The Gallery Players Announce Their 44th Season

Brooklyn's The Gallery Players is proud to announce the lineup for its 44th season in addition to two Innovative Theatre Award nominations from its 43rd. The Gallery Players' productions of the new musical Top of the Heap and the first New York City revival of Caroline, or Change each received a nomination for Outstanding Production of a Musical. This marks the fourth consecutive season The New York Innovative Theatre Awards has recognized The Gallery Players, who have received the honor of Outstanding Production of a Musical for the past three seasons. The awards will be announced at the New York Innovative Theatre Awards Ceremony this September.

The Gallery Players continues its mission of bringing Broadway to Brooklyn in the 2010 - 2011 season, presenting: What The Butler Saw, Reefer Madness, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Drowsy Chaperone, August Wilson's Jitney, Oliver! and The 14th Annual Black Box New Play Festival.

The Gallery Players opens its 44th Season this September with What The Butler Saw. Joe Orton's hilarious farce is a wild melee of disappearances, disguises and discoveries as a husband and wife try to hide their secret lives from a state inspector and from one another. What The Butler Saw was hailed as, "Hilarious, outrageous...wonderfully verbal" by The New York Times. What the Butler Saw runs September 11-26, 2010.

Inspired by the original 1936 film of the same name, Reefer Madness is a raucous musical comedy that takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the hysteria caused when clean-cut kids fall prey to marijuana, leading them on a hysterical downward spiral filled with evil jazz music, sex and violence. With a Book by Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney, Music by Dan Studney and Lyrics by Kevin Murphy, this campy romp has been called, "The funniest thing to come down the pike -- or the pipe -- in a while" by Backstage, and The New York Daily News exclaimed, "deliberately outlandish and silly. And that's what makes it so good!" The Gallery Players' production of Reefer Madness runs October 23-November 14, 2010.

Travel to Ireland this December with The Gallery Players' revival of the 1992 Tony Award Winner for Best Play, Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa. This extraordinary play is the story of five unmarried sisters eking out their lives in a small village in Ireland in 1936. The play is told through the memory of the illegitimate son of one of the sisters as he remembers the five women who raised him, his mother and four maiden aunts. Friel's haunting and beautiful masterpiece was called, "The most elegant and rueful memory play since The Glass Menagerie," by The New York Times. The Gallery Players will present Dancing at Lughnasa December 4 - 19, 2010.

The Gallery Players kicks off 2011 with The Drowsy Chaperone running January 29-February 20, 2011. A die-hard musical-theater fan plays his favorite cast album on his turntable, and the musical literally bursts to life in his living room, telling the rambunctious tale of a brazen Broadway starlet trying to find, and keep, her true love. Featuring Music and Lyrics by Lisa Morrison & Greg Lambert and a Book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar, The Drowsy Chaperone is a wildly entertaining tribute to jazz-age musicals. The Drowsy Chaperone is the Winner of the 2006 Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Score.

Called, "Comic, soulful and immensely moving," by Time Out, August Wilson's Jitney is a beautiful addition to the author's decade-by-decade cycle of plays about the black American experience in the twentieth century. August Wilson's seminal work comes to The Gallery Players March 19 - April 3, 2011.

Based on the Dickens novel, Oliver! is a classic Broadway musical with all the engaging and memorable characters you expect from the novelist coupled with Lionel Bart's captivating and unforgettable musical score. The 1963 three-time Tony Award winning classic comes to The Gallery Players April 30 - May 22, 2011.

The Gallery Players, producers of the new musicals Yank! (slated for a Broadway run; 2008 NYIT Award, Outstanding Production of a Musical) and Like You Like It (2009 NYIT Award, Outstanding Production of a Musical) continues its commitment to developing new work through The 14th Annual Black Box New Play Festival. Nat Cassidy's The Reckoning of Kit & Little Boots (produced by The Gallery Players in association with Engine37) premiered in The 11th Annual Black Box New Play Festival and received the 2009 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Full-Length Script. The 14th Annual Black Box New Play Festival runs June 2 - 26th, 2011.

Tickets to all shows at The Gallery Players are just $18 for adults, $14 for Seniors & Children 12 and under. Season Subscriptions start at just $110. Individual tickets and subscriptions can be purchased by calling TheaterMania at (212) 352-3101, or online at www.galleryplayers.com. The Gallery Players is located at 199 14th St., between 4th and 5th Aves. in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Take the F Train to 4th Ave. or the R Train to 9th Street. By car: BQE to Hamilton Avenue to 14th Street.

Now celebrating its fifth season, The New York Innovative Theatre Foundation was created to bring recognition to the great work being done in New York City's Off-Off-Broadway, to honor its artistic heritage, and to provide a meeting ground for this extensive community. The organization advocates for Off-Off-Broadway and recognizes the unique and essential role it plays in contributing to American and global culture. At the end of the theatre season, a high-profile awards ceremony celebrates this entire community while honoring some of the most extraordinary work of the year. www.nyitawards.com

A New York institution since 1967, The Gallery Players has served actors and audiences alike for more than 4 decades by showcasing burgeoning new talent and offering a home base for theater professionals. Its eclectic programming of intimate revivals and ambitious new work in inventive productions has earned it the reputation of "New York's Best Kept Secret." The Gallery Players is the recipient of the Off-Off Broadway Review's 2000 Award for Lifetime Achievement and was the recipient of New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical in 2007, 2008 & 2009 for their productions of Urinetown! the musical,Yank! A New Musical, and Like You Like It. Among its famous alumni are founding member Harvey Fierstein; Broadway regulars Nancy Anderson, Jeffry Denman and Diedre Goodwin; New York theater personality Seth Rudetsky and many others.

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