Joy Opens Off Broadway August 14th at Actors' Playhouse

Producers Sean Mackey, Eva Price and Ben Rimalower are pleased to present the Off- Broadway premiere of JOY, a romantic comedy by John Fisher, opening Sunday, August 14, 2005 (7:30 p.m.) at The Actors' Playhouse (100 Seventh Ave. South) in Greenwich Village. Directed by Ben Rimalower (Snoopy, The Musical), JOY begins preview performances on Sunday, July 31 (3 p.m.).

Direct from its sold-out New York engagement earlier this year, JOY is the new romantic comedy that follows a group of college friends as they fall in and out of love in San Francisco over the course of a year.

While working to complete his controversial doctoral dissertation, Paul, an aspiring writer (and stubbornly offbeat historian) meets Gabriel, an irresistibly sweet (and still-closeted) undergrad with a disarming smile and a refreshingly romantic sensibility.

As Paul and Gabriel grow closer, they realize the importance of balancing each other's social viewpoints and maintaining their own individuality, all while managing their friends'expectations and the wild electricity generated between Kegan and Elsa, a passionate pair of budding lesbians.

With heartbreak, humor, ancient ethics, Cole Porter, a few good martinis and some really bad modern dance, JOY is the story of seven friends discovering their own unique love of life, each other and themselves in the magical City by the Bay.

JOY stars Ken Barnett (Wonderful Town) as Corey, Michael Busillo (Texas Homos) as Darryl, Ben Curtis (known commercially as "The Dell Dude") as Christian, January LaVoy (Steven Spielberg's The War of the Worlds) as Kegan, Brooke Sunny Moriber (The Wild Party) as Elsa, Christopher Sloan (Cabaret, nat'l tour) as Gabriel and Paul Whitthorne (The Normal Heart) as Paul.

With choreography by James DeForte (The Women Upstairs) and musical direction by Mark Hartman (Avenue Q), JOY features set design by Wilson Chin (Say You Love Satan), costume design by David Kaley (Newsical), lighting design by Ben Stanton (Light Raise the Roof) and sound design by Zach Williamson (Bedbound).

Formerly titled The Joy of Gay Sex, JOY was originally presented at U.C. Berkeley in 1994, prior to a six-month commercial run in San Francisco. Last winter, an earlier incarnation of JOY – directed by Ben Rimalower and featuring Ben Curtis and Christopher Sloan – played a sold-out limited engagement at NYC's Producers' Club, February 2-20, 2005.

The performance schedule for JOY is as follows:

Monday 8 p.m.
Tuesday DARK
Wednesday 8 p.m.
Thursday 8 p.m.
Friday 8 p.m.
Saturday 5 p.m. * and 9 p.m.
Sunday 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Tickets for JOY are $65* each and can be purchased via Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200 beginning Friday, July 8.