Shawn's 'The Fever' Opens Off-Broadway, January 29

The New Group is currently presenting the first revival of Wallace Shawn's The Fever, playing January 9 – March 3 at The New Group at Theatre Row (The Acorn Theater / 410 West 42nd Street). The official opening is set for Wednesday, January 29 at 7:00 PM.

"An anonymous narrator wakes up in a war-torn country with a terrible fever, unable to reconcile the privilege he has enjoyed with his current surroundings.  Shawn's The Fever examines the links between the affluence many Americans take for granted and the horrors of poverty and suffering that haunt the lives of millions," state production notes on the show, which will be helmed by New Group artistic director Scott Elliott.

Last season, writer and performer Shawn wrote The Music Teacher with his brother, composer Allen Shawn for The New Group as well as a new translation of The Threepenny Opera for the Roundabout Theater Company (directed by Elliott).  His other plays include The Designated Mourner, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Aunt Dan and Lemon and Marie and Bruce, published by Grove Press.  With André Gregory, he wrote the film My Dinner With André, and with Tom Cairns he wrote the screenplay for Marie and Bruce.  Elliott directed Aunt Dan and Lemon and directed Shawn as an actor in Hurlyburly, both at The New Group.  Shawn was the editor of Final Edition, which contained work by Deborah Eisenberg, Mark Strand and Jonathan Schell, and Shawn's interview with Noam Chomsky.

The New Group's season opened with a revival of Jay Presson Allen's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, starring Cynthia Nixon and directed by Scott Elliott.  Last season the company presented Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party, followed by Wallace Shawn nd Allen Shawn's play/opera The Music Teacher and Seth Zvi Rosenfeld's Everythings Turning Into Beautiful (songs by Jimmie James), directed by Carl Forsman and starring Daphne Rubin-Vega and Malik Yoba.  The past season also saw the sophomore year of The New Group (naked), a second-stage division of the company, which presented Michael Brandt's A Spalding Gray Matter and Darci Picoult's Jayson With a Y.  The New Group is the recipient of the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical (Avenue Q). Later this season, The New Group will present The Accomplices, written by Bernard Weinraub and directed by New Group Associate Artistic Director Ian Morgan.

The Fever will feature set design by Derek McLane, lighting design by Jennifer Tipton, sound design by Bruce Odland and costume design by Eric Becker.

The Fever will play as follows at The New Group at Theatre Row (The Acorn Theater / 410 West 42nd Street, between 9th & 10th Avenue): Monday–Saturday at 8:00 PM, with matinees on Saturday at 2:00 PM.  Tickets may be arranged through Ticket Central at www.ticketcentral.com or (212) 279-4200, or at the Theatre Row Box Office (12:00–8:00 PM daily).  Tickets are $51.25. For more information, visit www.thenewgroup.org.

Photo - Wallace Shawn