Railway Theater Presents CAR TALK, 6/14-8/12

Beginning June 14, Underground Railway Theater and Suffolk University present the World Premiere of Car Talk: The Musical!!! with books, lyrics, and direction by Wesley Savick, and original music by Michael Wartofsky. The production runs from June 14 through August 12, 2012.

A new musical comedy inspired by the legendary National Public Radio show, Car Talk. Our hero – the overweight, always-late invertebrate Rusty Fenders – has racked up as many miles as his '93 KIA. Attempting to salvage happiness from the junkyard of his life, he collides with his ruthless boss Beaulah Gasket, his unrequited office romance Sheila, and the red-hot fantasy car Miata C. LaChassis. Can the Wizard of Cahs put the brakes on Rusty's musical wipe-out? Performed in Central Square, only a tomato's throw away from the Good News Garage in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Our Fair City). Car Talk: The Musical!!! is low-brow, high-octane fun. Car and Theater Magazine named this show the "best automotive musical of the twenty-first century, so far."

Car Talk: The Musical!!! features book, lyrics, and direction by Wesley Savick (Einstein's Dreams, Tru Grace: A Holiday Memoir, Yesterday Happened: Remembering H.M.) and original music by Berklee Professor Michael Wartofsky who composed the music for Cupcake, which is currently enjoying its world premiere at Club Café in Boston.

Car Talk: The Musical!!! features and award-winning cast including Scott H. Severance as our hero Rusty Fenders, Leigh Barrett as his unrequited office romance Sheila, and one of Boston's top comic musical theater performers, Maureen Keiller as his ruthless boss Beulah Gasket. The ensemble draws on the singing and dancing talents of Tiffany Chen (who returns from the Suffolk University student production to perform the role of Miata C. LaChassis), Diego Klock-Perez, Edward Tolve, Jonathan Luke Stevens, Christian Denzel Bufford, Elyse Collier, and Sarah Crane. Additionally, Car Talk: The Musical!!! features the voice-overs of Tom and Ray Magliozzi otherwise known as Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers.

Wesley Savick (book, lyrics, and direction) has directed or acted in over 80 professional productions, almost all new works, including world premieres by Christopher Durang, Shel Silverstein, Derek Walcott, Howard Zinn, and Robert Brustein. He has also written, co-written or adapted 20 produced plays. Mr. Savick is a tenured Professor at Suffolk University.

Michael Wartofsky (original music) Music/lyrics, The Man In My Head (New York Musical Theater Festival 2006 starring Darius de Haas) and Running Back, with Marcus Gardley. Composer, Cupcake, currently running at Boston's Club Café featuring Karen MacDonald. For North Shore Music Theater, Mr. Wartofsky composed The Navigator and Friendship of the Sea. Professor, Berklee College; adjunct faculty/alumnus, NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.

The artistic and design team includes music director Scott Nicholas, choreographer Michelle Chassé, Susan Zeeman Rogers (scenic), Seth Bodie (costumes), Jeff Adelberg (lighting), David Remedios (sound), Sam

Sewell (properties), and David Fichter and Will Cabell (puppetry). Dominique D. Burford is the production stage manager and Alycia Marucci is the assistant stage manager.

Car Talk: The Musical!!! will be performed beginning June 14 at Central Square Theater at 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Our Fair City).

Ticket prices start at $20 with discounts for students, seniors, and groups. Student rush is $20 one hour before curtain with valid ID.

For tickets or more information, the public is invited to call 617.576.9278 or visit CentralSquareTheater.org.

In March 2011, the Suffolk University Theatre Department launched the first student production of Car Talk: the Musical!!! to sold out audiences and great acclaim at the new Modern Theatre. Suffolk has a long-term commitment to nurturing new work. Mr. Savick has written and directed new plays and adapted classics for the Theatre Department. In 2004, he launched The National Theatre of Allston to create new experimental, political theatre in Boston with Suffolk alumni. Suffolk University's Boston Music Theatre Project is another Theatre Department program that links Suffolk students to professional musical theatre artists and the process of developing new musicals. These activities all provide distinctive opportunities for Suffolk students and help prepare them for the professional theatre.

Underground Railway Theater has a history of developing new work ranging from puppet spectacles commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra (classics like Stravinsky's Firebird, and a concert version of Shakespeare's Tempest) to cabarets (The Christopher Columbus Follies, InTOXICating, and Washed-Up Middle-Aged Women). Resident Scenic and Puppet Designer David Fichter, who recent won the 2011 IRNE Award for Best Puppetry for the production of Arabian Nights during the 2011-2012 Season designs the puppetry for Car Talk: The Musical!!! Mr. Fichter designed the original puppet for the Suffolk University student production at the Modern Theatre.

Since the first student production of Car Talk: The Musical!!! the script has gone through further development with new songs being composed as a result of the casting of the World Premiere run at Central Square Theater.

Car Talk: The Musical!!! plays at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Our Fair City), Thursday, June 14 through August 12, 2012. Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30PM, Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 3PM and 8 PM and Sundays at 2PM. Tickets may be purchased by calling 866.811.4111, at the Central Square Theater box office, or online at CentralSquareTheater.org. For box office hours, group discounts and more information please call 617.576.9278 x210.

Central Square Theater (CST) is a 4-year-old nonprofit organization, created through a groundbreaking partnership between The Nora Theatre Company (The Nora) and Underground Railway Theater (URT). This collaboration has been called a model for the arts community (The Boston Foundation, Culture is our Commonwealth, and The National Collaboration Prize), as it has paired two like-minded performing arts organizations in a strategic alliance with the City of Cambridge and MIT, resulting in the development of a state-of-the-art performing arts center in the heart of Central Square. CST has a mission to support its two theaters-in-residence while maintaining a shared vision of artists and audiences creating theater vital to their communities. The Nora and URT have a combined 52-year track record of producing award-winning theater. Located in Central Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and steeped in its multiracial, intergenerational, ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods, the CST theater experience exudes a democratic energy where classes, races and age groups come together to be inspired, entertained and energized.

Central Square Theater's 2012-2013 Season includes the World Premiere of CAR TALK: THE MUSICAL!!! by Wesley Savick & Michael Wartofsky (June 14 - August 12, 2012), presented by Underground Railway Theater and Suffolk University; The New England Premiere THE HOW AND THE WHY by Sarah Treem presented by The Nora Theatre Company (September 27 – October 21, 2012); ARABIAN NIGHTS adapted by Dominic Cooke, co-produced by The Nora Theatre Company and Underground Railway Theater (November 23 - December 30, 2012); THE MOUNTAINTOP by Katori Hall, presented by Underground Railway Theater (January 10 - February 3, 2013); The World Premiere of OPERATION EPSILON by Alan Brody, presented by The Nora Theatre Company (March 7 – April 28, 2013); and DISTRACTED by Lisa Loomer presented by Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, a science-theater collaboration between Underground Railway Theater and MIT (May 9 - June 2, 2013).

All productions are performed at Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Central Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Central Square Theater is accessible to persons with special needs and to those requiring wheelchair seating.

For further information please call 617.576.9278 x210 or visit CentralSquareTheater.org.

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