Jeffrey Roberson aka Varla Jean Merman Stars in Revival of Menotti's THE MEDIUM 10/25 - 11/11
Jeffery Roberson, aka drag superstar Varla Jean Merman, will return to New York this fall in the title role of Menotti's musical thriller THE MEDIUM at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, directed by Donna Drake. Elizabeth Hastings, who has conducted for both New York City Opera and the Liederkranz Opera Theatre will music direct. The cast includes Stefanie Izzo as Monica, Edmund Bagnell as Toby, Shannon Carson as Mrs. Gobineau, Peter Kendall Clark as Mr. Gobineau and Maria Elena Armijo as Mrs. Nolan. The production moves to New York this fall after a successful workshop run this past May at The Art House in Provincetown, and will be produced again by Provincetown Counter Productions in association with Mark Cortale, running from Oct. 25th – Nov. 11th.
THE MEDIUM will be produced at The Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater at the West Side YMCA located at 10 West 64th Street between Broadway & Central Park West, New York, NY 10023.
For ticket information please visit http://themedium.brownpapertickets.com/ or call 800-838-3006.
THE MEDIUM was commissioned by Columbia University and first performed there on May 8, 1946. The Broadway production took place on May 1, 1947 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre with Marie Powers in the title role. The composer Gian Carlo Menotti is best known for his Christmas work Amahl and the Night Visitors, which was commissioned by NBC in 1951 and became the first opera written for television. With the help of filmmaker Alexander Hammid, Menotti made a film version of The Mediumin 1951 starring Anna Maria Alberghetti as Monica.
Jeffery Roberson aka Varla Jean Merman starred most recently Off-Broadway in the musical Lucky Guy opposite Leslie Jordan at the Little Schubert, prompting The New York Times to rave "If Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman had stood in front of the right pair of funhouse mirrors, they might have resembled Ms. Merman and Mr. Jordan in stature as well as comedic talent." He played the role of Mary Sunshine in the revival of Chicago on Broadway and also made his network television debut on All My Children. In 2010 Jeffery won an Elliot Norton Award for Best Musical Performance in The Phantom of the Oprah. He returned to Boston this past fall to star as Mother Superior in SpeakEasy Stage's production of The Divine Sister by Charles Busch. Jeffery recently completed shooting the feature films Varla Jean and the Mushroomheads and Girls Will Be Girls 2012. He guest starred as Varla Jean on Ugly Betty in the final season of the show and was also featured on Bravo's Project Runway Season 5 as the winning model for the show's drag challenge.
Donna Drake, director was in the original Broadway casts of A Chorus Line, Sophisticated Ladies, Woman of the Year, The Wind in the Willows, 5678-Dance, It's so nice to be Civilized and the original production of The 1940s Radio Hour. She has received an Emmy nomination for Dear Alex and Annie, 4 Drama Desk Nominations, A Mac Award Nomination and a Theatre World Award. She choreographed Catherine Zeta Jones for the American Film Institute Awards and also directed John Tartaglia's Imaginocean, which ran Off Broadway at New World Stages.
Provincetown Counter Productions is a non-profit theatre company and one of the few companies to provide year round, professional Theater Productions on Cape Cod. In the 'Off-season' of 2012, Counter Productions Artistic Director/Producer Susan Grilli mounted critically acclaimed productions of A Raisin in the Sun and the musical Passing Strange. 2013 productions include the Cape Premier of M. Butterfly. Mark Cortale is the Producing Artistic Director of The Art House in Provincetown. He is currently producing Seth Rudetsky's new reality series that can be seen at http://www.sethtv.com/. He also co-wrote and produced the show Well-Strung, which will also run at the Marjorie S. Deane Theatre this fall in tandem with as The Medium. Mark produced the feature film Varla Jean and the Mushroomheads, which played the 2012 festival circuit with a screening most recently at Frameline in San Francisco.
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