TheatreWorks to Present WHEELHOUSE, 6/6/7-1

TheatreWorks presents its 60th World Premiere, the GrooveLily musical WHEELHOUSE. The pop-rock trio GrooveLily, creators of the popular TheatreWorks/Off-Broadway hit Striking 12, stars in this irresistible autobiographical musical about traveling tunesmiths in desperate need of a tune-up as they rocket across the country in a worn-out Winnebago.

WHEELHOUSE will be helmed by Obie Award-winning director Lisa Peterson and plays June 6 – July 1, 2012 at TheatreWorks at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. For information or to order tickets ($19-$69) call (650) 463-1960 or visit theatreworks.org.

Workshopped at TheatreWorks’ New Works Festival, WHEELHOUSE chronicles the misadventures of GrooveLily’s rubber-to-the-road tour with unbridled humor and an infectious rock’n’roll soundtrack performed live on stage. Uninspired by countless nine-to-five days and wanting to kick start their creative lives, three part-time musicians sell their possessions, buy a beat-up RV, and embark on a musical odyssey across the country. Part concert, part hero’s journey, WHEELHOUSE explores how much friendship can withstand in the face of repeated engine meltdowns, too many hash brown dinners, and several bumps along the road.

TheatreWorks has long enjoyed collaborations with GrooveLily, Valerie Vigoda, Brendan Milburn, and Gene Lewin, beginning with Striking 12 in 2003. The show went on to successful runs Off-Broadway and across the country, and returned to TheatreWorks in 2010 for a sold-out run. TheatreWorks also partnered with Vigoda and Milburn to bring a concert of Sleeping Beauty Wakes in 2010 and the world premiere of their work, Long Story Short, to the Bay Area in December 2008, where it was lauded by critics and audiences alike. At TheatreWorks’ 2009 New Works Festival, local crowds got a sneak peek at the group’s latest work with Joe DiPietro, Ernest Shackleton Loves Me, a fever dream musical in which exhausted but talented video game score composer Kat hallucinates that the famed Arctic explorer is phoning her from beyond time. The band also tours extensively and has contributed songs for the latest installment in Disney’s Tinker Bell films, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure.

Valerie Vigoda (electric violin, vocals) has toured the world with Cyndi Lauper, Joe Jackson, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and has opened for Tina Turner and Cher. An honors graduate of Princeton University and a former Army lieutenant, Vigoda founded GrooveLily (originally The Valerie Vigoda Band) in 1994, and has seen the band release nine critically acclaimed albums. Brendan Milburn (keyboards, vocals), received his MFA in musical theatre from NYU's Musical Theatre Writing Program but was instead drawn into a rock band. His road time with GrooveLily has proven to be a way back into writing musicals. Gene Lewin (drums, vocals), earned a Master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music, tours regularly with Audra McDonald, and has appeared on album recordings with George Coleman, John Patitucci, and many others.

Director Lisa Peterson has done extensive work on new plays and classics in theaters across the country. In New York, her work has been seen at NYTW, Vineyard Theatre, The Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Primary Stages, MCC, Women’s Project, Ma-Yi Theatre, Playwrights Horizons and the Young Playwrights Festival. Regionally, she has worked at Mark Taper Forum (where she was Resident Director for ten years), La Jolla Playhouse (where she was Associate Director for three years), Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Guthrie Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Dallas Theater Center, Baltimore Center Stage, Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, and Huntington Theatre. She has developed plays at New Dramatists, Playwrights’ Center, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, and Sundance Theater LaB. Peterson is the recipient of an Obie Award, numerous Drama-Logue Awards, a Callaway nomination, a Drama Desk nomination, and an NEA/TCG grant.

With some 100,000 patrons per year, TheatreWorks has captured a national reputation for artistic innovation and integrity, often presenting Bay Area theatregoers with their first look at acclaimed musicals, comedies, and dramas, directed by award-winning local and guest directors, and performed by professional actors cast locally and from across the country. A home for artists developing new works, it was at TheatreWorks that Memphis, the 2010 Tony Award-winning musical now in its third year on Broadway and currently on its first U.S. tour, was first workshopped and received its world premiere.

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