Kazee Steps In For Borle For Playwrights Horizons' Krakowski Led MRS. SHARP Readings

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) today announced a principal cast change for the private readings of MRS. SHARP, a new musical (Winner of the Richard Rodgers Award for Staged Readings, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters) with Book by Kirsten Guenther and Music & Lyrics by Jonathan Larson Grant recipient Ryan Scott Oliver. Directed by three-time Tony Award nominee and Playwrights Horizons alumnus Michael Greif (Grey Gardens, Next to Normal, Rent), the four invitation-only readings will take place over two days on Thursday, July 30 and Friday, July 31 at Playwrights Horizons (416 West 42nd Street).

Steve Kazee (Broadway's 110 in the Shade, Spamalot, To Be or Not To Be) has stepped in to replace the previously-announced Christian Borle, who has had to withdraw due to a movie shoot conflict.

Kazee joins Tony Award winner and 2009 Emmy Award nominee Jane Krakowski (Nine, "30 Rock," additional Tony nomination for Grand Hotel) in a twelve-member cast that will also feature Curt Hansen, Kyle Harris, Jeff Hiller, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Marla Mindelle, Amina Robinson, Preston Sadleir, Ali Stroker, Sam Tedaldi and Alex Wyse. Dominick Amendum will serve as Music Director.

Playwrights Horizons is presenting the readings with support from The Richard Rodgers Foundation. The readings are invitation-only and closed to the press and the public.

Based on the 1991 teacher-student sex scandal and murder trial surrounding Pamela Smart, MRS. SHARP tells the story of a woman who "wants you to become more." Having written an unsuccessful self-help series entitled Invent Yourself: Five Words to Live By, 31-year old Kimberly Sharp (Jane Krakowski) is encouraged by her husband (Steve Kazee) to take a job teaching at the local high school. Kimberly sets out to change the lives of her students, absorbing them into her web of fantastical delusions and private affairs. But when her husband discovers she's gone just a bit too far, Kimberly realizes there's only one thing that can be done about him. Someone goes to jail, someone becomes a beloved self-help guru and someone gets shot in the head - but everyone learns a lesson from Mrs. Sharp.

MRS. SHARP was originally conceived at the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at New York University in 2007 as Alive at Ten, where it was presented as a staged reading and selected to participate in the ASCAP/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop in Manhattan. Later that year, Stephen Schwartz, who leads the panel of musical theater writers, chose the musical to receive a workshop at Carnegie Mellon University in association with ASCAP and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. In February

2008, the show was awarded the Richard Rodgers Award for Staged Readings, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, selected by a jury lead by Stephen Sondheim, Lynn Ahrens, John Guare, Sheldon Harnick, Richard Maltby Jr. and John Weidman, and in March of that year was granted a complete cast recording by the Clive Davis Dept. of Recorded Music.

Playwrights Horizons is supported in part by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate. In addition, Playwrights Horizons receives major support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, Charina Endowment Fund, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Shubert Foundation and Time Warner Inc. www.playwrightshorizons.org 

Kirsten Guenther (Book) appeared on the cover of Insight for Playwrights and was named one of "50 writers to watch" by The Dramatist. She wrote the book for Mrs. Sharp and Out of My Head (Looking Glass Theatre, Audience Choice Award). She wrote book and lyrics for Little Miss Fix-It (CAP 21), Soon Never (Directors' Lab Workshop, Lincoln Center) and The Birthday Present. Her lyrics have been heard on the hit YouTube series The Battery's Down and in TADA's Everything About A Family (Almost) Off-Broadway. She has been a guest speaker at Harvard and Yale Universities and is the recipient of a Lincoln Center Director's Lab Honorarium, Dramatist Guild Fellowship and Marge Goldwater Scholarship. Kirsten lived and worked in Paris where she wrote for USA Today and authored the Parisian weekly column, "The Sexy Expat." She is currently developing a new musical with Joy Son based on her columns. BFA Acting, USC; MFA Musical Theatre Writing, NYU (Tisch), a proud member of ASCAP.

Ryan Scott Oliver (Music & Lyrics) is a 2009 Jonathan Larson Grant recipient and wrote the music and lyrics for Mrs. Sharp, Darling (Pace New Musicals 2009), the song cycle Out of My Head and Quit India for UCLA. Exclusively as a composer, he wrote the music for Angus Oblong's The Debbies and as a lyricist he contributed the words for the one-act musical Circle Nine. His work has also been heard on the hit YouTube TV show The Battery's Down and in showcases presented by The York Theatre, Goodspeed Musicals, William Finn & Barrington Stages, New York Theatre Barn, Monday Nights New Voices and the Festival of New American Musicals in Los Angeles. He is a Dramatists Guild Fellow and the recipient of numerous awards including the first-ever ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award for Excellence in Lyric Writing, the John Denver New Composers Award. B.A. Music Composition, UCLA; M.F.A. Musical Theatre Writing, NYU-Tisch, a proud member of ASCAP. www.ryanscottoliver.com

Michael Greif (Director) previously worked at Playwrights Horizons on Grey Gardens (Tony nomination) and Spatter Pattern. He recently earned a Tony nomination for directing the current Broadway hit Next to Normal, and also directed the original Second Stage and Arena Stage productions. Recent work includes The Three Sisters (Williamstown) and Romeo and Juliet (NYSF at the Delacorte). Additional Broadway credits include Rent (Tony nomination) and Never Gonna Dance. Off-Broadway: Landscape of the Body, A Few Stout Individuals (Signature); Satellites, f-ing A, Dogeaters (Obie), Marisol, Pericles, Casanova, A Bright Room Called Day, Machinal (Obie) at NYSF; Boys' Life, Spike Heels (Second Stage); A Very Common Procedure, The Distance From Here (MCC); Marmalade (Roundabout); and Beauty of the Father (MTC). At New York Theatre Workshop (Artistic Associate), he directed Cavedweller; Bright Lights, Big City; and the original production of Rent (Obie). Favorite regional productions include The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Street Scene, Tonight at 8:30, Once in a Lifetime (Williamstown); and Our Town, Sweet Bird of Youth, Boy, Randy Newman's Faust, Slavs and Thérèse Raquin at La Jolla, where he was artistic director (1995-99).

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.