Sara Jean Ford and Ta'Rea Campbell Join Workshop of Ed Kleban's GALLERY

The Weathervane Theatre will offer a workshop presentation of GALLERY by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Ed Kleban (A Chorus Line). Originally in development under Joe Papp at The Public Theatre under the direction of Richard Maltby Jr. in the early 80’s, GALLERY never made it to production before Ed Kleban’s death in 1987.
 
Featuring a tuneful score and witty lyrics, GALLERY is a funny and touching musical that explores our relationship to the challenges of life, art and our self-acceptance.
 
Sara Jean Ford (Phantom of the Opera, Cats) and Ta’Rea Campbell (Book of Mormon, The Lion King) will join previously announced cast members Mary Testa (3-time Tony nominee), Robert H Fowler (The Producers, Beauty and the Beast), Jorge Donoso (At the Wedding/Lincoln Center Theatre), Marisa Kirby (Baby), Ira Kramer, and Ethan Paulini.
 
GALLERY was conceived by Linda Kline (Tony nominee, A Class Act) and Richard Maltby Jr. (Tony Award Winner, Ain't Misbehavin'). It will be directed by Richard Maltby Jr. and choreographed by Valerie C Wright (Kimberly Akimbo) with Music Direction by Andrew Morrissey and Music Supervisor Deniz Cordell.
 
GALLERY will be presented Tuesday, March 19 at 1pm and 6pm at AMT Theatre (354 W 45th St.) Industry members who are interested in attending can RSVP at info@weathervanenh.org.
 
The award-winning Weathervane Theatre in Whitefield, NH will present the first full production of GALLERY, also directed by Maltby, this July as part of their 59th Season.

BIOS:

Edward Kleban (Music & Lyrics) was the lyricist of A Chorus Line, for which he won the 1975 Tony Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Drama Desk and Olivier Awards. His score for the musical A Class Act, produced posthumously, was nominated for the 2001 Tony and Drama Desk Awards and won an Obie Award. A Class Act is a musical biography of Kleban, with a score composed of his own music and lyrics. A New York revival is scheduled for February 2022. Mr. Kleban graduated from the High School of Music and Art and of Columbia College, where he wrote the music for the Varsity Show of 1960 with a book by Terrance McNally. Upon graduation from Columbia, Kleban was hired as a record producer by Columbia Records. Throughout the sixties he produced original cast albums while developing his own musicals in Lehman Engel’s BMI Musical Theatre Workshop. Every song that he wrote for A Chorus Line was tested in the BMI Workshop. During the 1980s he carried on Mr. Engel’s tradition and taught songwriting in the workshop. Mr. Kleban died in December 1987 at the age of 48 after a two-year bout with cigarette-related cancer. In his will, he created and endowed The Kleban Prize, a unique grant that is bestowed not for a writer’s previous achievements, but for the promise of creativity to come, chosen by a panel of Broadway’s most respected artists. Recipients have gone on to garner four Tony Awards, 30 Tony nominations, 10 Drama Desk Awards, and four Obies.
 
Linda Kline received a 2001 Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical for A Class Act. Ms. Kline wrote the book for My Heart Is In The East, produced by the Jewish Repertory Theatre, and for Cut the Ribbons, produced at Eighty Eights (1992 MAC nomination). She co-wrote the book for the Theatreworks/USA musical The Secret Garden. Amas Musical Theatre produced a workshop production of Saving the Muse (book by Linda Kline, score by Edward Kleban). Together with director Michael Bush, Ms. Kline worked at the O’Neill in Waterford, Connecticut to develop Better: The Songs of Edward Kleban. In addition, she worked with Jennifer Tepper at 54 Below on the cabaret Remember Me: The Songs of Edward Kleban, featuring Baayork Lee and Joe Iconis, among others. The Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective produced her play The Laundry Workers Present Hatpin Bessie. She was head writer of ABC-TV’s FYI starring Hal Linden (Emmy nomination) and was a staff writer for Captain Kangaroo. Ms. Kline is a graduate of The High School of Performing Arts and of Barnard College. She was a member of Lehman Engel’s libretto class at the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop.
 
Richard Maltby Jr. BROADWAY: Conceived and directed two Tony Award-winning musicals: AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' (1978, also Tony Award: Best Director); FOSSE (1999). Also RING OF FIRE, (2006). Director/lyricist: BABY (1983, Tony nomination Best Musical); lyricist: BIG (1996, Tony nomination: Best Score; also Dominium Theatre London 2019). Co-lyricist: MISS SAIGON (1990 Evening Standard Award, 1991 Tony nomination). Director/co-lyricist, SONG & DANCE. OFF-BROADWAY: Director/lyricist STARTING HERE, STARTING NOW (1977 Grammy nomination); CLOSER THAN EVER (1989 Outer Critics Circle Award Best Musical; 2013 Off-Broadway Alliance Award, Best Revival) Director: JUST Jim Dale, (New York 2014, London 2015). REGIONAL: Lyricist: TAKE FLIGHT (2010 Menier Chocolate Factory; 2012 McCarter Theatre); WATERFALL (2015, Pasadena/ Seattle, Bangkok 2023); Lyricist, SOUSATZKA (2017, Toronto). FILM: Screenplay, MISS POTTER 2007). Contributes cryptic crossword puzzles to Harper's Magazine. Son of well-known orchestra leader. Five children: Nicholas, David, Jordan, Emily, and Charlotte.
 
THE WEATHERVANE THEATRE was founded in 1965 by Gibbs Murray and the late Tom Haas and is under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Ethan Paulini. It has presented high-quality professional productions of plays and musicals for over half a century. One of the few remaining alternating rep companies in the United States, the Weathervane is recognized as a historical institution nationwide, boasting among its alums 2021 Tony nominee Elizabeth Stanley, Tally Sessions, four-time Tony nominee Judy Kuhn, and recent Tony Award Winner Ari'el Stachel.

Photo courtesy Yellow Sound Label