'PLOW', 'MENAGERIE', 'INISHMORE' 'BENGAL TIGER', '39 STEPS' & Mystery Musical Featured In 2010 Mark Taper Forum Season

Two classic American plays by iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights, two audacious plays by contemporary mavericks, a world premiere musical by one of America's greatest living singer/songwriters and the bonus option of a delicious spoof of a 1935 movie are set for Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum's 2010 season at the Los Angeles Music Center, it was announced today by Michael Ritchie, CTG's Artistic Director.

The season will run from February 10 through December 19, 2010.

The season opens with David Mamet's "Speed-the-Plow," directed by Neil Pepe, and continues with Rajiv Joseph's "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," directed by Moisés Kaufman; Martin McDonagh's "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," directed by Wilson Milam; the Long Wharf Theatre production of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie," directed by Gordon Edelstein and featuring Judith Ivey; and the world premiere of a musical featuring the work of one of America's greatest living singer/songwriters, the title and more details to be announced shortly.

In addition to these five productions at the Taper, season ticket holders will be offered a bonus option for "Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps," which will be presented at the CTG/Ahmanson Theatre.

"You meet such interesting characters on stage," said Michael Ritchie. "It's one of the reasons I love theatre so much and why our audiences keep coming back for more.

"This new season at the Taper is particularly rich with compelling, complex, memorable characters, all of them so beautifully drawn and so credible that you expect to run into them at intermission.

"You will not soon forget Tennessee Williams' larger-than-life matriarch, Amanda Wingfield, played with perfection by Judith Ivey, or David Mamet's cut-throat Hollywood moviemakers Bobby Gould and Charlie Fox, or Martin McDonagh's Padraic, the Irish terrorist too terrible for the IRA, or Rajiv Joseph's philosophical ghost of a Tiger roaming the streets of Baghdad."

"I can't wait to watch these characters spring to life in the hands of some of the best actors and directors in theatre today," said Ritchie. "I bet we will all be talking about these performances for years to come.

"And, when we are able to announce our world premiere musical, this new Taper season will become even richer."

"Speed-the-Plow"

"Speed-the-Plow," David Mamet's stinging black comedy about the inner workings of Hollywood, will be the first production of the Mark Taper Forum's 43rd season, February 10 through March 21, 2010. Opening is February 21, 2010.

Directed by Neil Pepe, "Speed-the-Plow" skewers the film industry and the people who are willing to sell their souls for power, money and sex. Pepe directed last fall's heralded Broadway production on the 20th anniversary of this modern classic.

When Bobby Gould, a movie producer eager to green-light his first film, is approached by a longtime co-worker, Charlie Fox, to make a buddy flick with a big star, it looks like a sure thing. But Fox does not anticipate Karen, Gould's temporary secretary, and the powerful obstacle she provides.

Though the play received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play in 1988, Elysa Gardner of USA Today said of the 2008 production, "‘Speed the Plow' seems even more topical today than when Mamet first introduced it." Ben Brantley of The New York Times also praised the recent Broadway production, "The Barrymore Theatre should provide seat belts for as long as Neil Pepe's revival of David Mamet's ‘Speed the Plow' is in residence. The production . . . pursues its corkscrew course at such velocity that your instinct is to check yourself for whiplash. When the curtain falls on this short and unsparing study of sharks in the shallows of the movie industry, it's as if you had stepped off a world-class roller coaster. The ride was over before you knew it, but you're too dizzy and exhilarated to think you didn't get your money's worth."

Pepe, artistic director of the Atlantic Theater Company, has directed Mamet's "Romance" in the Mark Taper Forum's 2005-2006 season and "Keep Your Pantheon" and "The Duck Variations" in the Kirk Douglas Theatre's 2007-2008 season.

David Mamet was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for "Glengarry GLen Ross," for which he later wrote the screenplay. His other plays include "American Buffalo," "Oleanna" (which was presented this spring at the Taper), "Boston Marriage" and "November." His screenplays include "The Postman Always Rings Twice," "The Verdict," "The Untouchables" and "Wag the Dog." Mamet created and was the executive producer of the critically acclaimed CBS-TV series "The Unit."

"Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo"

"Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," Rajiv Joseph's lyrical, haunting new play set against the backdrop of the war in Iraq, will be presented as the second production of the Taper's new season, April 14 through May 30, 2010. Opening is April 25.

"Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" had its world premiere at CTG's Kirk Douglas Theatre in May 2009 under the direction of Tony Award-nominated Moisés Kaufman ("33 Variations" [playwriting] and "I Am My Own Wife" [directing]), who will return for the Taper engagement.

In "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," the lives and, in some cases, the afterlives, of two American soldiers, an Iraqi translator, the ghosts of Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Ousay, and a Bengal tiger all intersect in a surreal, darkly humorous and gently balanced view of war and its aftermath.

Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times said that "Bengal Tiger" is ". . . no ordinary play. I'm tempted to call it the most original drama written so far about the Iraq war, but why sell this work short? The imagination behind it is way too thrillingly genre-busting to be confined within such a limited category." Regarding Moisés Kaufman, McNulty said ". . . let's give credit . . . [Kaufman's] direction allows us to appreciate both the wonderful comic audacity and diffuse sensitivity of Rajiv Joseph." Dany Margolies of Back Stage said, "The brain jolts to a start at the top of this world premiere and doesn't cease whirring . . . Rajiv Joseph has penned a monumental work that muses on cruelty and nature, language and creativity, religion and remorse. . . ."

Rajiv Joseph received his MFA in playwriting from the Tisch School of the Arts in 2004, and in January 2006 he had his play "Huck & Holden" produced at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York, and then subsequently at the Black Dahlia Theatre in Los Angeles. At Second Stage in New York, Joseph's "All This Intimacy" premiered in 2006 and his "Animal Out of Paper" premiered in 2008, receiving a Lucille Lortel Award nomination. He is the 2008 recipient of the Vineyard Theatre's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award.

"Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" was developed at the Lark Play Development Center in New York City. The play was selected as an NEA Outstanding New American play as part of the NEA New Play Development Program, hosted by Arena Stage. "Bengal Tiger" was also a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award.

"The Lieutenant of Inishmore"

"The Lieutenant of Inishmore," by Academy Award-winning, Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated Martin McDonagh will be the third production of the Taper's 2010 season.

The strikingly original black comedy that was postponed from the Taper's 2009 season will now be presented June 30 through August 8, 2010. Opening is July 11.

"The Lieutenant of Inishmore" will be directed by Wilson Milam, who received a Tony Award nomination for his work on the 2006 Broadway production.

A blistering, graphic satire on violence, the play is set in 1993 on the rocky island of Inishmore in County Galway. Padraic, a hard-boiled terrorist considered too angry for the IRA, has been away in Northern Ireland with his busy schedule of torture and assorted Nationalist mayhem, but he is lured home to Inishmore by the news that his beloved cat, Wee Thomas, is doing poorly.

When Padraic finds out Wee Thomas has been murdered, he initiates a cycle of revenge-killing that threatens everyone in his path, but perhaps not the lovestruck Mairead, a 16-year-old terrorist groupie with a BB gun.

When "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" was presented in 2006 at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York, Ben Brantley of The New York Times said that the play is ". . . brazenly and unapologetically a farce, but it is also a severely moral play, translating into dizzy absurdism the self-perpetuating spirals of political violence that now occur throughout the world . . . [it is] directed with a steady gaze and acute theatrical instinct by Wilson Milam." Michael Billington of The Guardian remarked of the earlier London production, ". . . a boldly brilliant play about the way rigid adherence to a cause destroys a sense of proportion . . . Like all first-rate satire, the play attacks excess and endorses reason."

Martin McDonagh received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play for "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" in 2006. His play "The Pillowman" won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2004 and was nominated for a Tony Award in 2005, and he also received Tony Award nominations for "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" (1998) and "The Lonesome West" (1999). In 2006 he won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for "Six Shooter," which he also directed. His first feature film, "In Bruges," was the opening night film for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and won an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 2009 and the BAFTA Best Screenplay Award.

"The Glass Menagerie"

A fresh interpretation of Tennessee Williams' haunting memory play "The Glass Menagerie" will be the fourth production of the Mark Taper Forum's new season, when Center Theatre Group presents the Long Wharf Theatre production featuring Judith Ivey, September 1 through October 17. Opening is September 12.

Directed by Gordon Edelstein, artistic director of the Long Wharf Theatre where this critically acclaimed production opened in May 2009, "The Glass Menagerie" is the compelling saga of the Wingfield family in the 1940s, struggling with illusion and reality,

The narrator is Tom, the son, who works in a shoe factory and is torn between his role as the family breadwinner and his desire to lead a life of his own. The story unfolds of his mother, Amanda, a former Southern belle and relentless romantic trying to maintain her dignity and her control in the gloom of their St. Louis tenement; of Laura, his frail sister who has retreated to an imaginary world caring for her collection of glass animals; and the visit of Jim, the Gentleman Caller, who changes the family forever.

Charles Isherwood of The New York Times said, "Directed with clarity and sensitivity by Gordon Edelstein, and featuring a benchmark performance by Judith Ivey as the matriarch Amanda Wingfield, the production is suffused with emotion from its first moments to its last, turbulent with the confusions of hope and love and regret and fear that fill any family living room in a time of crisis and stress." Isherwood said Ivey ". . . imbues the role with a perfectly judged mixture of chiffon and steel." Frank Rizzo of Variety said, "Ivey's Amanda is rightfully annoying, unnerving and desperate. But she also brings a Southern warmth, humor and practicality to the role, making this Amanda grounded in her own way even as she mixes delusions with dreams."

Stage and screen star Judith Ivey has received two Tony Awards for performances in "Steaming" and "Hurlyburly," and an Obie Award for "The Moonshot Tape," among many other awards. She was recently honored with the Texas Medal of Arts for Theatre. She has starred in four television series including "Designing Women," and has appeared in numerous films including "The Devil's Advocate," "Washington Square," "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and "Compromising Positions."

"The Glass Menagerie" was the first play to establish Tennessee Williams as a major playwright and a Broadway success. He received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama, four Drama Critic Circle Awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom before his death in 1983. His classic works also include "The Rose Tattoo," "The Night of the Iguana," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "A Streetcar Named Desire."

A World Premiere of a Musical

The music and lyrics of one of America's favorite singer/songwriters will be featured as the grand finale of the Taper's 2010 season. This world premiere musical will be presented November 10 through December 19, 2010. Opening is November 21.

Details about the musical will be announced soon.

Bonus Option

"Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps"

"Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps," a hilarious reimagining of the 1935 film mystery and winner of two Tony Awards and two Drama Desk Awards, will be a bonus option for Taper season ticket holders. Presented at the Ahmanson Theatre from April 27, 2010, through May 16, the opening will be April 28.

Adapted by Patrick Barlow and directed by Maria Aitken, "Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps" is based on an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon and on the book by John Buchan.

With only four actors who, against all odds, breathlessly reenact all the characters, locations and famous scenes in Hitchcock's thriller, this Tony Award, Olivier Award and Drama Desk Award-winning show is set in 1930s England and follows Richard Hannay who, seeking a frivolous night out at the theatre, is lured into a world of intrigue by a mysterious woman claiming to be a spy. When she winds up dead in his flat, he flees London with the police hot on his trail.

Ben Brantley of The New York Times called the production, "Absurdly enjoyable . . . This gleefully theatrical riff on Hitchcock's film is fast and frothy, performed by a cast of four that seems like a cast of thousands. The actors themselves seem to be having a helluva good time. As does the audience." Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News said, "Hitchcock probably never imagined his thriller had the makings of a hilarious comedy, but this show is a dizzy delight and an ingenious spoof, inventively directed by Maria Aitken. A fast-paced fun ride!"

"The 39 Steps" features sets and costumes by Peter McKintosh, lighting by Kevin Adams and sound by Mic Pool. Dialect coach is Stephen Gabis. Original movement created by Toby Sedgwick. Additional movement created by Christopher Bayes. Production management is by Aurora Productions.

"The 39 Steps" has been a runaway hit in London's West End, playing to sell-out houses at the Criterion where it continues to delight audiences. The first production of "The 39 Steps" was directed by Fiona Buffini and produced on stage by North Country Theatre in April 1996 at the Georgian Theatre, Richmond, North Yorkshire.

The production received its American debut at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. The Broadway premiere opened on January 2008 at Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theatre.

"The 39 Steps" is produced by Bob Boyett, Harriet Newman Leve/Ron Nicynski, Stewart F. Lane/Bonnie Comley, Manocherian Golden Prods., Olympus Theatricals/Douglas Denoff, Pam Laudenslager/Pat Addiss, Tim Levy/Remmel T. Dickinson, Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director; Harold Wolpert, Managing Director; Julia Levy, Executive Director), Huntington Theatre Company (Nicholas Martin, Artistic Director; Michael Maso, Managing Director) and Edward Snape for Fiery Angel Ltd. Associate Producer is Marek J. Cantor.

Tickets Currently Only Available as Part of a Season Ticket Package

Tickets for the Taper's new season are currently available by subscription only. For information and to charge season tickets by phone, call Audience Services at (213) 972-4444.

To purchase online, visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.

For information regarding audio description and sign language interpreted performances, call TDD/Voice (213) 680-4017.

Center Theatre Group, a non-profit theatre arts organization, is one of the largest and most active theatre companies in the nation, programming seasons year-round at the 740-seat Mark Taper Forum and the 1,600 to 2,000-seat Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center of Los Angeles, and the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

Photo Credit: T Charles Erickson