Darko Tresnjak Will Direct Premiere of Duncan Sheik & Kyle Jarrow's NOIR at Houston's Alley Theatre

The Tony® Award-winning Alley Theatre and Artistic Director Rob Melrose has just announced five productions as a part of the 74th season. Subscription renewals for the 2020-21 Alley Theatre season are on sale now. New subscriptions will be on sale May 18, 2020 at alleytheatre.org.

The Alley Theatre will present the world premiere of a sexy, mysterious musical entitled Noir with music by Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening), book by Kyle Jarrow (The SpongeBob Musical), and lyrics by both Sheik and Jarrow. Noir will be directed by Darko Tresnjak (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder) and is produced by special arrangement with Robert Cole, Mary Beth O'Connor, and Carl Moellenberg. Inspired by early radio plays and classic film noir, this new musical tells the story of a heartbroken man that never leaves his apartment, finding his only solace in the music on the radio. Then a couple moves in next door. Eavesdropping becomes his new entertainment-and his new obsession. Soon he finds himself drawn into a web of love, lies, deceit, and danger. Noir runs in the Hubbard Theatre from January 21 - February 21, 2021.

The popular ExxonMobil Summer Chills™ series is back to offer a cool escape from the summer heat with a nostalgic production of Clue, the ultimate whodunit that will leave you dying of laughter and keep you guessing until the final twist. It's a dark and stormy night, and you've been invited to a dinner party. Murder and blackmail are on the menu when six guests assemble at Boddy Manor for a night they'll never forget. Was it Mrs. Peacock in the study with the knife? Or Colonel Mustard in the library with the wrench? Clue, based on the classic Hasbro board game and cult 1985 screenplay by Jonathan Lynn, is written by Sandy Rustin with additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price. The play will be directed by Alley's Associate Producer & Casting Director, Brandon Weinbrenner and runs July 24 - September 6, 2020 in the Hubbard Theatre.

An Alley Theatre holiday tradition, A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens and adapted by Michael Wilson, will be directed by James Black and returns to the Hubbard Theatre from November 19 - December 30, 2020. This year celebrates the 30th anniversary since the premiere of Wilson's beloved adaptation of the Dickens classic.

After being a part of the Alley All New Reading Series in 2019, Born with Teeth by Liz Duffy Adams will have its world premiere in the Neuhaus Theatre and will be directed by Rob Melrose. An aging authoritarian ruler, a violent police state, a restless polarized people seething with paranoia: it's a dangerous time for poets. Two of them-the great Kit Marlowe and the up-and-comer Will Shakespeare-meet in the back room of a pub to collaborate on a history play cycle, navigate the perils of art under a totalitarian regime, and flirt like young men with everything to lose. One of them may well be the death of the other. Born with Teeth runs April 2 - May 2, 2021.

Ken Ludwig's Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery will be directed by Eleanor Holdridge and runs from March 12 - April 4, 2021 in the Hubbard Theatre. Ludwig (The Three Musketeers, Murder on the Orient Express) transforms Arthur Conan Doyle's classic The Hound of the Baskervilles into a murderously funny adventure. To find a killer, Holmes and Watson, our intrepid investigators, try to escape a dizzying web of deceit, silly accents, and disguises, as five actors portray more than 40 characters. The fun is elementary.

The 2020-21 season programming, the second season curated by Rob Melrose, will have a classic comedy, world premiere plays developed in our Alley All New Festival, a touching family tale, and a lineup of works highlighted by a diverse group of playwrights, directors, and designers. The full 2020-21 season will be announced in late March.

"I couldn't be more excited about our 2020-21 season. There's lots more news to come including an exciting number of world premieres," said Rob Melrose. "I'm thrilled to share the news about two of those premieres in this announcement: Noir and Born with Teeth. Duncan Sheik's Spring Awakening was the kind of musical I had been waiting for. It was so groundbreaking and I just love the music. As a lifelong film noir fan, I couldn't be more excited to premiere Duncan's latest musical, an innovative mixture of rock music and noir. I've collaborated with Born with Teeth playwright Liz Duffy Adams since we were graduate students at the Yale School of Drama together. We go way back. She has created an amazing thriller about Shakespeare and Marlowe that is also extremely funny."

"Our Summer Chills audience will be delighted with our offering of Clue. It is a fabulous play that will bring back memories of playing the board game with friends and family," Melrose continued. "With Noir, Born with Teeth, and Baskerville, I've made sure to put a lot of thrills in the subscription season to tempt our Summer Chills audience into joining us throughout the year. Alley audiences love Sherlock Holmes and Ken Ludwig has found an ingenious way of telling the story of the entire novel with only five actors. The new season is going to be a lot of fun."

The Alley Theatre, one of America's leading nonprofit theatres, is a nationally recognized performing arts company led by Artistic Director Rob Melrose and Managing Director Dean R. Gladden. The Alley produces up to 16 plays each year in its newly renovated Theatre, ranging from the best current work, to re-invigorated classic plays, to new plays by contemporary writers. The Alley is home to a resident company of actors. In addition, the Alley engages theatre artists of every discipline - actors, designers, composers, playwrights - who work on individual productions throughout each season as visiting artists.

The recent renovation of the Alley's Hubbard Theatre created a new 774-seat state-of-the-art performance venue. Matched with the newly rebuilt 296-seat Neuhaus Theatre, the Alley offers nearly 500 performances each season. The Company reaches over 200,000 people each year through its performance and education programs. Its audience enrichment programs include pre-show and post-performance talks, events, and workshops for audience members of all ages.