'CHASING MEM'RIES' World Premiere, Starring Tyne Daly, Opens Tonight at the Geffen

The World Premiere of Chasing Mem'ries: A Different Kind of Musical, starring Tony and Emmy Award winner Tyne Daly and featuring new and original songs by award-winning lyricists Alan & Marilyn Bergman, plays an extended run at the Gil Cates Theater at The Geffen Playhouse through Sunday, December 17, 2017. Opening night is tonight, November 15.

Written and directed by Josh Ravetch (Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking), Chasing Mem'ries stars Daly as Victoria, a woman not quite ready to let go of the life she has loved and the love of her life, Academy Award-nominee Robert Forster (Jackie Brown) as her husband Franklin, and Scott Kradolfer as their son Mason.

"A violinist once said she only got to play a Stradivarius a few times in her life and she knew she would never be quite as good without it. With Tyne, Robert and Scott, and the songs of Alan and Marilyn Bergman, in this play I get to play a Stradivarius," said Ravetch. "It is a joy to be able to keep the music playing at The Geffen Playhouse a little bit longer."

The play features 12 songs - five of them new - by legendary Grammy, Emmy and Academy Award-winning lyricists Alan & Marilyn Bergman ("The Way We Were," "The Windmills of Your Mind," "Papa, Can You Hear Me?"), with music by Bill Cantos & Mari Falcone, Dave Grusin, Marvin Hamlisch, Michel Legrand and Johnny Mandel.

On the production team are Scenic Designer Tony Fanning, Costume Designer Kate Bergh, Lighting Designer Daniel Ionazzi, Sound Designer Jonathan A. Burke, Music Director/Orchestrator Thomas Griep, Dramaturg Amy Levinson, Production Stage Manager Jill Gold, and Assistant Stage Manager Cate Cundiff.

Chasing Mem'ries: A Different Kind of Musical is a recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Major support for this world premiere production is provided by the Edgerton Foundation New Play Production Fund.

Tickets are currently priced at $32.00 - $90.00. Available in person at The Geffen Playhouse box office, by phone at 310.208.5454 or online at www.geffenplayhouse.org. Fees may apply.

The run of Chasing Mem'ries: A Different Kind of Musical will feature the Geffen's popular Talk Back Tuesdays, which give theater lovers a chance for a deeper conversation to discuss plot, character themes and other questions directly with the artists in a post-show Q&A from the stage. Dates: November 21, November 28, December 5, 2017.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Josh Ravetch (Playwright, Director)

Josh Ravetch is returning to The Geffen Playhouse where he co-created and directed Carrie Fisher's one-woman show Wishful Drinking, which went on to enjoy a successful Broadway run. Ravetch also wrote and directed The Astronomer with Shirley Jones (Pasadena Playhouse); One November Yankee with Loretta Swit and Harry Hamlin; Onward: The Diana Nyad Story chronicling Nyad's Cuba-to-Florida swim; Beacon with Robert Forster and Brooke Shields; Go Figure!, starring Olympic champion Randy Gardner with Tai Babilonia and Dorothy Hamill and a workshop production of Writer's Cramp with Holland Taylor and Douglas Sills (Geffen Playhouse). His other plays include Periscope Up directed by Jonathan Frakes; Girders (Coast Playhouse); The Lightbulb (NoHo Arts Center) and One From the Hart, Stefanie Powers' one-woman show (Segerstrom Center for the Arts). Ravetch directed productions of The Seagull, The Big Knife, A Prayer for my Daughter and Deathtrap. His television credits include Joan of Arcadia, Titan for TNT, Horseshoe Bay for Warner Bros. and Yesterday for Laura Ziskin Productions. Ravetch, a graduate of the Stella Adler Conservatory in Manhattan, took over Ms. Adler's signature script-interpretation classes which he taught before assuming the post as artistic director.

Alan & Marilyn Bergman (Lyricists)

Legendary lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman have won three Academy Awards, four Emmy Awards and two Grammy Awards. Their songs include "The Way We Were," "The Windmills of Your Mind," "Papa, Can You Hear Me?," "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?," "Nice 'n' Easy," "That Face," "It Might Be You," "The Summer Knows," "Where Do You Start?" and "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" Their television work includes the musical Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, which was later adapted for the Broadway stage, and the theme songs for Maude, Good Times, Alice, Brooklyn Bridge and In the Heat of the Night. The Bergmans are the recipients of numerous academic honors and lifetime achievement awards, including induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and its Johnny Mercer Award, the Clooney Foundation Singers Salute to the Songwriter Award, the Songwriters Guild Aggie Award, the National Academy of Songwriters Lifetime Achievement Award and the first Johnny Mercer Award by the Johnny Mercer Foundation. Marilyn served 15 years as President and Chairman of the Board of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Alan serves on the boards of the Johnny Mercer Foundation, the Jazz Bakery and on the Executive Committee of the Music Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Tyne Daly (Victoria)

Ms. Daly is the mother of three adult children: Alisabeth, Kathryne and Alyxandra, and grandmother of four: Hana, Fynn, Poppy and Posy, with another "on the way." She has been a professional actress for more than 50 years. She has appeared in Los Angeles at Mark Taper Forum, Actor's Theatre Los Angeles, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Matrix Theatre and Geffen Playhouse, and has been honored with the Ovation Award. Her extensive television work earned 17 nominations and six Emmy Awards (Cagney & Lacey, Christie, Judging Amy). She most recently completed The Ballad of Buster Scruggs for the Coen Brothers on Netflix. Theatrical films include Zoot Suit, The Enforcer, Hello, My Name is Doris, Spider-Man: Homecoming and the soon to be released Basmati Blues and A Bread Factory I and II. Broadway: It Shoulda Been You (Tony Award nomination), Mothers and Sons, Master Class, Rabbit Hole (Tony Award nomination) and Gypsy (Tony Award).

Robert Forster (Franklin)

Robert's roots in the theater date back to his Broadway debut in the 1965 two-hander, Mrs. Dally Has a Lover with Arlene Francis. He has worked on and off Broadway and on tour in classics such as A Streetcar Named Desire, Twelve Angry Men, THE GLASS MENAGERIE, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, as well as in The Pasadena Playhouse production of In the Moonlight Eddie. (None of them musicals.) Forster has appeared in more than 100 films including Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), Medium Cool ('68), The Stalking Moon, Alligator, The Descendants, Mulholland Drive and his Academy Award-nominated role of Max Cherry in Jackie Brown. (None of them musicals.) Television series include Banyon, Twin Peaks, Last Man Standing, Heroes, Karen Sisco and Breaking Bad. (Same - no musicals.) He claims to have subjected numerous directors and producers to singing auditions - "one more disastrous than the last!" He therefore thanks Josh Ravetch for reminding him that Rex Harrison spoke-sang his songs. He thanks Tyne Daly for her encouragement and for doing the heavy lifting. He thanks Scott Kradolfer for the many times they have shared a stage. And it comes as quite a surprise this late in the game that Robert will have his musical debut.

Scott Kradolfer (Mason)

Scott Kradolfer is honored to be making his Geffen Playhouse debut in Chasing Mem'ries. Notable stage credits include Firefly Theater's Unscreened series, Tom Stoppard's On the Razzle, Amadeus, Light Sensitive, The Real Inspector Hound, One November Yankee and The Astronomer with Shirley Jones. His screen credits include House and General Hospital and the films Boost, Long Night's Reprieve and 10:49. Often found gesticulating wildly while recording voice-overs, his best roles to date have been husband to his beautiful wife Amy and resident bedtime storyteller to their children Ella and Dutch.

Geffen Playhouse has been a hub of the Los Angeles theater scene since opening its doors in 1995. Noted for its intimacy and celebrated for its world-renowned mix of classic and contemporary plays, provocative new works and second productions, the not-for-profit organization continues to present a body of work that has garnered national recognition. Named in honor of entertainment mogul and philanthropist David Geffen, who made the initial donation to the theater, the company was founded by Gilbert Cates and is currently helmed by Executive Director Gil Cates, Jr., Artistic Director Matt Shakman and Board ChairA. Howard Tenenbaum. Proudly associated with UCLA, the Geffen welcomes an audience of more than 130,000 each year, and maintains extensive education and community engagement programs, designed to involve underserved young people and the community at large in the arts. Visit www.geffenplayhouse.org for more.