Kind And Pawk Head The Cast Of Sweet's 'FLYOVERS' 1/29-2/15

Richard Kind ("The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" on Broadway) and Michelle Pawk (Tony winner, "Hollywood Arms") will head the cast of Jeffrey Sweet's play Flyovers, set to receive its New York premiere Off-Broadway beginning previews January 29, 2009 prior to its official press opening night February 2 at the 78th Street Theatre Lab (236 West 78th Street) in Manhattan. Directed by Sandy Shinner, Flyovers is presented in New York by Artistic New Directions, Jeff Landsman and 78th Street Theatre Lab, where Mr. Sweet's acclaimed play Bluff was produced in 2006.
 
Flyovers is Mr. Sweet's play about a film critic who finds himself caught up in a Culture Clash of economics, sex and long-submerged resentment when he returns to the small Ohio town where he grew up.
 
Richard Kind, whose Broadway credits include The Producers and The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, and Michelle Pawk, who won a Tony Award for her role in Hollywood Arms, lead the cast which also includes Kevin Geer (Side Man) and Donna Bullock (Ragtime).
 
Flyovers had its world premiere at Chicago's Victory Gardens Theatre, where it became one of the theatre's biggest hits, earning playwright Sweet the coveted Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play. In his Wall Street Journal review of Flyovers, Joel Henning wrote, "Mr. Sweet's ear is almost the equal of David Mamet's, and he's funnier. [Mr. Sweet] digs as deeply into his three main characters as Arthur Miller at his best." In The Chicago Tribune, reviewer Sid Smith noted that the play "…beautifully mixes laughs and lessons. While funny, it's also a faithful tone poem on its characters, who end up dissected, desperate, and, in Sweet's strange, deftly managed plot twists, stranded in a dreary, Flannery O'Connor-like neverland of an ending."
 
Flyovers features set and lighting design by Robin Patterson.
 
Richard Kind, whose Broadway credits include The Producers, The Tale of the Allergists Wife, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Sly Fox and the New York City Opera production of Candide, is best known for his roles on TV's "Spin City," "Mad About You," and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." He will be seen in the upcoming Coen Brothers movie "A Serious Man."
 
Michelle Pawk won the Tony Award for her performance in Carrie Hamilton and Carol Burnett's Hollywood Arms.  She was nominated for Drama Desk Awards for Cabaret, The Paris Letters and Crazy For You, and was featured on Broadway in Seussical, Hairspray and Chicago, and Off-Broadway in the celebrated revival Dark at the Top of the Stairs.
 
Kevin Geer played the tragic pianist in Warren Leight's Tony-winning Side Man and was one of Roundabout's 12 Angry Men. He can be seen in Kenneth Lonergan's forthcoming film "Margaret."  Donna Bullock won the Jefferson Award in Chicago for playing Mother in RAGTIME, a role she also played on Broadway and in Los Angeles and Vancouver. Other New York credits include A Class Act, City of Angels, and the Irish Rep hit staging of Take Me Along.
 
Jeffrey Sweet's plays include Bluff, The Action Against Sol Schuman (winner of an American Theatre Critics Association prize and a New York Times "critic's choice"), American Eterprise (another ATCA prize and a "best play"), and the frequently-produced THE Value of Names (nominated for LA's Ovation Award for best play in 2007). A resident playwright with Victory Gardens since 1979, a collection of nine of Mr. Sweet's scripts has been published under the title "The Value of Names and Other Plays."
 
Director Sandy Shinner is the Associate Artistic Director at Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago (Regional Tony Award, 2001) where she has directed over 80 plays including The Long Awaited, Jeffrey Sweet's The Value of Names, Sidney Bechet Killed A Man, Before My Eyes, View of the Dome, The Glamour House, Battle of the Bands, and Ariadne's Thread; as well as Winter and Fossils with Tony Award-winning actress Julie Harris. Off-Broadway credits include the New York premieres of Trying by Joanna McClelland Glass with Fritz Weaver at The Promenade Theatre, in addition to Mr. Sweet's BLUFF at 78th Street Theatre Lab.
 
Flyovers is a co-production of Artistic New Directions, Jeff Landsman and the 78th Street Theatre Lab.
 
The Victory Gardens Theatre is one of the three Tony Award-winning Chicago theatres organized around one of the key dramatic disciplines: If the Goodman is the house of directors and Steppenwolf is the house of actors, Victory Gardens is the house of writers. It is home to 14 resident playwrights, including Mr. Sweet, James Sherman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Nilo Cruz, Oscar-nominated John Logan, and the Jefferson-nominated Claudia Allen and Kristine Thatcher. The Wall Street Journal described Victory Gardens as "the nation's most important incubator of new playwrights."
 
Artistic New Directions is a developmental company which previously co-produced Bluff and With and Without with 78th Street Theatre Lab and produced the critically acclaimed 2008 Fringe show That Dorothy Parker.
 
The 78th Street Theatre Lab has presented a series of well-received productions through the years, including Arlene Hutton's The Nibroc Trilogy and Trish Harnetiaux's Inside a Bigger Box. Several of their offerings have gone on to well-received runs in the Edinburgh Festival and Off-Broadway. Jeff Landsman has co-produced various theatrical shows, such as Trouble in Shameland (NY Fringe Festival) and Downtown Dysfunctionals: Episoode 2: Baby Buddha (With Music in a Box) and two independent films: "Ben's Plan" and "Being Claudine"; he develops new projects as a member of the staff of the York Theatre.
 
Scheduled through February 15, performances of Flyovers run at 78th Street Theatre Lab (236 West 78th Street), Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays and Mondays at 7pm. Tickets are $18, and can be reserved by calling SmartTix 212-868-4444.