Richard Hillman Public Relations
The Color Purple
Paper Mill Playhouse
September 26 - October 21, 2018
Paper Mill Playhouse launches the 2018-2019 season with The Color Purple, directed by Tony Award winner John Doyle. The Color Purple is a Tony Award-winning revival based upon the novel written by Alice Walker and the Warner Bros./Amblin Entertainment motion picture with a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray. Cast members from the 2015 Broadway revival lead the Paper Mill Playhouse company, including Adrianna Hicks (Aladdin, Sister Act - Germany) as Celie, Carla R. Stewart (Ghost - National Tour, Rent - Regional) as Shug Avery and Carrie Compere (Holler If You Hear Me, Shrek the Musical - National Tour) as Sofia.
They will be joined by Gavin Gregory (The Color Purple, The Gershwins' Porgy & Bess) as Mister, N'Jameh Camara (X: Or, Betty Shabazz v. The Nation) as Nettie, Jay Donnell (Miss Saigon) as Harpo, along with Darnell Abraham, Amar Atkins, Kyle E. Baird, Angela Birchett, Erica Durham, Bianca Horn, Jamal James, Mekhai Lee, Gabrielle Reid, C.E. Smith, Will T. Travis, Nyla Watson, J.D. Webster, Brit West and Nikisha Williams.
The Color Purple, the Tony Award-winning revival that thrilled Broadway audiences is coming to Paper Mill, where director John Doyle will remount his visionary production. This unforgettable and moving musical based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and Academy Award-nominated film features a soul-raising, Grammy-winning score infused with jazz, gospel, ragtime, and blues. The Color Purple, with a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray, is a stirring family chronicle about the power of love and life. This show contains adult themes.
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That Chemistry Show
at The Playroom Theater
in rep with That Physics Show
A candle that moves water, a paper cup that won't burn, a firefly without fire. An atomic flash, weaponized sugar, a hydrogen bomb. Genie in a bottle, secret writing, elephant toothpaste...Yes! All these and more comprise That Chemistry Show, 80 minutes of incredible exploration led by long-time "mad scientist" Borislaw Bilash. Get ready for amazement and lots of laughter as Borislaw combines the world of chemistry and the world of show business. Your own world will never be boring again!
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That Physics Show
at The Playroom Theatre
in rep with That Chemistry Show
Based on the hundreds of physics experiments that are presented at physics conferences and in classrooms across the country, That Physics Show features segments on motion, momentum, vacuum, friction, energy, density, fluid motion, sound waves and sound vibration, light waves, temperature and many more from the world in which we live - a world controlled by physics. You've never seen anything like this before!
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The Emperor's Nightingale
at the Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row
November 25 - December 16, 2019
The Emperor’s Nightingale by Damon Chua, directed by Chongren Fan, is a family-friendly adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s story “The Nightingale,” set in 18th century China, and brings to light the youthful exploits of the future Emperor Qianlong. This TYA production emphasizes the importance of leadership guided by a moral compass, through the story about two rival teen brothers competing for the throne. The play employs traditional Chinese lion dance, puppetry, and a pair of tigers and pandas to tell this fun, thrilling tale.
The creative design team consists of two veteran Pan Asian Rep designers: Set by You-Shin Chen (Acquittal), Lights by Leslie Smith (Acquittal, No-No Boy), and two Pan Asian Rep newcomers: Costumes by Karen Boyer (Romulus the Great), Sound by Joseph Wolfslau (Romulus the Great). The Stage Management team is Kristine Schlachter and Sabrina Morabito.
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That Inventions Show
at The Playroom Theatre
in rep with That Chemistry Show and That Physics Show
presented in association with “The Museum of Interesting Things” and its founder Denny Daniel, traces the history of inventions from 1850 to the present and includes hands-on demonstrations of the first sound recordings, early projections and film, steam engines, telephones, ingenious toys and a multitude of other electric, electronic and mechanical inventions that have led to our current world.
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Press Release
Premieres' Inner Voices 2018
at The TBG Mainstage Theatre (312 West 36th Street)
October 22 – November 17, 2018
Premiers, the New York based music theater organization whose mission is “to bring new music theater to light, presents Inner Voices 2018 the a biennial series of solo works featuring new teams of playwrights and composers. Teams of playwrights and composers who have not worked together before are commissioned by Premieres to create an original monologue and a tapestry of the sung and spoken word. Each character they create is fictional and the storytelling from a single point of view.
The 2018 biennial series of three dramatic and intimate one-act solo musicals for INNER VOICES is:
Scaffolding, with words and music by Tony© Award nominee Jeff Blumenkrantz. Broadway veteran and Tony© Award nominee Rebecca Luker (Cinderella) stars in this musical that finds a single mom’s relationship with her brilliant only child tested when he interviews for the college of his choice. Directed by Tony© Award winner Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza), with music direction by Benji Goldsmith.
The Costume, with words and music by Daniel Zaitchik. Newcomer Finn Douglas (School of Rock) stars in this musical that finds 10-year old Leo on Halloween 1954 given the unexpected task of caring for an injured bird overnight. Directed by Noah Himmelstein, with music direction by Deborah Abramson.
Window Treatment, with words by Deborah Zoe Laufer and music by Daniel Green. Broadway’s Farah Alvin (It Shoulda Been You) is set to star in this musical that finds a lonely New Yorker planning her future with a stranger across the courtyard. Directed by Portia Krieger, with music direction by Paul Masse.
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Press Release
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Peter and the Starcatcher
at Argyle Theatre in Babylon, NY
September 13 – October 21, 2018
Long Island’s newest theatrical venue The Argyle Theatre (Evan Pappas, Artistic Director) presents the Tony Award-winning hit Broadway play Peter and the Starcatcher written by Rick Elice, based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, with music by Wayne Baker at The Argyle Theatre (34 West Main Street, Babylon, Long Island).
Under the direction of Amanda Connors, with music direction by Andrew Bourgoin, the 12-member cast will feature Raji Ahsan as Black Stache, Spencer Bang as Boy/Peter Pan, and Katrina Michaels as Molly Aster, with Amara James Aja, Nickolaus Colõn, Diego Guevara, Zack Kononov, Alex Michell, Toby Miller, Jordon Plutzer, Eric Schell, and Phillip Taratula.
Peter and the Starcatcher is a delightful play with music that tells the story of how a miserable orphan in England would eventually become Peter Pan—the beloved “Boy Who Would Not Grow Up.” Based on the children’s book by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Peter and the Starcatcher features 12 actors who play a dizzying variety of characters—sailors, pirates, British naval officers, Mollusk natives and orphans in addition to 18 major roles.
This coming-of-age adventure tale begins when Peter and his mates are kidnapped and shipped off from Victorian England to a distant island ruled by evil King Zarboff. They have no idea that a trunk in the captain’s cabin contains otherworldly cargo. Then they meet precocious, young Molly, a starcatcher-in-training who realizes the trunk contains starstuff, a powerful substance that should never fall into the wrong hands. The situation gets worse when pirates, led by infamous Black Stache, take over the ship and are determined to claim the trunk. The sea journey becomes a swashbuckling thrill-a-minute adventure for the young and young-at-heart.
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Current Productions
Midnight at The Never Get
York Theatre Company at Saint Peter’s
October 2 – November 4, 2018
The York Theatre Company presents the Off-Broadway premiere of the acclaimed new musical Midnight at The Never Get, with book, music, and lyrics by Mark Sonnenblick, co-conceived by Sam Bolen, by arrangement with Visceral Entertainment and Mark Cortale Productions. Directed by Max Friedman, with choreography by Andrew Palermo, and music direction/arrangements by Adam Podd, the cast features Sam Bolen, Jeremy Cohen, and Jon J. Peterson.
A brand new musical by York NEO writer and 2018 Jonathan Larson Award winner Mark Sonnenblick, Midnight at The Never Get tells the story of singer Trevor Copeland and songwriter Arthur Brightman, who have the perfect New York romance. That’s swell. In 1965, it’s also against the law. So, in the back room of The Never Get, an illegal Greenwich Village gay bar, they put together a show called Midnight—a nightclub act where Trevor sings Arthur’s love songs with their male pronouns intact. But as the lovers hurtle toward the end of the decade, they find themselves caught in a passion they can’t control and a political revolution they don’t understand. Featuring a seductive score inspired by the Great American Songbook, Midnight at The Never Get is a sultry meditation on identity, memory, and enduring romance.
After an initial developmental run at Don’t Tell Mama, Midnight at The Never Get was produced in a sold-out run in the 2016 New York Musical Festival and received a 2017 Bistro Award for “Book Musical,” and a 2017 MAC Award nomination for “Show of the Year,” followed in 2017 by a critically-acclaimed six-week engagement in Provincetown, Massachusetts, with The Never Get created as a fully immersive club venue.
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