Theresa Rebeck Joins Broadway-Aimed Musical WORKING GIRL as New Book Writer

Award-winning Broadway playwright Theresa Rebeck will write the book for the Broadway-aimed Working Girl. While she's had more plays produced on Broadway than any female playwright of our time, Working Girl would mark Rebeck's Broadway debut as a book writer for a musical. She joins Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award winner Cyndi Lauper, who will provide music and lyrics, and Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley (Come From Away), who will direct.

Rebeck replaces screenwriter and playwright Bridget Carpenter, who was previoiusly attached to the project.

Producer Robyn Goodman says, "Since producing Theresa's early hit play Spike Heels in 1990 at Second Stage, I have remained a true fan. Her humor, intelligence and commitment to feminism, make her the perfect playwright for this story. She and Cyndi Lauper are our dream team of modern-day passionate and talented working women."

"'Smash' ignited my love of musical theater and I've been eager to find the right musical project since then," Rebeck said. "I couldn't have dreamed up a better fit than Working Girl, or better collaborators than Cyndi, Chris and this team. I can't wait for audiences to discover how we've reimagined this beloved classic."

"I've been a fan of Theresa's for a long time, and I'm so excited to be working with her on this project," Lauper said. "It was really important to me and the rest of the team to have a female book writer, to really get in the heads of our characters, and Theresa is the perfect person for the job."

Working Girl is based on the Twentieth Century Fox motion picture written by Kevin Wade and is presented by special arrangement with Buena Vista Theatrical.

Directed by Mike Nichols, Working Girl premiered in 1988 and went on to receive the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Working Girl featured many actors early in their careers including Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, Oliver Platt, Jeffrey Nordling, and David Duchovny. The film grossed over $100 million worldwide.

Theresa Rebeck is a widely produced writer for stage, film, television and novels, whose work can be seen and read throughout the United States and internationally. With four plays produced on Broadway, Rebeck is the most Broadway-produced female playwright of our time.

Rebeck's Broadway credits include Bernhardt/Hamlet starring Janet McTeer, Dead Accounts starring Katie Holmes, Seminar starring Alan Rickman and Mauritius starring F. Murray Abraham. Other New York productions of her work include Seared starring Raul Esparza at MCC Theater, Downstairs starring Tim Daly and Tyne Daly, The Scene starring Tony Shalhoub, The Water's Edge, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann and Spike Heels at Second Stage; Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection and Our House at Playwrights Horizons; The Understudy at Roundabout Theatre Company; and View of the Dome at New York Theatre Workshop. Other notable plays include Poor Behavior, What We're Up Against and Omnium Gatherum (co-written), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2013. Her latest play, Mad House, is currently playing a critically acclaimed world premiere on London's West End starring David Harbour and Bill Pullman.

All of Rebeck's plays are published by Smith and Kraus as Theresa Rebeck: Complete Plays, Volumes I, II III, IV and V and in acting editions available from Samuel French or Playscripts. As an author, Rebeck has written three novels: Three Girls and Their Brother (Random House/Shaye Areheart Books, 2008), Twelve Rooms with A View (Random House/Shaye Areheart Books, 2010) and I'm Glad About You (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2016), along with Free Fire Zone, a book of comedic essays about writing and show business.

Rebeck made her NYC Directorial debut with Rob Ackerman's play Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson at The Working Theatre and directed the World Premiere of her new comedy Dig at the Dorset Theatre Festival in Vermont, where she also serves as Resident Playwright. Her new podcast play, "Nightwatch" starring Norbert Leo Butz, produced by Dorset Theatre Festival, is now available on The Broadway Podcast Network.

In television, Rebeck created the NBC showbiz drama "Smash," and has written for "Canterbury's Law," "LA Law," NYPD Blue," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Dream On," "Brooklyn Bridge," and many more. Her produced feature films include the big-budget all-female spy thriller 355 (co-written with Simon Kinberg for Jessica Chastain's production company); Trouble (writer/director), starring Angelica Huston and Bill Pullman; Harriet the Spy; Gossip and the independent features Sunday on the Rocks and Seducing Charlie Barker, an adaptation of her play, The Scene.

For her work on "NYPD Blue," Rebeck won the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award, the Writers' Guild of America Award for Episodic Drama, the Hispanic Images Imagen Award, and the Peabody Award. Other awards include a GLAAD Award (for "Smash"), The National Theatre Conference Award for The Family of Mann, the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award for The Bells, the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, the Athena Film Festival Award, an Alex Award, a Lilly Award and more. In 2011, Rebeck was named one of the 150 Fearless Women in the World by Newsweek.

Originally from Cincinnati, Rebeck holds an MFA in Playwriting and a PhD. in Victorian Melodrama, both from Brandeis University. She is a proud board member of the Dramatists Guild, a Contributing Editor to the Harvard Review, an Associate Artist of the Roundabout Theatre Company and Resident Playwright at Vermont's Dorset Theatre Festival. She has taught at Brandeis University and Columbia University and currently holds the Lyndall Finley Wortham Chair in Performing Arts at the University of Houston, where she teaches playwriting.

Theresa lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

Cyndi Lauper is a groundbreaking Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award-winning songwriter and performing artist with global record sales in excess of 50 million. Her iconic voice, influential punk glamour, and infectious live shows have catapulted her to stardom. Lauper won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist with her first album, She's So Unusual, and became the first woman in history to have four top-five singles from a debut album. Since then, Lauper has released ten additional studio albums, yielding timeless classics like "Time After Time" and "True Colors," and the anthemic "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." She's been nominated for 15 Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, seven American Video Awards, and 18 MTV Awards. In 2013, Cyndi Lauper became the first solo woman to win Best Original Score (music and lyrics) for Kinky Boots. She contributed a Tony-nominated song to the score of the Broadway musical SpongeBob SquarePants.

Lauper was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015, released a New York Times best-selling memoir, and continues to collect impressive accolades across the music industry and beyond. In 2018, Lauper designed and launched a sold-out Home Decor Collection with Grandin Road and added a guest starring role on CBS' hit TV show "Magnum PI" to her acting resume. She closed out 2018 by receiving the "Icon Award" from Billboard at its 13th annual Women In Music event and brought down the house with a rousing tribute to Cher at the Kennedy Center Honors. In 2019, "She's So Unusual" was honored for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic importance by being inducted into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.

In addition, Lauper is tireless in her advocacy work. She has been an activist since day one, always fighting for the underdog - especially women, people living with HIV/AIDS, and LGBTQ people. Her commitment runs so deep that she started her own charity, the True Colors United in 2008 to bring an end to homelessness amongst LGBTQ youth. In December 2019, the United Nations presented Lauper with their first-ever High Note Global Prize, an award that will be given to artists who use their significant platforms to fight for social justice.

Christopher Ashley (Director). Broadway directing credits include: Come from Away (Tony Award, Outer Critics Circle Award); Diana, The Musical; Escape to Margaritaville; Xanadu; Leap of Faith (Drama Desk nomination); Memphis (Tony, Outer Critics Circle nominations); All Shook Up; Rocky Horror Show (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations); The Smell of the Kill; and Voices in the Dark.

Other Recent directing credits include: Squirrels, Freaky Friday, Come From Away, The Darrel Hammond Project, Hollywood, and Chasing the Song at La Jolla Playhouse; The Lisbon Triviata, Kennedy Center; the world premieres of Alfred Uhry's Without Walls at the Mark Taper Forum (starring Laurence Fishburne), and Joe Hortua's Between Us at Manhattan Theatre Club; Charles Busch's The Lady in Question at Bay Street Theatre; the world premiere of Daniel Goldfarb and David Kirshenbaum's Party Come Here at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Paul Rudnick's Valhalla at New York Theatre Workshop (Lucille Lortel nomination - Outstanding Direction); the world premieres of The Wonder of the World and NewYorkers (Outer Critics Circle nomination - Outstanding Off Broadway Musical, Drama Desk nomination for Best Revue) at Manhattan Theatre Club; the Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration productions of Sweeney Todd (starring Brian Stokes Mitchell and Christine Baranski; Helen Hayes Award winner for Outstanding Direction of a Resident Musical) and Merrily We Roll Along; the National Tour of Seussical The Musical; Lil' Abner, for City Center Encores; the world premiere of Alfred Uhry's Without Walls at the Williamstown Theatre Festival; Paul Rudnick's Rude Entertainment and Mondo Drama and The Country Club (both by Douglas Carter Beane) at The Drama Dept.; the world premieres of They All Laughed and Lucky in the Rain, and the revival of Redhead at Goodspeed Musicals; Light Up The Sky at Williamstown Theatre Festival; the American premiere of What You Get and What You Expect by Jean-Marie Besset at New York Theatre Workshop; and Working by Stephen Schwartz at Long Wharf.

In addition to his work for the stage, Ashley directed the streaming productions of Diana, The Musical on Netflix, Come from Away on Apple+, screen adaptation of Lucky Stiff, the feature film of Jeffrey, and the American Playhouse production of Blown Sideways Through Life for PBS.

Mr. Ashley is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award, the Drama League Director Fellowship and an NEA/TCG Director Fellowship

Robyn Goodman (Producer) is the Founder of Aged in Wood Productions and on Broadway has produced Avenue Q (Tony Award 2004), In The Heights (Tony Award 2008) Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella, Metamorphoses (Drama Desk Winner), Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo starring Robin Williams, A Class Act, Steel Magnolias, The Performers among several others, as well as Off Broadway's Is There Still Sex In The City, Altar Boyz, and Tick, Tick... Boom by Jonathan Larson. She also Co-Produced the London transfers of Marianne Elliot's Angels In America (Tony Award 2018) and this season's musical Company (Tony Award 2022) by Stephen Sondheim. Currently she serves on the Board of The New Group. She was Co-Founder/Artistic Director of Second Stage Theater for 13 years and is currently Executive Producer of Bucks County Playhouse. She is Artistic Consultant to Roundabout Theater Company where she was Artistic Producer of the Underground Theater for emerging playwrights for the first 10 years.

Josh Fiedler (Producer) is a partner in Aged in Wood Productions: Broadway: Company (2022 Tony Award Best Revival), Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella, Avenue Q, Angels in America (2018 Tony Award Best Revival) In The Heights, The Performers, American Idiot, and West Side Story. Upcoming: Nowhere Boy, Female Troubles. Off-Broadway: Is There Still Sex In The City?, Altar Boyz. West End: Company (2018 Olivier Award Best Revival), Heisenberg. He has been a producer at Bucks County Playhouse since 2014 producing over 30 shows. He is a former associate producer at Roundabout Underground where he helped develop thirteen New York premiere productions. He is a graduate of the University of Miami's School of Music and Department of Theatre Arts.

Kumiko Yoshii's Broadway credits include MJ, Be More Chill, Prince of Broadway, Pacific Overtures (Tony nom), and A Class Act. Other credits include Be More Chill (Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka), West Side Story in StageAround Tokyo, The True (Off-Broadway), The Fantasticks (West End) and Big River (North American Tour, Tokyo). Other credits in Asia include A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls, and War Horse in Japan and premiere engagements in China of Wicked, Shrek The Musical and Blue Man Group. Current projects include Museum of Broadway and The Karate Kid - the Musical. Serves on the Board of Governors of The Broadway League, the Board of Directors of The Drama League and The New Group, the Advisory Committee of the Billy Rose Theatre Division at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and as Executive Producer for Japan Day @ Central Park and Japan Parade, as well as Advisor to The Price Fellowship.