LYSISTRATA JONES Headed to Broadway?

Michael Riedel reports in today's New York Post that the Off-Broadway hit musical LYSISTRATA JONES, which closes on Friday at the Judson Memorial Church is hoping to move to Broadway (with a search led by General Manager Alan Wasser) in the fall with a budget between $6-7 million at a small house, ideally the Broadhurst or the Walter Kerr. 

Transport Group Theatre Company, the winner of a special Drama Desk Award and two OBIE Awards, is currently presending the New York premiere of LYSISTRATA JONES, a new musical with a book by Douglas Carter Beane; music and lyrics by Lewis Flinn; directed and choreographed by Dan Knechtges. Previews began Sunday May 15 on the basketball court of the Judson Memorial Church Gymnasium, 243 Thompson Street at Washington Square South and the show opened on June 5. 

In the show, The Athens University basketball team hasn't won a game in 30 years. But when spunky transfer student Lysistrata Jones dares the squad's fed-up girlfriends to stop ‘giving it up' to their boyfriends until they win a game, their legendary losing streak could be coming to an end.

Join Lyssie and her girl-power posse courtside for the New York City premiere of this boisterous new pop musical comedy. Adapted from Aristophanes' comedy, Lysistrata, Tony-nominated bookwriter Douglas Carter Beane (Sister Act, Xanadu,The Little Dog Laughed) and composer-lyricist Lewis Flinn (The Divine Sister) have given the classic Greek tale a riotous new twist. Directed and choreographed by Tony nominee Dan Knechtges (Xanadu, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) and staged in an actual gymnasium, Lysistrata Jones takes student activism to a whole new level and celebrates the journey of discovering and embracing who you truly are.

The cast of Lysistrata Jones is Alexander Aguilar (Uardo), Katie Boren (Lampito Kanagawa), Lindsay Chambers (Robin/Shelley), Max Kumangai (Tyllus), Liz Mikel (Heterai), Patti Murin (Lysistrata Jones), Kat Nejat (Cleonice), Josh Segarra (Mick), LaQuet Sharnell (Mhyrinne), Jason Tam (Xander), Teddy Toye (Harold), and Alex Wyse (Cinesius).

"Finding actors who can sing, dance, act, and dribble has proven quite easy," said director/choreographer Dan Knechtges. "New York actors can do anything. But finding a basketball court in Manhattan that's available between 8 o'clock and 10 o'clock was a toughie."

"It's an honor to have our new musical produced by Transport Group, a company that has made its name presenting exciting new musical theater work, and to be at Judson Memorial Church, which has a long history of progressive politics and fighting the status quo," added MR. Beane and Mr. Flinn.

"We're excited to work again with Lewis Flinn, who was a contributing writer on our production of The Audience," said Transport Group Artistic Director Jack Cummings III, "and we are big fans of Douglas and Dan and are thrilled to welcome them into the Transport Group family."
The musical's director-choreographer Dan Knechtges staged a previous production of the show at Dallas Theater Center under its Working Title Give It Up!, which proved a huge hit, breaking box-office records, and garnering raves from local papers and Variety.

Douglas Carter Beane has written the plays The Little Dog Laughed (Tony and Olivier Nominations for Best Play, GLAAD Media Award), Mr. & Mrs. Fitch, As Bees in Honey Drown (Outer Critics Circle Gassner Award), Music From a Sparkling Planet, The Country Club, Advice From a Caterpillar, The Cartells, and upcoming, The Nance. Musicals: Xanadu (Outer Critics Circle Award Best Musical, Drama Desk Award for Best Book, Tony nomination for Best Book), Sister Act (additional book material), and upcoming The Bandwagon and The Big Time. Revues: Mondo Drama and White Lies. Screenplays: Advice From a Caterpillar (Aspen Comedy Festival Best Feature); To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. As Artistic Director of the Drama Dept., he produced more than 40 productions including revivals of As Thousands Cheer, June Moon and The Torchbearers and world premieres by Paul Rudnick, David Sedaris and Wendy Wasserstein. Honors: Lortel Playwrights' Sidewalk, Ovation Visionary Playwright Award. He resides in NYC with his partner, Lewis Flinn, and their children Cooper and Gabrielle.

Lewis Flinn'smusical projects include On Girl, with book and lyrics by Steven Sater; Like Love, with book/lyrics by Barry Kaplan (NYMF 2007); The Winner, with Joe Sutton (the Lyric Stage, Dallas 2007); and Down There, with book/lyrics by Brian Crawley. He has also composed scores and songs for over 50 productions including Douglas Carter Beane's Broadway play, The Little Dog Laughed, and Charles Busch's The Divine Sister, Die Mommie Die and The Third Story. Other theaters include Second Stage Theater, Atlatic Theater Company, MCC, South Coast Rep, Playwrights Horizons, Drama Dept., Lincoln Center Theatre, The Vineyard Theater, Geffen Playhouse (LA), Hartford Stage, Cleveland Play House, Old Globe, Primary Stages, adobe theatre co, and The Acting Company. In addition, he has been a guest artist at Cornell, Dartmouth, and Princeton University. In the world of TV and film, he recently wrote the themes and music for "The Power of 10" with Drew Carey for CBS/Sony and "Million Dollar Password" with Regis Philbin, also for CBS. His numerous commercial scores include campaigns for Microsoft, Life Cereal, SAAB, and the AFL-CIO. A longtime collaborator of fashion designer Zang Toi, Mr. Flinn has composed and performed runway music for over 14 collections. He was lead singer and songwriter for the 90's jazz/rock band Acoustic Blue.

Dan Knechtges' Broadway credits include Xanadu (directed by Chris Ashley, Tony nomination, Drama Desk nomination), Sondheim on Sondheim (directed by James Lapine), 110 in The Shade (starring Audra McDonald) and The 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee (directed by James Lapine.) Dan also choreographed the Off-Broadway incarnation of The 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee at Second Stage, which earned him a Lucille Lortel Award nomination. Other credits include Der Schuh Das Manitu (Berlin, Germany), Vanities (Second Stage, Theatreworks Palo Alto), Give It Up! (Dallas Theatre Center), Girl In The Frame (Goodspeed), Boys From Syracuse (Centerstage Baltimore), Godspell (Papermill Playhouse), Oklahoma!, The Wiz, Cats, My Fair Lady, Chalk Circle, Sound of Music, Joseph (Hangar Theatre), Mame, Angel Street, Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Surflight Theatre), Don Giovanni (Indianapolis Opera), Carousel, The Merry Widow, West Side Story (Opera Illinois). He also has had the pleasure of working on almost every Gilbert & Sullivan operetta including The Grand Duke, Iolanthe, Ruddigore, The Mikado, Patience, The Gondoliers, H.M.S. Pinafore and The Sorcerer all with the Blue Hill Troupe in NYC. Dan's choreography can be seen in the Todd Solondz's movie Palindromes, Dark Horse and in Fatboy Slim's music video "It's a Wonderful Night," which reached #1 in the U.K. He has also taught dance at numerous institutions and often does master classes all over the country. Dan holds a BFA in musical theatre from Otterbein College in Westerville, OH and hails from Cleveland, OH. He is also a member of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab.

Set design for Lysistrata Jones is by Allen Moyer (Tony nominee for Grey Gardens; The Little Dog Laughed; Twelve Angry Men; The Man Who Had All the Luck); costume design is by David C. Woolard (Tony nominee for The Rocky Horror Show and The Who's Tommy) and Thomas LeGalley (The 39 Steps at Hartford Stage); lighting design is by Michael Gottlieb (The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged); Election Day; The Last Session), sound design is by Tony Meola (Drama Desk winner for The Lion King; Wicked; The Wild Party; Les Miserables). The music director is Brad Simmons; production stage manager is Wendy Patten.

Judson Memorial Church has long been associated with the arts. Since the 1960s Judson Church has been known as a venue for avant-garde arts and a champion of First Amendment rights in the face of attempts to censor artists and their work. The arts at Judson thrive today, as Judson makes its facilities available to diverse styles of artists in dance, theatre, music, and visual arts from all corners of New York and beyond. Transport Group's production of Lysistrata Jones launches the renovation of Judson Gymnasium into a new theater space that will create even more opportunities for artists to develop and perform their work for years to come. For more information, visit Judson's website: www.judson.org.

Founded in 2001, Transport Group, under the leadership of Jack Cummings III, Artistic Director, and Lori Fineman, Executive Director, is a not-for-profit theatre company that develops and produces work by American Playwrights and composers with the aim of exploring the American consciousness in the 20th and 21st centuries. Transport Group is the winner of a special 2007 Drama Desk Award for its "breadth of vision and its presentation of challenging productions." Transport Group presented its premiere production in 2002: Thornton Wilder's Our Town, which featured older actors in the roles of Emily and George and a twelve-year-old girl as the Stage Manager. Its second production, Requiem for William, an evening of seven seldom produced plays by William Inge, that featured a cast of 26 as well as original songs, premiered in 2003. In 2004 the company presented the first New York revival of Michael John LaChiusa's First Lady Suite, which received rave reviews, played to sold-out houses, and earned two Drama Desk Award nominations including outstanding revival of a musical. Recent productions include the world premiere of the musical The Audience, which featured a cast of 46 actors and earned three Drama Desk Award nominations, including outstanding musical; Normal, a new musical about a mother's battle to save her daughter from anorexia; cul-de-sac, a new play by Tony Award nominee John Cariani; the first New York revival of Tad Mosel's Pulitzer Prize play, All the Way Home; the 50th anniversary, Obie-winning production of William Inge's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, the world premiere musicals Crossing Brooklyn, Marcy in the Galaxy, and Being Audrey, and the first New York revival of Irwin Shaw's Bury the Dead. Both First Lady Suite and Bury the Dead were filmed for the New York Performing Arts Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive. In 2010 Transport Group presented a sold-out, extended engagement of Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band, which was nominated for five 2010 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Revival of a Play-the most for an off-Broadway play. Also in 2010, Transport Group produced an extended run of the New York premiere of See Rock City and Other Destinations by Brad Alexander and Adam Mathias. Transport Group recently produced an extended run of the first New York revival of Michael John LaChiusa's Hello Again. For more information about Transport Group visit www.transportgroup.org.

For more information about Transport Group and Lysistrata Jones, visit www.transportgroup.org.