Suzanne Froix & Richard Pryor, Jr. to Lead Beautiful Soup's SHADES OF BLUE, 8/27-9/13

As previously announced, Beautiful Soup's critically acclaimed production of Little Wars returns for an extended engagement at The Dorothy Strelsin Theatre. The play will run in repertory with a workshop of McCasland's latest play, Shades Of Blue: The Decline and Fall of Lady Day.

In Shades Of Blue: The Decline and Fall Of Lady Day, McCasland takes a searing look at the final years of Billie Holiday's life. The intermission-less memory play chronicles Lady Day's sordid history of sexual, alcohol and drug abuse. Gardenias rarely survive the winter. Join Lady Day as she prepares to take her final bow.

Opposite Shades of Blue is the return of the acclaimed and sold-out Little Wars. Inspired by one of the literary world's most famous scandals, McCasland's Little Wars was deemed "fascinating", "powerful", "outstanding", "heartbreaking" and "magical" by New York critics in its April workshop.

Nearly 40 years before claiming to be the real Julia, Muriel Gardiner meets Hellman in France, 1939. The smartest women on earth are having the what-if dinner party you always imagined. Authors Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas have invited playwright Lillian Hellman, satirist Dorothy Parker, novelist Agatha Christie and one mysterious woman named Mary to their country home. Tensions are high. The booze is flowing. War is coming. Together they'll drink, scoff and face their demons. Someone has a secret. All of them have confessions.

The limited engagement of both plays will begin on August 27th and run through September 13th, 2014. Beautiful Soup is best known for reviving lost or oft-forgotten works, but occasionally presents workshops of new plays and musicals.

Tickets for Shades Of Blue ($18) and Little Wars ($20-25) will go on sale to the public on June 1st at http://beautifulsoup.showclix.com. The Dorothy Strelsin Theatre is located at 312 West 36th Street on the second floor.

For more information on Beautiful Soup Theater, visit www.beautifulsouptheatercollective.org.