Michael Cerveris to Take Part in Lisps CD Release, 5/20

The Lisps celebrate the release of their sophomore full-length album, Are We at the Movies? (Extropian Records) tonight at The Rock Shop, performing with special guest Michael Cerveris and members of the cast of their original musical, FUTURITY. Are We at the Movies? includes several songs from the new musical.

The Lisps stood out from the Brooklyn indie-rock scene in 2008 with their debut album, Country Doctor Museum, a boisterous reassessment of traditional Americana, sweetened by the chemistry of lead singers, César Alvarez and Sammy Tunis. Their new album, Are We at the Movies? retains the unruly spirit of their debut, but finds them asking more fundamental questions about existence, technology and virtue.

FUTURITY: A Musical by The Lisps will have its World Premiere as part of The American Repertory Theatre's (A.R.T.) 2011-2012 Season, in Cambridge, MA, followed by performances at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN. FUTURITY has music and lyrics by César Alvarez with The Lisps, book by Molly Rice and César Alvarez, and direction by Sarah Benson (Artistic Director of Soho Rep, Sarah Kane's Blasted).

FUTURITY is a sci-fi Civil War musical that tells the story of Julian Monroe, a young Union Soldier, who through correspondence with the famous metaphysician Ada Lovelace, escapes the horrors and monotony of his daily life by dreaming up a high-tech utopian future. The show fuses traditional American folk, Brechtian choral elements, and The Lisps' own brand of eccentric indie rock into a unique and compelling portrait of war, human imagination, and technological hubris.

What: The Lisps Release Party for Are We at the Movies?
When: Friday May 20, 2011 - Doors @ 8pm.
Where: The Rock Shop
249 4th Ave. Brooklyn, NY.
Tickets: $10, www.therockshopny.com

For additional information, click here.

He made his Broadway debut in The Who's Tommy in 1993 as "18-20 year old Tommy/Narrator", receiving a Tony Award nomination as Best Featured Actor in a Musical, Drama League nomination, Theater World Award winner, and Original Cast Grammy winner. He next appeared in the Broadway musical Titanic in 1997 as Thomas Andrews. He played the role of John Wilkes Booth in the Broadway musical Assassins in 2004, and won the Tony Award, Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

In the 2005 Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd Ceveris played the title role, and was nominated for the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama League award, and received the Drama Critics Circle citation. In the Broadway musical LoveMusik (2007) he appeared as Kurt Weill,and received Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, and Drama League award nominations. In 2007 he played "Kent" in King Lear at the Off-Broadway Public Theater, receving a Drama League Award nomination. He appeared Off-Broadway in the Stephen Sondheim-John Weidman musical Road Show at the Public Theater in 2008 as Wilson Mizner. Ceveris appeared opposite Mary-Louise Parker in the limited Roundabout Theatre Company production of Hedda Gabler from January 2009 to March 2009.

 

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos