Minetta Street Productions' SAINT HOLLYWOOD Closes 2/20

MINETTA STREET PRODUCTIONS' one-man, multimedia musical SAINT HOLLYWOOD, featuring comedian WILLARD MORGAN with music and lyrics by WILLIARD MORGAN and book by WILLARD MORGAN & JERROLD ZIMAN, will close on February 20.

 

Tickets for all events are $10.00. For reservations and information visit www.sainthollywood.com or call (212) 598-3030.

In SAINT HOLLYWOOD, comedian Willard Morgan's wild ride chasing Hollywood stardom ends up being a descent into the belly of the show business beast. Using digital video projections on three sides of the gallery walls and a live 5 piece rock bank Morgan introduces us to his "Saints," an unusual lineup of unlikely advisors: Vuzar, the Mexican transvestite paraplegic who conducts a lucrative phone sex business from her pink People Mover; Champ, a/k/a Lord Anthony, the ex-prizefighter knighted by the King of Greece for building the royal stretch limo; Dennis Woodruff, the actor who has made a high-profile career out of never being cast in anything; and many others. These real-life Saints, whose unique journeys have lifted them into the realm of the sublime, offer their encouragement and the occasional well-placed kick to Morgan on his odyssey to the perfect gig.

The show is also the the inspiration for the art installation, STUFF - THE GARAGE SALE OF DREAMS, which re-invents the ubiquitous graveyard of Hollywood's disposable kitsch as a heroic work of interdisciplinary contemporary art. STUFF includes sculpture, photography and video and officially opens with the heavenly SAINTS OF HOLLYWOOD FASHION SHOW on February 5th. Creations by UTA BEKAIA, avant-garde fashion designer and theatre artist from Tibilisi, Georgia, will be presented as a dazzling catwalk bacchanal. Using the stuff of L.A. thrift stores and garage sales, Uta's designs are a sequined-and-spiked, unapologetically glamorous vision of transcendence in recycled urban street wear.

Writer, Performer, Composer, Photographer and Videographer Willard Morgan debuted SAINT HOLLYWOOD at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Morgan has appeared in numerous indie features and on theatre and comedy club stages in New York and Los Angeles. His comic personal documentaries have screened at festivals from Nashville to Milan, Italy, include Festival Fever which won the Sony Visions comedy award, the Best Short award at the Florida International Film Festival and the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival. Me and Michael, his most controversial comedy feature, turns the camera on Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Michael Moore. He co-produced Babak Shokrian's feature, America So Beautiful, which opened in Paris, Los Angeles and New York. Other producing credits include the Broadway de! but of THE RUNNER STUMBLES and off-Broadway production of SAY GOODNIGHT, GRACIE, both directed by Austin Pendleton. MISGUIDED TOURS, his comedy travel show, is in development.

Writer, Producer Jerrold Ziman is co-founder of Minetta Street Productions. Co-Producer of 13P's CRAWL FADE TO WHITE, producer ZARMEN, co-writer and producer Me & Michael, producer DIPLOMACY with Garrett Morris and Joe Regalbuto, producer TWICE REMOVED with Estelle Parsons and Carol Kane, director First to See the Lights Go On with Reggy Baff, co-writer/producer Crosby Street and The Trial. Actor in YENTL with Tovah Feldshuh, HAMLET with Rip Torn, KADDISH with Marilyn Chris, Genet's THE SCREENS, Saroyan's REBIRTH CELEBRATIONS OF THE HUMAN RACE AT ARTIE ZABALA'S OFF-BROADWAY THEATER with Dick Shawn, EAST LYNNE WITH CHRIST GUEST, GOLDEN BOY with Jerry Zaks and opposite Mary Louise Wilson in THE BEGGAR'S OPERA. Films include Jules Dassin's The Rehearsal, Martha Coolidge's Bimbo, 9 to 5, Harry's War, Cheap Detective and California Suite. TV includes Ryan's Hope, All in the Family, Baretta, Eight is Enough, Starsky & Hutch, Mork & Mindy. Mr. Ziman is CEO of St. Andrews Capital and was a founding partner of BBZ Films with Moritz Borman and Bill Benenson.

Director/Dramaturg JIM MILTON recently helmed THE GERMANS IN PARIS by Jonathan Leaf, Robinson Jeffers' DEAR JUDAS at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and a reading of ZARMEN for Minetta Street Productions. He has directed more than forty professional productions for such theatres as the NY Shakespeare Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse, La MaMa, American Conservatory Theatre, The Production Company, StageWest, The Magic Theatre and National Public Radio. As the Artistic Director of Verse Theater Manhattan, he directed VKTMS (Michael McClure), VENUS OBSERVED (Christopher Fry), 1953 (Craig Raine), THE URBAN STAMPEDE (an opera by Andrew Gant and F. D. Reeve), ON THE ROCKS (David Yezzi) and adapted and directed the American premieres of KINGS AND WAR MUSIC (both from Christopher Logue's version! of The Iliad), which toured the Midwest and the UK.

The band includes Musical Director and guitarist MACK PRICE, TOM ROSLAK on drums, YUVAL SEMO on piano/synth/bass and backup vocals by TAYLOR GREENWOOD, SAHIRAH JOHNSON and BRIANA LAYON.

The design team includes sets by DARLENE KEN, lighting by SCOTT NEEDHAM, video design by JESSIE STEAD & STEFANIE KOSEFF, sound design by CHRISTOPHER NORTH, installation by DARLENE KEN & JORGE EMMANUEL, animation by BECK UNDERWOOD & CELINE GUILLUAME and film sequence by ABHAY SOFSKY. DEBRA STUNICH is the Production Stage Manager.

IDEAL GLASS GALLERY is an interdisciplinary industrial space designed and used for the development and presentation of unusual works.