Algonquin Theater Productions presents New baseball Musical NATIONAL PASTIME

This Saturday, March 25th, the baseball musical "National Pastime" by Al Tapper and Tony Sportiello opens in Guadalajara, Mexico. The musical, last produced by Robyn Goodman and directed by Hunter Foster at Bucks County Playhouse in 2015, tells the tale of a radio station during the Depression so desperate for ratings that they created a fictional baseball team which can't lose. Because the games are held in Europe no one can see them. The gimmick is so successful that the radio station and the town of Baker City Iowa is saved. At least until Life Magazine shows up.

"National Pastime" has played in New York, Washington, Austen, Phoenix, Scranton and Bucks County Playhouse, as well as the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. This production will be performed in Spanish in Guadalajara and directed by Mauricio Cedeno. The collaboration will be the second between Cedeno and Al Tapper. In 2010 Cedeno also directed the Guadalajara production of the Al Tapper musical "Sessions". Prior to that, "Sessions" ran for more than three hundred performances Off Broadway at the Algonquin Theater in New York.

Tapper and Sportiello recently opened a new musical, "All Aboard", which has kept them from being too involved with the production in Guadalajara. Sportiello will be traveling to Mexico, however, to see the opening and is excited to see how the comedy plays in another country. His hope is that the production will be one small way of tearing down fences, as opposed to building walls.

For more information, please contact Algonquin Theater Productions at algonquinprod@aol.com

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