Photo Flash: First Look at Irish Rep's TRANSPORT

Off-Broadway's award-winning Irish Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere production of the new musical Transport. With a book by world-renowned Australian author Thomas Keneally (Schindler's List, the acclaimed book on which the Oscar-winning film is based) and music and lyrics by Larry Kirwan (founder of the iconic New York City band Black 47), Transport follows the uneasy ocean voyage of Irish women who were sentenced and then exiled to the relatively uninhabited south coast of Australia in the mid-19th Century.

TRANSPORT has direction and set design by three-time Tony Award-winning director and designer Tony Walton, choreography by Barry McNabb (Irish Rep's FINIAN'S RAINBOW, STREETS OF NEW YORK) and music direction by John Bell. Transport will be performed now through April 6th, 2014 on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage of the Irish Repertory Theatre (132 West 22nd Street). The Press Opening is scheduled for February 16th. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Sprung from the pen of world-renowned author Thomas Keneally, Transport derives from the true story recalled by the grandmother of his wife, Judy, who journeyed in chains from Cork to Sydney, Australia in 1846. Transport tells the story of the impoverished Irish women and young girls (the so- called "undesirables") who were deported on The Whisper, a prison ship, to the Australian penal colonies. Transport's characters include members of the ship's crew, an exiled Irish priest, and four of the unfortunate female prisoners. With both an authentic score -- with echoes of traditional Irish and Australian tunes -- and a contemporary resonance, Transport transcends time, place and character with a hauntingly moving immediacy intertwined with the indomitable Irish spirit and a shared and abiding humanity.

The cast of Transport includes Mark Coffin, Patrick Cummings (The York's Jack . . . ), Terry Donnelly (Irish Rep's Juno and the Paycock), Sean Gormley (Irish Rep's The Weir), Jessica Grové (A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park With George, Thoroughly Modern Millie), Pearl Rhein (Red Bull's Volpone), Emily Skeggs (The Public's Fun Home), and Edward Watts (Scandalous, Encore's It's a Bird ... Plane ... Superman).

TRANSPORT has set design by Tony Walton, costume design by Linda Fisher, lighting design by Richard Pilbrow & Michael Gottlieb, and sound design by Carl Casella. Projections are by Yana Biryukova. The Production Stage Manager is Christine Lemme.

Tickets for Transport, priced $55 -$65, are available by calling the Irish Rep box office at 212-727-2737 or by visiting www.irishrep.org.

Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg