Photo Flash: First Look at Off-Broadway's OLYMPICS UBER ALLES

Franaleo Productions will present the Off-Broadway premiere of Samuel J. Bernstein and Marguerite Krupp's Olympics Über Alles, opening a limited engagement Thursday September 4th at St. Luke's Theater (308 West 46th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues). Debra Whitfield directs a cast that features Jim DiMunno Tim Dowd, Michael Engberg, Amy Handra, Darrell Purcell, Joshua Quat, and Stewart A. Schneck. This limited run continues through September 21st only. Olympics Über Alles will have scenic and lighting design by Duane Pagano with costume design by Janice O'Donnell and sound and projections design by Paul Bourgeois. The performance runs two hours including intermission.

Olympics Über Alles tells the story of the 1936 "Nazi Olympics," when Jewish-American runners Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller became victims of hatemongering. As Jesse Owens made the news, Marty and Sam, on the same U.S. track team, went unnoticed, while American and Nazi officials apparently conspired to bar them from the race of their lives. Why were these young men denied the opportunity to compete? Fast-forward to the present and follow a Jewish professor and a Catholic museum curator investigating the Glickman-Stoller incident, as they struggle against the prejudices of their upbringing, for the truth amid some murky Olympic history, and with the meaning of their own developing relationship. In this evocative new play, politics, religion, sports, relationships, and the roots of World War II come face-to-face in a theatrical whirlwind that will challenge and inspire.

Performances for Olympics Über Alles will be Wednesday matinees at 2PM, Thursday evenings at 8pm, and Sunday matinees at 1PM. Tickets from $39.50 (including a $2.00 Facility Fee.) are available at Telecharge.com or by calling 212/239-6200.

Photos by Carol Rosegg