MTC Announces 2008-09 Season

 MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB (Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director; Barry Grove, Executive Producer; Daniel Sullivan, Acting Artistic Director 2007-2008 Season) is pleased to announce upcoming productions for its 2008-2009 season, including two shows on Broadway at MTC's Biltmore Theatre (261 West 47th Street) and two productions at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street). 
 
The season will feature an exciting roster of productions featuring the talents of Richard Greenberg, Henry Krieger, Casey Nicholaw, Lynn Nottage, John Patrick Shanley, Nick Whitby, and Kate Whoriskey. The season will include three world premieres and one Broadway premiere.
 
A third Biltmore production and two productions at New York City Center - Stage II will be announced at a later date.
 
MTC'S BILTMORE THEATRE
To Be Or Not To Be                                WORLD PREMIERE 
Written by Nick Whitby
Based on the motion picture To Be Or Not To Be
Directed by Casey Nicholaw
 
Previews begin: Thursday, September 11, 2008
Opening Night: Thursday, October 2, 2008
 
At the Polski Theatre in 1939 Warsaw, Joseph and Maria Tura are about to open yet another smash with their theatrical troupe. As the German invasion gets underway, the theatre is closed by the censors, forcing the troupe to face desperate times. But when a handsome young bomber pilot enlists their help to catch a spy, what is a group of actors to do? This hilarious black comedy is an ingenious commentary on the World War II era and an inspired tribute to the timeless joys of the theatre. 
 
TO BE OR NOT TO BE by Nick Whitby is based on the 1942 motion picture To Be Or Not To Be. This will mark Whitby's New York playwrighting debut. The world premiere production will be helmed by three time Tony Awarda nominee Casey Nicholaw (The Drowsy Chaperone, Monty Python's Spamalot).
 
MTC'S BILTMORE THEATRE
The American Plan                               BROADWAY PREMIERE   
Written by Richard Greenberg
Directed by David Grindley
 
Previews begin: Friday, January 2, 2009
Opening Night: Thursday, January 22, 2009
 
An exciting new look at an early, acclaimed play by the Tony Award-winning author of Take Me Out. It is the Catskill Mountains in the early 1960s, and Lily Adler and her mother Eva are spending the summer across the lake from a bustling hotel where comics entertain and buffets overflow. When a handsome young stranger enters their world, the emotionally fragile Lily finds herself falling in love. But once her imperious mother learns of their relationship, lies are exposed, alliances are forged and Lily's one chance to escape her mother's control may be lost forever.
 
Playwright Richard Greenberg continues his long association with MTC, where his New York premieres have included The Violet Hour, Three Days of Rain and Eastern Standard. David Grindley who most recently staged Pygmalion and the Tony Award-winning production of Journey's End will direct the production. 
 
MTC AT NEW YORK City Center - STAGE I
Romantic Poetry                             WORLD PREMIERE MUSICAL     
Book & Lyric by John Patrick Shanley
Music by Henry Krieger
Directed by John Patrick Shanley
 
Previews begin: Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Opening Night: Tuesday, October 28, 2008
 
From the Tony Awarda and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Doubt and the two-time Tonya-nominated composer of Dreamgirls comes this crackpot musical romance.
 
Connie of Woodmere has just married Fred of Newark, but her exes are back in the picture and not sure they approve of the union. Judy of Westchester is being wooed by Arthur, a dishwasher poet of no particular address, while her husband is out of town. And Lily of Soho is climbing Wally of Little Italy's fire escape with amorous erotic intent.
 
They are all mad and they are all sane and they are all creating ROMANTIC POETRY. Genuine emotion and the excitement of living an ideal crisscross like a night of shooting stars. When you have the Academy Awarda-winning author of Moonstruck writing the book and lyrics, and the two-time Grammya-winning composer of Dreamgirls collaborating, you know something delicious is coming from the kitchen.   
 
MTC AT NEW YORK City Center - STAGE I
Ruined                                             WORLD PREMIERE  
Written by Lynn Nottage
Directed by Kate Whoriskey
 
Previews begin: Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Opening Night: Tuesday, February 10, 2009
A co-production with the Goodman Theatre
 
From Lynn Nottage, the Obie Award-winning author of such plays as Fabulation and Intimate Apparel, comes this haunting, probing work about the resilience of the human spirit during times of war.  Set in a small mining town in Democratic Republic of Congo, this powerful play follows Mama Nadi, a shrewd businesswoman in a land torn apart by civil war.  But is she protecting or profiting by the women she shelters? How far will she go to survive? Can a price be placed on a human life? Directing is Kate Whoriskey, who staged Ms. Nottage's Fabulation at Playwrights Horizons. RUINED is a co-production with the Goodman Theatre (Robert Falls, Artistic Director; Roche Schulfer, Executive Director), which will present the play this fall prior to the production coming to MTC.
 
 
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove, MTC has become one of the country's most prominent and prestigious theatre companies. MTC productions have earned a total of 16 Tony Awards and five Pulitzer Prizes, an accomplishment unparalleled by a New York theatrical institution. Renowned MTC productions include Come Back, Little Sheba; The Receptionist; LoveMusik; Blackbird; Translations; Shining City; Rabbit Hole; Doubt; Proof; The Tale of the Allergist's Wife; Kimberly Akimbo; Love! Valour! Compassion!; Sylvia; Four Dogs and a Bone; Putting It Together; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; Crimes of the Heart; and Ain't Misbehavin'. 
 
In 2003, MTC reopened Broadway's landmark, long-neglected Biltmore Theatre, following a two-year, $35 million capital campaign. In addition, to the Biltmore, MTC's operates two theatres at New York City Center, its Off-Broadway home since 1984.
 
During Meadow's sabbatical this season, Daniel Sullivan, a close associate of MTC and director of several Manhattan Theatre Club productions (Rabbit Hole, Brooklyn Boy, Sight Unseen, Proof, Psychopathia Sexualis), has been serving as Acting Artistic Director. Meadow will resume her full duties as artistic director in September and has been consulting on the planning of the 2008-2009 season.
 
You can subscribe to MTC by calling (212) 399-3030, Monday - Friday, noon - 8 PM with a major credit card. Subscriptions will also be available online at www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.
 
Single tickets to all productions will be available at a later date. Other listings information will be released in the coming weeks.