodramas that exaggerate sentiment, pathos and the conflict between good and evil. However, at that time in America the melodramas appearing on the Broadway stage and traveling throughout the country were ferocious, powerful, serious enactments of strong human emotion and heartfelt urgency. They were the source of classic silent films like Erich von Stroheim's "Greed," F.W. Murnau's "Faust," and "Orphans of the Storm" by D.W. Griffith. For this production, the Group Rep will use video projection and musical underscoring to mimic classic silent films in what promises to be a thrilling and thoroughly original theatrical experience.
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