James Joyce News

Platform Theatre Group (Greg Tully, Producer) will present the New York revival of Lee Blessing's Two Rooms, directed by Peter Flynn, for a limited Off-Broadway engagement at the Lion Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street), beginning October 2nd. Opening Night is set for Tuesday, October 7th (7 PM).

New York Musical Theater Festival will present the World Premiere of THE ROAD TO RUIN. This new musical comedy is based on the 1928 silent movie of the same name, a cult favorite on par with Reefer Madness and Cocaine Fiends. With book, music and lyrics by William Zeffiro, the production is directed by Mary Catherine Burke with choreography by Sea Sullivan and music direction by David Cladwell. Performances begin September 18 at The 45th Street Theater.

Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, September 17 at 10:00 AM, Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) will be accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to its next production, the World Premiere of KINDNESS, a new play written and directed by Adam Rapp (Essential Self-Defense at Playwrights Horizons, Red Light Winter). A total of 40 tickets will be available via the online lottery.

Golden Globe winner and Emmy Award nominee Dylan McDermott has joined the cast of Playwrights Horizon's first production of the new season, the World Premiere of THREE CHANGES, a new play by Nicky Silver. Directed by Tony Award nominee Wilson Milam (The Lieutenant of Inishmore), the production will begin previews on Friday, August 22, 2008 with an Opening Night set for Tuesday, September 16. The limited engagement will run through Sunday, September 28 at Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

Golden Globe winner and Emmy Award nominee Dylan McDermott has joined the cast of Playwrights Horizon's first production of the new season, the World Premiere of THREE CHANGES, a new play by Nicky Silver. Directed by Tony Award nominee Wilson Milam (The Lieutenant of Inishmore), the production will begin previews on Friday, August 22, 2008 with an Opening Night set for Tuesday, September 16. The limited engagement will run through Sunday, September 28 at Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

Submissions are now being accepted by The Living Room for Artists for the sixth annual Summer Play Festival (SPF), which will be presented at The Public Theater in New York City for a second year, July 7 through August 2, 2009.

Producers of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, The New Musical announce that Obie Award-winner and Rochester, NY native Donna Lynne Champlin (Sweeney Todd, Hollywood Arms, By Jeeves) will play the role of Jane Austen in the Broadway-bound musical's one-night-only performance event at Rochester's historic Eastman Theatre on Tuesday, October 21. Champlin joins previously-cast Colin Donnell (Jersey Boys, Follies) as Mr. Darcy.

Anna Livia, Lucky in Her Bridges, by David Brendan Hopes and directed by Kevin Mayes, is a world premiere Irish ghost story about fear, hope, and love. It is Dublin on the first Bloomsday, June 16, 1904. Ellen is about to lose her beau, James Joyce, to a lump of a girl from Galway. Her brother Des is following his heart towards forbidden love. Barry, their young brother, wants to join the resistance. And a stranger from America seeks illicit companionship under the dark bridges of the Liffey. Anna Livia, Lucky in Her Bridges is a chronicle of the endurance of love, and the ways in which God himself will intervene if the passion is deep enough, strange enough, and tenacious even beyond death.

Tony Award nominee Emily Skinner, last seen on Signature's stage in the critically acclaimed production of The Witches of Eastwick, is featured in the new musical adventure Ace. On Thursday, September 4th, 2008 she will participate in Signature Theater's free event 'Thursday Brown Bag Lunch'. The first Thursday of the month patron can sit down for a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Signature productions. 'Enjoy your lunch while you engage in an informal discussion with some of the artists our their 2008-2009 season,' says the theater's website.

From the award-winning imagination of 2007 Kleban Award recipient and theatre scribe Jeremy Desmon, Man of the People: The Only-Recently Discovered Secret Political Recordings of Acting Mayor Francis 'Woody' Woodson is a weekly, audio-only web series. Akin to comedic serials 'Prairie Home Companion' or Joss Whedon's 'Dr. Horrible,' Man of the People echoes radio plays of the past, while providing an up-to-the-minute, satirical take on the 2008 election through the guise of a heated mayoral race in the fictional hamlet of Daltonville (pop.. 1799)

New York Musical Theater Festival will present the World Premiere of THE ROAD TO RUIN.

The fourth year of the acclaimed series, 'Monday Nights, New Voices,' will continue on August 18th with special guest host Donna Lynn Champlin, who recently stared in John Doyle's Broadway revival of Sweeny Todd.

Tony Award nominee Emily Skinner, last seen on Signature's stage in the critically acclaimed production of The Witches of Eastwick, is featured in the new musical adventure Ace. On Thursday, September 4th, 2008 she will participate in Signature Theater's free event 'Thursday Brown Bag Lunch'. The first Thursday of the month patron can sit down for a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Signature productions. 'Enjoy your lunch while you engage in an informal discussion with some of the artists our their 2008-2009 season,' says the theater's website.

Wednesday, August 13 at 10AM, Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) will be accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to its next production, the World Premiere of THREE CHANGES, a new play by Nicky Silver (Fit to Be Tied at Playwrights Horizons, The Food Chain, Pterodactyls, Raised in Captivity).

Philadelphia's Obie Award winning Pig Iron Theatre Company returns to the Ohio Theater with the New York Premiere of CHEKHOV LIZARDBRAIN, a surreal comedy loosely inspired by Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters and the 'Three Brain' theory of Paul D. MacLean.

The fourth year of the acclaimed series, 'Monday Nights, New Voices,' will continue on August 18th with special guest host Donna Lynn Champlin, who recently stared in John Doyle's Broadway revival of Sweeny Todd.

New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), co-founded and directed by pianists Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, who 'reinvented the song recital during the 1990's with daring and dramatic programming' (The New Yorker), announces its 21st season (2008-2009).

Producer Robert Greenblatt announced today that 9 To 5: The Musical, based on the 20th Century Fox motion picture, will begin previews on Broadway Tuesday, March 24, 2009, and will open Thursday, April 23, 2009, at the Marriott Marquis Theatre (1535 Broadway). 9 To 5: The Musical marks the Broadway debut of seven-time Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter and musician Dolly Parton as composer and lyricist. The musical's book by Patricia Resnick is based on her original story and screenplay for the smash 1980 film comedy.

Scott Cohen (Drunk Enough To Say I Love You at The Public, Losing Louie on Broadway, tv's Gilmore Girls + The Return of Jezebel James) has joined the cast of season opener THREE CHANGES by Nicky Silver. This completes casting for the first show of the season, which starts previews August 22 and also features Dylan McDermott and Maura Tierney.