'I Love You Because' with Stephanie D'Abruzzo to Premiere Off-Broadway January 2006

Jennifer Maloney, Fred M. Caruso and G Four Productions proudly present the world premiere of I LOVE YOU BECAUSE, a modern day musical love story, featuring book & lyrics by Ryan Cunningham, music by Joshua Salzman and direction by Daniel Kutner. I LOVE YOU BECAUSE stars Farah Alvin, David A. Austin, Tony Award nominee Stephanie D'Abruzzo (Avenue Q) and Colin Hanlon. Performances begin Off-Broadway at the Village Theatre (158 Bleecker Street, NYC) on Thursday, January 19, 2006. Opening Night is set for Tuesday, February 14 at 7 p.m.

Set in New York City, I LOVE YOU BECAUSE follows Austin Bennet (Colin Hanlon), a young greeting card writer whose life is turned upside down when he finds his long-term girlfriend in bed with another man. Forced back out into the treacherous New York dating scene, Austin meets Marcy Fitzwilliams (Farah Alvin), a flighty photographer whose spontaneity is matched only by her ability to drive him insane. This new musical comedy explores the 'rules' and nuances of dating and learning how to love someone, not in spite of their differences, but because of them. I LOVE YOU BECAUSE also stars Stephanie D'Abruzzo as Marcy's best friend Diana Bingley and David A. Austin as Austin's brother, Jeff Bennet.

A modern day musical re-telling of Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice with the genders reversed, I LOVE YOU BECAUSE features songs such as "Another Saturday Night in New York," "The Actuary Song," "Maybe We Just Made Love," "We're Just Friends," and the titular track, "I Love You Because."

I LOVE YOU BECAUSE features scenic design by Beowulf Boritt and Jo Winiarski and lighting design by Jeff Croiter. Additional members of the design team will be announced.

I LOVE YOU BECAUSE was originally developed at NYU's Musical Theatre Writing program. It received its first staged reading in July 2005 at The East 13th Street Theatre. It was also one of eight official selections at the 17th Annual Festival of New Musicals industry reading event, presented by the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, September 2005 at Dodger Stages.

PERFORMANCE VENUE & TICKET INFORMATION

The Village Theatre is located in the NYC's West Village (158 Bleecker Street), between Thompson and Sullivan Streets.

Subway Directions: A, B, C, D, E, F, Q to West 4th Street station. Walk south on 6th Avenue to Bleecker Street, then head east to the theatre.

Tickets for I LOVE YOU BECAUSE go on sale Monday, November 28 and are $20-$65. Tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster.com at 212-307-4100, or in-person at the Village Theatre box office beginning December 12. The performance schedule will be announced soon. For more information, visit, www.ILoveYouBecauseTheMusical.com.

CAST BIOGRAPHIES

Farah Alvin (Marcy Fitzwilliams). Broadway: the revival of Nine, The Look of Love, Saturday Night Fever, Grease! (also first national), A Christmas Carol. Other New York: Jewish Rep's Kuni Leml and William Finn's Infinite Joy at Joe's Pub. Farah can be heard on many records including Varese Sarabande's Burt Bacharach Album. Her solo album, Someday blends the sounds of folk, jazz, pop and blues.

David A. Austin (Jeff Bennet). Roles include Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, Freddie in Chess, Marvin in Falsettos, Pippin in Pippin and Shawn in the international tour of The Wedding Banquet. David has toured extensively as well as performing at the 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle Children's Theatre and The Village Theatre in Seattle. Celebrating his first year in New York City, David is a proud member of the BMI Lehman Musical Theatre Writer's Workshop as a composer/lyricist. His award-winning musicals have been produced nationally and internationally and he is currently under commission with the Village Theatre.

Stephanie D'Abruzzo (Diana Bingley) made her Broadway debut as Kate Monster/Lucy T. Slut in Avenue Q (Tony nomination, Theatre World Award, Outer Critics Circle Special Ensemble Award). Off-Broadway: Avenue Q (Drama Desk nomination). Also: Skitch Henderson's New Faces of 2004 at Carnegie Hall, Carnival (Encores!), Encores! 10th Anniversary Bash, Chess (Actors' Fund). She has performed nearly 200 characters for TV/film, including "Sesame Street" (11 seasons), "Oobi" (Uma, Inka), "Sheep in the Big City," "Book of Pooh," "Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss," the feature Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, commercials, promos, more. Played Kate and Lucy since Avenue Q's first reading (2000).

Colin Hanlon (Austin Bennet). Broadway: Rent. George Street Playhouse: The Last Five Years; tick, tick…BOOM! Previously: Fredric, The Pirates of Penzance (Lucille Lortel nominated production). Regional: Syracuse Stage and Prince Music Theatre. Workshops: Wicked, Taboo and Fanny Hill. BFA, Syracuse University.

CREATIVE TEAM BIOGRAPHIES

Ryan Cunningham (Book & Lyrics). A native of Needham MA, Ryan Cunningham earned his BA in Theatre and Graphic Design at the University of Notre Dame. While there, he wrote the musical romantic comedy Chance at Love with Composer Thomas Curtin. Chance at Love received a production at Notre Dame and went on to tour 17 cities in July 2001. Ryan attended the Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU Tisch and earned his MFA. During that time he wrote I Love You Because with composer Joshua Salzman. Ryan has most recently assistant directed The Cosmic Calamities of Henry Noodle for the New York Fringe Festival, and Love According to Luc under director Stephen Tomac. Ryan and Joshua are working on their second piece, a musical adaptation of the book of Esther, Queen Esther, commissioned by The Kaufman Center for the Performing Arts. Ryan is currently in his second year at the BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop.

Joshua Salzman (Music) recently received the ASCAP Foundation Frederick Loewe Award for musical theatre composition. His musical Beowulf, written with lyricist Ariel S. Winter, debuted as a concert reading in April 2001 on Princeton University's Stage. I Love You Because, written with Ryan Cunningham, was his graduate thesis musical at NYU. Joshua holds an MFA from Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and music degrees in composition and music education from Muhlenberg and Moravian Colleges. He has served in the music departments of Wicked and All Shook Up as a music department production assistant, and is currently on faculty at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy as a musical director / pianist. Joshua is a composer in BMI's musical theatre workshop.

Daniel Kutner (Director) is currently assistant director to Broadway legend, Hal Prince, having just completed a workshop of a new Kurt Weill musical with an original book by Alfred Uhry entitled Lovemusik. He had the pleasure of directing the first staged reading of I Love You Because at the East 13th Street Theater and subsequently at the National Alliance of Musical Theater at Dodger Stages this past September. Dan is a Temple University graduate and a Philadelphia native where he served as the Inaugural Directing Fellow at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, assisting directors Mary B. Robinson, Anna D. Shapiro, David Warren and Pam MacKinnon. Several seasons ago, Dan was the Robert Moss Directing Resident at Playwrights Horizons where he served as assistant director to Richard Nelson on the world premiere musical My Life with Albertine (starring Brent Carver), and to John Benjamin Hickey on Teresa Rebeck's world premiere Bad Dates. Directing credits include: My Life with Albertine (Guggenheim, Works & Process) as well as new works by playwrights Brian Dykstra and Bruce Walsh, among others.

Jennifer Maloney (Producer) is a producer on two upcoming Broadway productions, Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life and Secret Order. Jennifer spends her days as the Coordinating Producer of the Emmy Award-winning producing team at "As the World Turns," where they won the 2001 and 2003 Emmy Award for Best Drama Series. Jennifer is the associate producer on the upcoming film Lonely Street starring Jay Mohr. With her film partner Scott Prisand, Jennifer is in development for following films: Harlem, The Vast Minority and The Tension Ring. Jennifer is the Artistic Director and founding member of The (646) Theatre Company. Jennifer sits on the Board of The Worldwide Children's Foundation and is a member of the Director's Guild of America, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and New York Women in Film and Television.

Fred M. Caruso (Producer). Fred is the producer and general manager of the Drama Desk nominated Off-Broadway musical Newsical from the 2004-2005 season. He has also produced the Denver production as well as the regional tour which began in August at the Provincetown Theatre. He is the producer and general manager of One Way Ticket to Hell, scheduled to open in Los Angeles in 2006. He has been working in professionally in all aspects of the theatre for 24 years. He began producing theatre when he was fourteen years old, and opened the first Equity theatre in Hollywood, FL when he was sixteen. He was the youngest producing artistic director of an Equity theatre company. The first show he produced in NYC was the Off-Broadway production of Bitter and Jaded at 25, which he starred in and also wrote the book, music and lyrics. He is the president of the general management company, Fred M. Caruso Productions, Inc. and is a graduate of the Commercial Theater Institute.

G Four Productions (Producer). Sandra and Kenneth Greenblatt, and Kathi and Alan Glist hold the corners of G-Four Productions. Rounded out by Taryn Glist and Seth Greenleaf, they began producing in 1981 with Nine The Musical, which won them the 1982 Tony Award for Best Musical. Among their favorite productions are My One and Only; Zorba The Greek with Anthony Quinn; Baby; The Rink; Grand Hotel; Big; True West; Catskills On Broadway; I Love You're Perfect Now Change; Men; Perfect Harmony - The Barry Sisters' Story and both the original and revival of La Cage Aux Folles which won them the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1983 and the Tony Award for Best Revival in 2004. Their combined shows have been nominated for seventy-two Tony Awards winning thirty. Thirty-eight Drama Desk Awards winning twenty-two, and ten Outer Critic Awards winning nine. With all that history, they have never been more excited about a show then they are about Ring of Fire. They currently have Menopause The Musical performing in 14 cities between its U.S. and international productions.