Keen Company Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein today announced that Tovah Feldshuh, Andrew Dawson, Kelly McAndrew, Matt Servitto, Allan K. Washington, and Kayce Wilson will join the previously announced Arnie Burton, Jasminn Johnson, Lauren Molina, Reg Rogers, Ari'el Stachel, Jason Tam, completing the cast for the Gala Benefit Reading of the beloved Broadway comedy Light Up the Sky by Moss Hart, directed by Mr. Silverstein.
The one night only event will take place Monday April 25th at 7 PM at Theatre 3 at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues). Tickets are on sale
now!
Light Up the Sky will run 2 hours including a 10 minute intermission.
Tickets to this fundraiser event support Keen Company's
22nd Season celebrating new work, as well as
Keen's Playwrights Lab for mid-career writers, and
Keen Teens which serves students in all five boroughs of NYC.
Tovah Feldshuh Broadway credits include Pippin, Golda's Balcony - Drama Desk Award, Tony, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle nominations; Irena's Vow - Drama League nomination; Lend Me a Tenor - Drama Desk Award, Tony nomination; Saravá - Tony nomination, Yentl - Theatre World Award, Tony and Drama Desk nominations; Off-B'way: Volpone, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, Tallulah Hallelujah! - Outer Critics Circle nomination, Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh! - Drama Desk nomination; many film & TV credits including "The Walking Dead," Emmy Award nominations for "Holocaust" and "Law & Order;" and A Walk on the Moon, She's Funny That Way, and Kissing Jessica Stein. among others.
Andrew Dawson's Off-Broadway credits include Strangers in the World, High Noon - Axis Theatre;
Gorey: The Secret Lives of
Edward Gorey - Sheen Center; Acts of Love - Kirk Theatre.
Kelly McAndrew's credits include: Broadway: Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opposite
Jason Patric and
Ned Beatty; Off-B'way: The Thin Place (Playwrights Horizons), Novenas for a Lost Hospital -Rattlestick; Men on Boats - Playwrights Horizons/
Clubbed Thumb; Perfect Arrangement - Primary Stages; Abundance - TACT; Almost, Maine -
Transport Group; Good Television - Atlantic; Still Life - MCC; Greedy -
Clubbed Thumb; The Cataract - Women's Project; Book of Days - Signature).
Matt Servitto currently stars on "Billions." His many other TV credits include recurring roles on "NCIS: New Orleans," "The Blacklist," and "The Sopranos." His numerous theater credits include I Never Sang For My Father, Museum - Keen Company; Emma and Max - The Flea Theater; The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures - Signature Theatre/Public Theater/Guthrie Theater; Lydie Breeze - New York Theatre Workshop; King John, Much Ado About Nothing - New York Shakespeare Festival.
Allan K. Washington. Broadway: Once on This Island, SpongeBob Squarepants; Off-Broadway: In the Southern Breeze - Rattlestick; The Broken Ear Setlist: Songs from Ohio - St. Ann's Warehouse.
Kayce Wilson's credits include Four Little Girls: 1963 at The Kennedy Center directed by
Phylicia Rashad; recent Fordham graduate making her Keen Company debut.
"Keen Company is thrilled to be presenting a reading of
Light Up the Sky with some of the theater's finest actors and favorite Keen Company alumni. As a way to celebrate the theater's return, we are so excited to present
Moss Hart's hilarious love letter to the theater. Throughout our history, Keen has produced many 20th Century classic comedies (The Second Man, The Voice of the Turtle, The Hasty Heart, among others) and Light Up the Sky is one that has always been near and dear to our hearts. This one night only benefit will raise funds for Keen's 22nd Season as well as Keen Teens, our unique educational program," said Silverstein.
An outstanding hit of the Broadway theater,
Moss Hart's
Light Up the Sky is a gorgeously amusing comedy about show folks. The comedy revolves around a group of New York theater-folk who attend the opening of their new play in Boston. The lead actress, the backer, and several others, are in seventh heaven at the prospect of a tremendous success which they hope for in the work of a young unknown writer. Gathered in a hotel room, these people go through their paces with tremendous gusto and many exhibitions of temperament. The opening of the play, which is a very earnest and experimental work, is such as to lead the cast, director and backer to believe it a flop. Instantly they turn against themselves, the production, the author and savagely proceed in what looks like an attempt to destroy themselves and all their former hopes. It turns out, however, that in spite of the curious reception by the first night audience, the play has made a deep impression, and when news spreads that the reviews are on the whole favorable, the tables are turned. But the playwright who has suffered both from the enthusiasm and pessimism of his associates has decided that he is through with the theater, and he is captured by the backer only at the moment he is about to take a plane back home. He is persuaded to play ball with his associates, but he is so disgusted with the temperamental shenanigans of those who were presumably his friends that he turns on them and lays down the law to them.
Moss Hart (1904 -1961) began his career as a playwright, director and producer in 1930 when, with
George S. Kaufman, he wrote Once in a Lifetime. Subsequent Kaufman and Hart successes include Merrily We Roll Along, You Can't Take It With You and The Man Who Came To Dinner, among others. In collaboration with
Irving Berlin, he wrote Face the Music and As Thousands Cheer. In solo efforts, he scored personal triumphs with Jubilee, The Great Waltz, Light Up the Sky and Lady in the Dark, which he also directed. His directorial credits include My Fair Lady, Camelot and Winged Victory, which he also wrote. Among his screen credits are A Star Is Born, Gentleman's Agreement, and Hans
Christian Anderson. His autobiography, Act One, topped the best-seller list for 40 weeks.
"A whirlwind lampoon which is funnier than anything the dramatic stage has spawned this season. Light Up the Sky works, which is the hallmark of the knockabout comedy. It is also vastly entertaining, and it helps a lot to light up the Broadway sky," said
Brooks Atkinson in The New York Times.
The performance will be at Theatre 3 of Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues). This is a one-night only fundraiser event, and benefit tickets are available from $100. (Theatre Row charges an additional $2.50 restoration fee on all tickets, plus a $4.00 fee for orders placed online or over the phone). To purchase tickets to Light Up the Sky, visit the Theatre Row Box Office (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues), order online at
KeenCompany.org, or order by phone at 212-714-2442 - ext. 45.
Keen Company's World Premiere of the new comedy This Space Between Us by
Peter Gil-Sheridan (The Rafa Play), directed by Silverstein, recently completed its acclaimed run at Theatre Row. This Space Between Us is a new comedy about trying to change the world while admitting home could use a little change too. Nobody understands why Jamie wants to leave his cushy law office to work for a non-profit. His boyfriend is concerned, his best friend is confused, and his conservative Cuban-American family are sure they know what's best. As Jamie announces his plans to serve those less fortunate, one shocking afternoon at the racetrack sparks unexpected and irreversible consequences for them all. This intergenerational comedy follows a raucous attempt to reach for something more without leaving the people you love behind.
Keen Company is an award-winning Off-Broadway theater creating story driven work that champions identification and connection. In intimate productions of plays and musicals, the company tells stories about the decisive moments that change us. Recently, Keen has brought such acclaimed productions to the stage as Blues for an Alabama Sky by
Pearl Cleage (NY Premiere, AUDELCO and Antonyo nominations), Surely Goodness and Mercy by
Chisa Hutchinson (NY Premiere), Ordinary Days by
Adam Gwon (Drama League nomination), Tick, Tick...BOOM! by
Jonathan Larson (Drama Desk nomination), Boy by
Anna Ziegler (World Premiere, Outer Critics Circle
John Gassner Award), and Marry Me a Little by
Stephen Sondheim (Drama League nomination). Through our educational arm, Keen Teens, we raise the quality of plays written for the high school stage and provide a free professional training program for teens. Through the Keen Playwrights Lab, Keen brings together three mid-career playwrights to develop new work and facilitate that work's exposure to a greater audience. Keen Company thrives through our welcoming ethos and community commitments. We believe that a good process makes great art, and that we are responsible for our impact both on and off stage.
For more information, visit
KeenCompany.org
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