Keen Company Announces Revised Versions of Sondheim's MARRY ME A LITTLE, Gurney's THE OLD BOY for Upcoming Season

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company (Jonathan Silverstein, Artistic Director/Damon Chua, Executive Director) today announced that their 2012 - '13 season will begin with their first musical - Marry Me A Little, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, conceived by Craig Lucas and Norman René, directed by Keen Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein. It will be followed by a newly revised version of the 1991 play, The Old Boy by A.R. Gurney.

Weaving together several unknown Sondheim songs, Marry Me a Little tells the charming and bittersweet tale of love, loneliness and survival of the modern single. Two single strangers, left alone in their studio apartments on a Saturday night, pass their time with sweetly secret, shared fantasies, never knowing that they're just a floor away from each other and the end of their lonely dreams. This production will contain material from Sondheim's catalogue that will be heard for the first time as part of this production. In addition, the musical features "Saturday Night," "So Many People," "A Moment With You" (from Saturday Night), "Bang!," "Silly People" (cut from A Little Night Music), "Can That Boy Foxtrot!," "All Things Bright and Beautiful," "Uptown, Downtown," "It Wasn't Meant to Happen," "Little White House," "Who Could Be Blue?" (cut from Follies), "The Girls of Summer" (from The Girls of Summer), "Your Eyes Are Blue" (cut from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), "Marry Me A Little," "Happily Ever After" (cut from Company), and "There Won't Be Trumpets" (cut from Anyone Can Whistle).

Performances for this limited Off-Broadway engagement of Marry Me A Little at The Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues) will begin September 11th and continue through October 21st only, with opening night set for October 2nd. Cast and designers will be announced shortly.

Keen's spring show, The Old Boy, also directed by Jonathan Silverstein, will begin performances February 12th. Chosen by Time Magazine as one of the "10 Best Plays of 1991," The Old Boy is a powerful and moving play about a man facing the demons of his past while wrestling with his conscience and the WASP-y "old boy" network which has served him so well. In the story, a successful politician returns to his elite New England prep school to dedicate a building to the memory of his best friend. Past and present collide as he must make a public and surprising decision. "As powerful as anything this playwright has written… there is no denying the sharpness of his wit and his increasing mastery of his craft," said Frank Rich in The New York Times.The Hollywood Reporter added "a beautifully structured, fleshed out drama that reminds us what compassion and morals are all about." Cast and designers will be announced.

"I am so very excited to be producing and directing works by two of America's living landmarks for my inaugural season at Keen. Both pieces represent Keen's ongoing effort to illuminate the human condition through compassion and humor. I am thrilled to broaden the repertoire Keen produces to include this wonderful musical. Mr. Sondheim is most certainly an artist who excels at examining the human heart in all its complexity. Craig Lucas and Norman René did an inspiring job assembling some of Mr. Sondheim's most surprising work into a moving tale of loneliness, love and hope. I am equally delighted to again be working with A.R. Gurney. I had the privilege of directing The Dining Room for Keen several years ago. It was a magical experience which earned my cast a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble. The Old Boy continues my own interest in the stories of outsiders trying to find their place in the world. I am also honored and excited to work with Mr. Gurney on his newly revised version of this beautiful play (or, as Mr. Gurney described it, 'a favorite but somewhat neglected child')," said Keen Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein.

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