Exclusive Photos: Inside Red Bull Theater's Presentation of Maltby and Shire's THE COUNTRY WIFE

Red Bull Theater and Art Lab Productions presented the first major New York presentation of Maltby & Shire’s new musical, The Country Wife on Monday December 11th at the Peter Norton Symphony Space. This concert event was a celebratory fundraiser for Red Bull Theater. Proceeds help to make all of its programs possible. Check out photos from the event below!

Featuring Nicholas Edwards (currently on Broadway in & Juliet; Off-Broadway: Spamilton) also joins the cast that includes Carson Elrod (RBT: The Alchemist; Broadway: Peter and the Starcatcher, Reckless, Noises Off;  Off-Broadway: The Tempest, Measure for Measure, All's Well That Ends Well - NYSF); Jennifer Fouché (Broadway: Chicago, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep him Alive, Chicken and Biscuits; Off-Broadway: Sistas: The Musical, White Girl in Danger - Second Stage Theatre/Vineyard); Eddie Korbich (Broadway: The Music Man, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, A Christmas Story The Musical!, The Little Mermaid, The Drowsy Chaperone, Wicked); Kristolyn Lloyd (Broadway: 1776, Dear Evan Hansen);  Ellyn Marie Marsh (Broadway: The Rose Tattoo, Pretty Woman: The Musical, Kinky Boots, Priscilla Queen of the Desert); Brad Oscar (currently: Little Shop of Horrors; Broadway: Mrs. Doubtfire, Something Rotten!, Spamalot, The Producers);  Julian Remulla (Julius Caesar - Theatre for a New Audience);  Jelani Remy (currently: Back to the Future;  other Broadway: Ain't Too Proud, The Lion King); Christina Sajous (The Who's Tommy - Goodman Theatre/pre-Broadway; Broadway: SpongeBob Squarepants, Holler If Ya Hear Me, Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark, American Idiot); and Lauren Worsham (Broadway: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder - Tony nomination; Drama Desk and Theatre World Awards; Encores!: Where's Charley?, Sunday in the Park with George, Big River, Call Me Madam).

Directed by Richard Maltby Jr., The Country Wife had choreography by Lisa Shriver (Broadway: Ruben & Clay's Christmas Show, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Farnsworth Invention, Ring of Fire; Off-Broadway: Into the Woods - Lortel Award nomination); costume design by Emilio Sosa (currently represented on Broadway by Purlie Victorious, Sweeney Todd, and A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical; four Tony Award nominations: Ain't No Mo', Good Night, Oscar,  Trouble in Mind, The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess); lighting design by Paul Hudson (Red Bull Theater’s Return to the Forbidden Planet and Your Own Thing); and projection design by Harry Feiner.


Produced in partnership with Art Lab Productions, this special benefit event was made possible in part by the additional dedicated support of Marty Granoff and Ted and Mary Jo Shen.

Set in the vibrant diversity of 1840 New Orleans, The Country Wife features a sizzling modern score and irreverently explores the question of who owns the stories we call classics. This raucous musical reimagining of William Wycherley's classic Restoration Comedy by the award winning writing team Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire is not to be missed. The classic comedy's plot is racy and fun: The upper-class rake Harry Horner begins a campaign for seducing as many respectable ladies as possible and devises a unique and hilarious way to do it. But his scheme gets derailed by the arrival of an inexperienced young "country wife.”

Richard Maltby Jr explains: "The Country Wife is pretty much a love letter to the astonishing city of New Orleans. It’s hard to explain where ideas for musicals come from, but for years I’ve been intrigued by the thought of doing an American version of a Restoration comedy, and the notion of setting it in pre-Civil War New Orleans pulled the whole project together. New Orleans in 1840 was the most cosmopolitan, diverse city in American history. The population was a bouillabaisse of French colonials, Southern aristocrats, Free Men and Women of Color, French Arcadians – the Cajuns -- from Canada, Creoles of all kinds, educated blacks escaping from the Haitian revolution, and American adventurers from everywhere. The Mississippi had just been opened, and all commerce with America’s heartland came through New Orleans, which was suddenly the third richest city in America. Music was everywhere. Chicago and New York each had an opera house; New Orleans had three. Businessmen were making fortunes and acquiring trophy wives who they then neglected. Morals were high, covering a deep base of licentiousness. A second-rate actor/manager from England decides to open a theater, and casts his first play with locals. Correctly assessing the low level of American taste, the play he chooses is the raunchiest of all the restoration comedies, The Country Wife, written by William Wycherley. He is not prepared for the American response to this play. So come join us. It’s opening night, the first performance of any play in this theatre. It may well be the last."

The award-winning team of Maltby & Shire stir up this delectable gumbo of Caribbean, Creole, and Cajun-inspired culture in a musical retelling set in Antebellum New Orleans. In addition to the team's two beloved revues, Closer Than Ever and Starting Here Starting Now, Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire collaborated on the Broadway musicals Baby and Big. 

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