Kirshenbaum's 'Vanities' Find Bway Fall 2008; Ivey Directs

Vanities, a new musical by Jack Heifner, with music and lyrics by David Kirshenbaum, directed by two-time Tony Award-winner Judith Ivey, will open on Broadway in the Fall of 2008.

Vanities will be produced on Broadway by Junkyard Dog Productions and Bartner/Jenkins.  Casting and a theatre will be announced at a later date.

Based on the smash hit 1976 comedy that ran for 1,785 performances Off-Broadway, "Vanities chronicles the comic journey of three bubbly Texas teens from cheerleaders to sorority sisters to housewives, liberated women and beyond.  This coming-of-age tale set in the '60s and '70s is a musical scrapbook of an era that had to be lived to be believed. Vanities offers a snapshot-sharp portrait of the lives, loves, disappointments, and dreams of best friends caught up in rapidly changing times," explain press notes.

Vanities, a new musical, was originally produced at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto in the summer of 2006 with Megan Hilty and Leslie Kritzer; and showcased at the 2006 National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) Festival of New Musicals.

Jack Heifner (Book) is best known for the comedy Vanities, which ran for five years in New York and became one of the longest-running plays in Off-Broadway history.  He is also the author of Earth to Bucky, Patio/Porch, Natural Disasters, Running On Empty, Bargains, Jumping for Joy, Boy's Play, Home Fires, Heartbreak, Comfort and Joy, The Lemon Cookie, Dwarf Tossing, Key West, Seduction, and other plays produced in New York, Los Angeles and theatres around the country.  Mr. Heifner has written the book to six musicals, including Leader of the Pack on Broadway.  He has also written for television and film.  Vanities remains one of the best-selling scripts and most-produced plays from the latter half of the 20th century.

David Kirshenbaum (Music and Lyrics) is the composer-lyricist for Party Come Here which was performed at the Williamstown Theatre Festival this past summer.  Other shows include Summer of '42 (book by Hunter Foster) and Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus (book by Myles McDonnell).  Current/upcoming projects include:  Sing Me a Happy Song, a new revue (in collaboration with songwriter Georgia Stitt), and an original musical he is writing with Joe DiPietro.  David has received grants from the Jonathan Larson Foundation, as well as a writer's residency at Goodspeed Musicals through the National Alliance for Musical Theatre.

Judith Ivey (Director) is the recipient of the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award for her portrayals in Steaming and Hurlyburly, the Obie Award for her performance in The Moonshot Tape, among countless other awards for her stage and film work. Most recently she was honored with the Texas Medal of Arts for Theatre. Some film credits include Devil's Advocate, Washington Square, Mystery, Alaska, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Love Hurts, Compromising Positions, What Alice Found, and Flags of Our Fathers. Judith starred in four television series, the most memorable being Designing Women.  Some television film credits include The Long Hot Summer, What the Deaf Man Heard, Rose Red and Half a Dozen Babies.  Ms. Ivey's most recent directing credit is The Butcher of Baraboo at Second Stage Uptown Series. Prior to that she directed Fugue at the Cherry Lane Theatre.  In the same season, Judith also directed Southern Comforts at Primary Stages in NYC. She directed Bad Dates both at the Northlight Theatre in Chicago, and  the Laguna Playhouse, the acclaimed Steel Magnolias at the Alley Theatre, and More at the off-Broadway Union Square Theatre, and the Falcon Theatre in Los Angeles. Other directing credits include Two for the Seesaw at the Westport Playhouse, The Go-For-It Guy at the Aspen Comedy Festival, and Soccer Moms at Fleetwood Stage. She also has been touring the U.S. in the one-woman show, Irene O'Garden's Women On Fire.

Photo: Judith Ivey