Following the success of the acclaimed premiere of Taylor Mac's THE WALK ACROSS AMERICAN FOR MOTHER EARTH last season, La MaMa in association with the Obie Award-winning theatre company The Talking Band will present Sidney Goldfarb's play HOT LUNCH APOSTLES at the Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 E. 4 St.), with preview performances starting Thursday, March 1 prior to an official press opening set for Thursday, March 8.
Directed by The Talking Band's artistic director Paul Zimet, the cast of HOT LUNCH APOSTLES features the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter, actor and humorist Loudon Wainwright, longtime Talking Band members Jack Wetherall ("Queer as Folk") and Will Badgett, Talking Band founding members Ellen Maddow and Tina Shepard, along with NicHi Douglas and Ed RosenBerg.
The Ellen Stewart Theatre will transformed into a fairground -- game booths, food stands and sideshows under a big tent -- for HOT LUNCH APOSTLES, a raucous, provocative mash up of sex and religion that follows a traveling troupe of carnival strippers who resort to performing Bible stories in order to survive in a climate of religious fervor and economic desperation in America.
First presented by La MaMa and The Talking Band in 1983 and revived now for the first time, HOT LUNCH APOSTLES was somewhat prophetic 29 years ago as it imagined a 21st-century America with 50 million unemployed and people hungry for any job.
Written by Sidney Goldfarb and directed by Paul Zimet, HOT LUNCH APOSTLES has music by Ellen Maddow and Harry Mann, set design by Nic Ularu, light design by Lenore Doxsee, and costumes by Kiki Smith and Jill St. Coeur.
A playwright and poet, Sidney Goldfarb has written numerous plays including THE TRANSPOSED HEADS (with Julie Taymor), PEDRO PARAMO, BIG MOUTH, ORANGE GROVE and BAD WOMEN. He founded the Creative Writing Program at University of Colorado in 1975.
Paul Zimet directed the world-premiere of Taylor Mac's THE WALK ACROSS AMERICA FOR MOTHER EARTH for The Talking Band. He has written and directed Talking Band's productions of NEW ISLANDS ARCHIPELAGO, IMMINENCE, BELIZE, THE PARROT, STAR MESSENGERS, PARTY TIME, BLACK MILK QUARTET and NEW CITIES. He directed Part 1 of Taylor Mac's LILY'S REVENGE at HERE Arts Center. He also wrote Shadow Passports and Bone Room, episodes 2 and 8 of The Talking Band's serial mystery drama, THE NECKLACE. He received a 2003 Village Voice OBIE award for his direction of The Talking Band production of PAINTED SNAKE IN A PAINTED CHAIR by Ellen Maddow. He has also won three OBIE awards for his work with the Open Theater and the Winter Project, both directed by Joseph Chaikin.
Loudon Wainwright is best known for his singular career in music, and as the father of Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche, and husband of the late folk singer Kate McGarrigle. Since his debut album in 1970, he has recorded two dozen albums. The albums "I'm Alright" and "More Love Songs" were each nominated for Grammy Awards, and his album "High Wide & Handsome" won the 2010 Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album. A regular on M*A*S*H, Wainwright's film and TV credits include "The Aviator," "Big Fish," "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year Old Virgin."
