Barrington Stage Company to Honor William Finn at 'BSC IN NYC' Benefit

Barrington Stage Company (BSC), the award-winning theatre in Downtown Pittsfield, MA, under the leadership of Artistic Director JuliAnne Boyd and Managing Director TriStan Wilson, will host its annual New York City Benefit, BSC In NYC, on Thursday, October 13, 2016 to celebrate the acclaimed BSC Musical Theatre Lab and honor its co-founder and Artistic Producer William Finn.

Tony Award winner Tommy Tune will serve as Honorary Chair of the event, and Eda Sorokoff is Benefit Committee Chair. The evening will begin at 5:30pm with a cocktail reception and informal Q&A with William Finn at ViceVersa Restaurant (325 West 51st Street) followed by the 8:00pm performance of the groundbreaking Tony Award-winning musical Falsettos, with music and lyrics by William Finn, book by William Finn and James Lapine, at the Walter Kerr Theatre (219 West 48th Street).

"We are thrilled to be honoring William Finn at BSC In NYC. Through the Musical Theatre Lab, Bill has helped countless composers and lyricists develop and refine their work to ready it for the stage," said JuliAnne Boyd.

The Musical Theatre Lab was established in 2006 to provide artistic guidance and a supportive environment for promising musical writing teams. In its first ten years, the Musical Theatre Lab has produced 18 new musicals. Of these musicals, seven have moved on to New York or major theatres around the country. In 2016 the MTL produced two world premieres: Presto Change-O and Broadway BounTy Hunter, "an outrageously entertaining new musical" (Albany Times-Union) and "one heck of a 10th anniversary celebration" (Boston Globe).

"Musicals, when they are good, soar. But what seems effortless is only achieved through a painstaking, exacting developmental process that asks and answers the hardest questions about what any musical is meant to be. Few people understand the complexity of the process because they don't see the work being developed. They don't see the talent of the unproduced," said William Finn, Co-Founder & Producer, BSC's Musical Theatre Lab, who workshopped and premiered The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at BSC before it transferred to Broadway and won two Tony Awards.

Tickets for BSC In NYC begin at $350. All proceeds benefit BSC's Musical Theatre Lab and New Works Initiative. RSVP by October 3 to ensure seating. For tickets and more information contact Janie LaBrasca at 413-997-6118 or jlabrasca@barringtonstageco.org.

Now playing on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage is a limited return engagement of American Son, which had its world premiere at BSC earlier this summer. American Son is written by award-winning playwright Christopher Demos-Brown, winner of the prestigious Laurents/Hatcher Award for Best New Play of 2016, and stars Tamara Tunie ("Law and Order: SVU") and Michael Hayden (Broadway's Carousel). JuliAnne Boyd directs. American Son runs through September 25.

The remaining 2016 season also includes Love Letters by A.R Gurney, starring Debra Jo Rupp and Mark H. Dold, running September 22 through October 2; and Mark St. Germain's Camping with Henry and Tom, the recipient of both the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Lucille Lortel Award, directed by Christopher Innvar and running October 5 through October 23.

Single tickets for all remaining productions are on-sale and available at www.barringtonstageco.org or by calling 413-236-8888 or visiting the Mainstage box office (30 Union Street, Pittsfield, MA 01201).

Barrington Stage Company, a professional award-winning Equity regional theatre located in the heart of the Berkshires, in Pittsfield, MA, was co-founded in 1995 by Artistic Director JuliAnne Boyd. Barrington Stage's mission is three-fold: to present top-notch, compelling work; to develop new plays and musicals; and to find fresh, bold ways to bringing new audiences into the theatre-especially young people. Barrington Stage garnered national attention in 2004 when it premiered William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin's musical hit The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which later transferred to Broadway, where it won two Tony Awards. In 2009/2010 Barrington Stage produced the world premiere of Mark St. Germain's Freud's Last Session, which later moved Off-Broadway and played for two years. St. Germain's Becoming Dr. Ruth (which premiered at BSC as Dr. Ruth, All the Way in 2012) played Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre in fall 2013. BSC's all-time record-breaking musical, On the Town, originally presented in 2013, opened on Broadway in 2014 with BSC as a co-producer, where it was nominated for four Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival. Barrington Stage was named "Best Theatre Company" in Metroland's Best of the Capital Region 2009-2012, and was voted "Best Live Theatre" by The Berkshire Eagle readers in 2011, 2012, and 2015.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride

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