Coming Up This Week in Theatre - 10/28/2008

The Drowsy Chaperone - Seattle - 10/28/2008

The 5th Avenue Theatre announces its 2008-2009 season lineup bursting with seven enormously entertaining musicals, five of which are making their 5th Avenue debuts. Together they add up to an extra large seven-show season – for the price of just six shows.

THE DROWSY CHAPERONE October 28 - November 16, 2008

The first national tour of one of Broadway's biggest and most exhilarating recent hits, The Drowsy Chaperone, bursts onto the 5th Avenue stage in November. The surprise sensation of the 2006 Broadway season, The Drowsy Chaperone won five Tony Awards, including Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score. The action begins when the "Man in Chair" – a musical theater fanatic – places his favorite original cast album on the record player and a show magically springs to life in his living room. The audience is instantly immersed in the glamorous, hilarious tale of a celebrity bride and her uproarious wedding day.

For season ticket information, call 206-625-1900 (toll free 888-5TH-4TIX), stop by The 5th Avenue Theatre box office at 1308 5th Avenue in downtown Seattle, or visit www.5thavenue.org.

The 5th Avenue Theatre's 2008 – 2009 Season Showtimes: Tuesday & Wednesday at 7:30PM; Thursday & Friday at 8PM; Saturday at 2PM & 8PM; and Sunday at 1:30PM & 7PM.

Ken Russell Makes Stage Directorial Debut This Fall - 10/28/2008

This fall, Tony Award nominated actor Keith Carradine (The Will Rogers Follies, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, "Nashville," "Dexter") returns to the New York stage in the New York premiere of Anthony Horowitz's acclaimed thriller, MINDGAME. Ken Russell, the celebrated director of the films Tommy, Woman In Love and The Boyfriend, makes his New York stage directorial debut with MINDGAME. Produced by Monica Tidwell, Darren Lee Cole, and Michael Butler, MINDGAME begins performances at SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam Street) on October 28th and opens Sunday, November 9th.

When a writer of pulp crime novels gets an interview with a notorious serial killer he believes he has snared the coup of his  career. But when he arrives at the asylum, he finds nothing can be trusted, not even his own eyes. Through a series of lies, manipulations and memories, dark secrets are revealed.  Why is there a skeleton in the doctor's office? Where did the raw meat in the fridge come from? What is the nurse so afraid of? …and most importantly, how  does one get out?

In 2000, MINDGAME played London's West End at the Vaudeville Theatre following a successful 10-month engagement at Colchester's Mercury Theatre and a two-year tour of the UK.   Ken Russell's New York debut production of MINDGAME is an entirely new staging of Horowitz's play.

The cast of MINDGAME also includes Lee Godart (David Hare's Skylight at Actors' theatre of Louisville, "All My Children," "The Edge of Night," "Search for Tomorrow"). The scenic design is by Beowulf Boritt (….Spelling Bee, Lovemusik, Jay Johnson: The Two And Only).  Additional casting and design team will be announced soon.

"After reading Mindgame, I was convinced that I had to direct this play in New York," says Russell.  "Anthony has written a fascinating thriller with a new surprise every five minutes. I am delighted and honored to have this intriguing play as my off-Broadway debut."

"Mindgame is unlike anything I've done in the theater before," says Carradine. "Anthony Horowitz has written an utterly absorbing, unnerving and constantly surprising play. And I can't imagine a more perfect director for this piece than the legendary Ken Russell. This should be quite a ride!"

"I am thrilled that Mindgame will have its New York premiere with Ken Russell, a brilliant director whom I've always admired, at the helm," says Horowitz.  "It was my aim to write a play that would entertain and beguile and I'm confident this is going to be a production no one will forget."

MINDGAME begins performances October 28th at SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam Street). Opening night is Sunday, November 9th.  Via subway, take the C/E trains to Spring Street. Performances are Tuesday - Sundat at 8PM, with matinees on Sunday at 3PM and Sunday evening at 7PM.  Tickets are $64 - $74 and can be purchased 24 hours a day at www.sohoplayhouse.com or by calling The SoHo Theatre box office at (212) 691-1555 between noon and 8:30PM.

KEITH CARRADINE (Dr. Farquhar) is best known to New York theatre audiences for his Tony Award nominated performance as the title character in The Will Rogers Follies. He won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Foxfire with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, and most recently appeared as Lawrence in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Imperial Theater.  Recent television roles include Wild Bill Hickock in HBO's "Deadwood", FBI Special Agent Frank Lundy on Showtime's "Dexter" and Agent Carl McGowan in the new season of  CBS'  NUMB3RS.  Carradine appeared with brothers David and Robert as the Younger brothers in Walter Hill's film The Long Riders. He appeared again for Hill in Southern Comfort.  His first notable film appearance was in director Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller.  He went on to play Bowie in Altman's Thieves Like Us and one of the principal characters, callow, womanizing folk singer Tom Frank, in Altman's critically acclaimed movie Nashville. His song from that movie, "I'm Easy", was a top-ten Billboard hit and Carradine won an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Song for writing the tune.  He starred opposite Harvey Keitel in Ridley Scott's The Duellists. He has worked several times in the offbeat films of Altman's protégé Alan Rudolph, playing a disarmingly candid madman in Choose Me an incompetent petty criminal in Trouble in Mind and an American artist in 1920s Paris in The Moderns. He also had a cameo role as Will Rogers in Rudolph's Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. Carradine co-starred with Daryl Hannah as homicidal sociopath John Netherwood in the thriller The Tie That Binds.  Other notable works include Emperor of the North with Lee Marvin, Louis Malle's Pretty Baby, the CBS mini-series Chiefs,  and in the video for Madonna's single "Material Girl." He recently completed filming an as-yet untitled dark comedy with Hope Davis, Selma Blair and Dermot Mulroney, and Peacock with Cillian Murphy, Susan Sarandon and Ellen Paige.

LEE GODART (Mark Styler) starred as Tom Sergeant in the Actor's Theatre of Louisville's long running production of David Hare's masterpiece, Skylight. Other theatre credits include Nils Bohr in Michael Frayn's Copenhagen, King Henry in The Lion in Winter, Shannon in Night of the Iguana,  Cassio in Othello, Brutus in Julius Caesar, Antonio in The Merchant of Venice , Edward Chamberlayne in T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party, and two separate productions as Marc in Yasmine Reza's Art. Lee also played assorted scoundrels and villains in daytime television', like Elliot Dorn ("Edge of Night"), Kent Bogard ("All My Children") and Bela Garody ("Search for Tomorrow"). In Paris, he appeared on stage as Titus in Racine's Berenice, Max in Gabriel Arout's highly successful Oui and Athanase in Senecal's Athanase. On French television he starred as Gabriel in Gaston Leroux's "La Poupee Sanglante", guest starred as Etienne on "The New Avengers" and played the evil assassin, Endo Lascar in the French film The Consortium. Mr. Godart was last seen Off Broadway at Ubu Rep. in Albert Camus' The Misunderstanding as the ill-fated son, Jan, and can next be seen as Paul Gauguin in the upcoming feature film, The Eyes of Van Gogh.

ANTHONY HOROWITZ (Playwright) is best known as a screenwriter and novelist. Born in 1955 in North London, he was educated at Rugby School and York University and published his first novel when he was just 22. He created the hugely popular and BAFTA-award winning TV series, "Foyle's War", as well as "Midsomer Murders", "Murder in Mind", "Crime Traveller" and "Menace". His books for children include the Alex Rider series about a teenage secret agent which have sold ten million copies worldwide and topped the New York Times bestseller list. Titles include Stormbreaker which became a film in 2006, Point Blanc, Skeleton Key, Eagle Strike and Ark Angel which won the British Book Award for Children's Book of the Year. Further series are the Diamond Brothers mystery stories, and two collections of horror stories, originally pulished as Horowitz Horror and More Horowitz Horror which have now been reissued as Scared". His most recent books are Nightrise, the third in the Gatekeeper series, coming after Raven's Gate and Evil Star. Anthony Horowitz has also written a horror film, The Gathering, starring Christina Ricci. He lives in central London with his wife and two sons.

KEN RUSSELL (Director). Known as Britain's "enfant terrible" of cinema, the British filmmaker Ken Russell, is best known in the United States as director of such feature films as Women in Love (1969), The Music Lovers (1970), Tommy (1975), and Altered States (1980). Although his television work is less well known outside the United Kingdom, it has had a major impact on the development of the television genre of fictional history.  Other film credits include Amelia and the Angel (1957) Peep Show (1958), Lourdes (1958) French Dressing (1963) Billion Dollar Brain (1967), The Devils (1971), The Boy Friend (1971) The Savage Messiah (1972); Mahler (1974), Lisztomania (1975), Valentino (1977), Crimes of Passion (1984), Gothic (1986) Salomé's Last Dance (1988), The Lair of the White Worm (1988) The Rainbow (1989) and Whore (1991).  On stage, Russell has directed the operas The Rake's Progress (1982) Die Soldaten (1983) Madame Butterfly (1983), La Bohème (1984), Faust (1985) Princess Ida (1992) and Salomé (1993).  With Mindgame, Russell makes his New York stage debut.