SHREK's Christopher Sieber Leads The New Group's THE KID in April

The New York Times is reporting that Shrek vet Christopher Sieber will star as sex columnist Dan Savage in The New Group's production of The Kid, a new musical based on Dan Savage's book The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant.  The production will run as the the third show of The New Group's 2009 - 2010 season, however, no exact production dates have been announced.  Additional cast and creative team announcements are also forthcoming.

The Kid received an industry reading on Thursday, September 24, 2009 at Playwrights Horizons. The play has since been in development.

The Kid features music by Andy Monroe, book by Michael Zam and lyrics by Jack Lechner. This reading is directed by The New Group Artistic Director Scott Elliott and features musical direction by Dominick Amendum. The cast of the previous reading included: PJ Benjamin, Susan Blackwell, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Matt DeAngelis, Trent Dawson, Luke Dow, Jill Eikenberry, Jeannine Frumess, Jeff Hiller, Capathia Jenkins, Brooke Sunny Moriber and Lucas Steele.

This musical is based on the true story of what happened when sex columnist Dan Savage and his boyfriend decided to create a family. Step one: Convince an adoption agency and homeless teenage mom that two gay men are the perfect parents for her child. Step two: Convince themselves.

The authors of The Kid were honored with the 2009 BMI Foundation Jerry Bock Award for Best New Musical. This marks The New Group's return to musical theater after producing Avenue Q, which received the Tony Award for Best New Musical in 2004.

The 2008-2009 season began with the U.S. premiere of Kevin Elyot's Mouth to Mouth followed by Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra. The company's 2007-2008 season featured the premiere of Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want directed by Ethan Hawke, Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years and Ayub Khan-Din's Rafta, Rafta.... The 2006-07 season featured Jay Presson Allen's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Wallace Shawn's The Fever and Bernard Weinraub's The Accomplices. Other past productions include David Rabe's Hurlyburly, Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party, Smelling a Rat, Goose-Pimples and Ecstasy, Wallace Shawn's Aunt Dan and Lemon, Kenneth Lonnergan's This is Our Youth, Kevin Elyot's My Night With Reg, and many more. The New Group is a recipient of the 2004 Tony® Award for Best Musical (Avenue Q).

Photo Credit: Linda Lenzi

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