TRANSPORT GROUP PRESENTS
QUEEN OF THE MIST
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TRANSPORT
GROUP TO PRESENT
WORLD
PREMIERE OF
QUEEN
OF THE MIST
A MUSICAL
BY MICHAEL JOHN LACHIUSA
DIRECTED
BY JACK CUMMINGS III
BEGINNING
PERFORMANCES TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18
OPENING
SCHEDULED FOR SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6
AT THE
GYM AT JUDSON MEMORIAL CHURCH
Transport
Group, the Drama Desk and OBIE award-winning theatre company, has announced
that the world premiere of Queen of the Mist, words and music by
five-time Tony Award nominee Michael John LaChiusa, directed by four-time Drama
Desk Award nominee Jack Cummings III, will begin performances Tuesday, October
18, at 8pm, at The Gym at Judson Memorial Church, 243 Thompson
Street at Washington Square South. The opening
is scheduled for Sunday, November 6, at 8pm.
Based on an astounding, outrageous, and haunting
true story, Queen of the Mist stars two-time Tony nominee Mary Testa as Anna Edson Taylor, who, in 1901 at
the age of 63, set out to be the first woman to shoot Niagara Falls—in a
barrel of her own design. Navigating
both the treacherous Falls and a fickle public with a ravenous appetite for
sensationalism, this unconventional heroine vies for her legacy in a world
clamoring with swindling managers, assassins, revolutionaries, moralizing
family, anarchists, and activists. Convinced that there is greatness in her and determined not to live as
ordinary, she sets out to battle her fear and tempt her fate. With a score that incorporates turn of
the century themes with signature LaChiusa elements, Queen of the Mist is the story of a single great fall, and how one woman risked death so that she
could live.
Queen of the Mist continues the long collaboration between Transport
Group and Mr. LaChiusa, which includes the critically acclaimed Drama Desk
Award-nominated productions of First Lady Suite and Hello
Again.
Queen
of the Mist is the inaugural production of Transport Group's 20th Century Project, a
ten-year initiative spanning ten productions, each production focusing on a
different decade of the 20th century. The ten productions comprise five
musicals and five plays—including three commissioned musicals, two
commissioned plays, and five revivals. Queen of the Mist focuses on the decade 1900-1910.
The
cast of Queen
of the Mist is D.C. Anderson (The Phantom of the
Opera, The Life
Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby); Stanley Bahorek (See Rock City & Other Destinations, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee); Theresa McCarthy (Titanic, Floyd Collins); Julia Murney (Wicked, The Wild Party, First Lady Suite); Andrew Samonsky (South Pacific, Tales of the
City); Tally Sessions (The House of
Blue Leaves, Yank!); and Mary
Testa (On The Town, Marie Chrtistine, Xanadu, 42nd Street).
Michael John LaChiusa’s most recent work
includes the music and lyrics to Giant,
(book by Sybille Pearson); Los Otros,
(book by Ellen Fitzhugh); and the score for Maria Aitken’s production of As You Like It at the Shakespeare
Theatre, Washington, D.C. As a
composer, lyricist and librettist, his other works include Bernarda Alba, See What I
Wanna See, The Highest Yellow, Little Fish, Hello Again, First Lady Suite,
and Break/Agnes/Eulogy for Mister Hamm. Mr. LaChiusa was represented on
Broadway during the 1999-2000 season by The
Wild Party and Marie Christine,
receiving nominations for Best Score and Best Book (with George C. Wolfe on The Wild Party) for each show and he
received a Tony nomination for Best Book (Graciela Daniele and Jim Lewis) for Chronicle of a Death Foretold. His operas include Send (who are you? I love you) which premiered at the Houston Grand
Opera, and Lovers and Friends (Chautauqua
Variations) which premiered at the Lyric Opera of Chicago where he was the
Brena and Lee Freeman Composer-in- Residence. Mr. LaChiusa is an Obie Award winner (Hello Again and First Lady
Suite) and the recipient of the Gilman-Gonzalez- Falla Musical Theatre
Award. He has provided scores for
the children’s television show on Nick Jr, The
Wonder Pets, for which he received two Emmy Awards. He is currently on the faculty of New
York University.
Queen of the Mist has choreography by Scott Rink (Hello
Again, Crossing Brooklyn);
musical direction by Chris Fenwick (See
What I Wanna See); orchestrations by Michael Starobin (Hello Again, Falsettos, Sunday in the Park With George, two-time
Tony winner for Next To Normal and Assassins).
The scenic design for Queen
of the Mist is by Sandra Goldmark (Hello Again, Drama Desk nominee for The Boys in the Band); costume design is by Kathryn Rohe (The Boys in the Band, Hello Again); lighting design is by R.
Lee Kennedy (three-time Drama Desk nominee: The
Audience, Bury The Dead, and See Rock City & Other Destinations);
sound design is by Walter Trarbach (The
Farnsworth Invention, Cymbeline).
The production manager is Charles Hubbard;
production stage manager is
Wendy Patten; casting is by Nora Brennan
Casting; dramaturg is
Kristina Corcoran Williams; associate director
is Gregg Wiggans.
Queen
of the Mist was commissioned by Transport Group Theatre
Company and is made possible through major support from The Shen Family
Foundation.
Founded
in 2001, Transport Group, under the leadership of Jack Cummings III, Artistic
Director, and Lori Fineman, Executive Director, is a not-for-profit theatre
company that stages new works and re-imagined revivals by American
writers. Their visually progressive
productions of emotionally classic stories explore the challenges of
relationships and identity in America. Transport Group is the winner of a special Drama Desk Award for its
“breadth of vision and its presentation of challenging productions.”
Transport Group presented its premiere production in 2002: Thornton
Wilder’s Our Town, which featured older actors in the roles of Emily and
George and a twelve-year-old girl as the Stage Manager. Its second
production, Requiem for William, an evening of seven seldom produced
plays by William Inge, that featured a cast of 26 as well as original songs,
premiered in 2003. In 2004 the company presented the first New York
revival of Michael John LaChiusa’s First Lady Suite, which received rave
reviews, played to sold-out houses, and earned two Drama Desk Award nominations
including Outstanding Revival of a Musical. Other productions include the
world premiere of the musical The Audience, which featured a cast of 46
actors and earned three Drama Desk Award nominations, including Outstanding Musical; Normal, a new musical about a mother’s battle to save her daughter from
anorexia; cul-de-sac, a new play by Tony Award nominee John Cariani; the
first New York revival of Tad Mosel’s Pulitzer Prize play, All the Way Home;
the 50th anniversary, OBIE-winning production of William Inge’s The Dark at
the Top of the Stairs; the world premiere musicals Crossing Brooklyn, Marcy in the Galaxy, and Being Audrey, and the first New York
revival of Irwin Shaw’s Bury the Dead. Both First Lady Suite and Bury the Dead were filmed for the New York Performing Arts Library’s
Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at Lincoln Center. In 2010 Transport
Group presented a sold-out, extended engagement of Mart Crowley’s The Boys
in the Band, which received an OBIE Award and was nominated for five 2010
Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Revival of a Play—the most for
an off-Broadway play. Transport Group’s productions of See Rock City
and Other Destinations by Brad Alexander and Adam Mathias, and Hello
Again by Michael John LaChiusa combined for eleven 2011 Drama Desk Award
nominations and one win. Transport Group’s production of Lysistrata
Jones, by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn, opened to rave reviews,
played to sell-out houses, and transfers to Broadway’s Walter
Kerr Theatre on November 12. The
company most recently completed a critically acclaimed run of The Patsy and Jonas at The Duke on 42nd Street, starring OBIE winner
David Greenspan. For more information about Transport
Group visit www.transportgroup.org.
The Gym at Judson is a new workout space for the
arts in the heart of Greenwich Village. A creative home for both established companies and emerging artists
alike, The Gym presents an eclectic mix of new plays and musicals, classics,
experimental work, dance, cabaret and music. Occupying the site of a full-size gymnasium with 20-foot
ceilings, The Gym is a fully-equipped, multi-use theater, with flexible seating
for up to 200. The Gym draws on
Judson's rich legacy, dating back to the 1960s, of presenting challenging,
groundbreaking work, often in the face of attempts to censor artists. Its inaugural offering, Transport
Group’s production of Lysistrata Jones opens on Broadway this fall. For
more information, visit the Judson website: www.judson.org or contact Nick
Gottlieb at thegym@judson.org.
Queen of the Mist plays Tuesday through Sunday at 8pm, with a Saturday matinee at 2pm, at The Gym
at Judson Memorial Church, 243 Thompson Street at Washington Square South. There is a Sunday matinee on October 23
at 3pm; the evening performance on Saturday, October 29—a gala
fundraiser—is at 7:30pm. The
playing schedule for the week of November 8 is Tuesday, Thursday through
Saturday at 9pm; Wednesday and Sunday at 8pm; with a Saturday matinee at 4pm. General admission tickets start at $58;
premium reserved seating tickets start at $65; opening night tickets are $65;
gala fundraiser tickets are $95. For tickets and information, visit
www.transportgroup.org or phone 866-811-4111.
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