Goodman Theatre Announces Full Creative Team For ANIMAL CRACKERS

Goodman Theatre is proud to announce the complete creative team for the 2009/2010 season opening musical Animal Crackers, written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, with music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. Director Henry Wishcamper taps Tony Award-nominee John Carrafa (Sex and the City; Broadway's Urinetown, Into the Woods) to choreograph The cast of nine, including the four roles originated by the Marx Brothers, joined by Chicago favorites, Clowning Director Paul Kalina (500 Clown's Elephant Deal and Macbeth) and Music Director Doug Peck (Court Theatre's Carousel; Caroline, or Change).

The creative team for Animal Crackers is completed by Set Designer Robin Vest (Playwrights Horizons' Pen; Rattlestick's Acts of Mercy); Costume Designer Jenny Mannis (Atlantic Theatre's Port Authority; Playwrights Horizons' Drunken City); Lighting Designer Matthew Richards (The Old Globe Theatre's The Women; Manhattan Class Company's Grace) and Sound Designer Richard Woodbury (Goodman Theatre's King Lear, Broadway's Desire Under the Elms). Animal Crackers runs September 18 - October 25, 2009 in the Goodman's Albert Theatre. Tickets are $25 - $76 and go on sale Friday, August 14 at GoodmanTheatre.org. Production Sponsors for Animal Crackers include Abbott, Mayer Brown LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Goodman Theatre's Women's Board.

"We have such a terrific creative team for Animal Crackers," exclaims Director Henry Wishcamper. "With John's sense of humor, versatility and inventiveness, together with Doug's energy, taste and playful intelligence and Paul's skill with clowning and a kinetic, athletic approach to physical comedy-we're set to have a very exciting revival of this Marx Brothers classic. We are all very different as artists but we share a similar sensibility and a playful approach to our work. I believe the result will be a fun, inventive and infectious show."

About the Creative Team

Choreographer John Carrafa has received two Tony Award nominations (Urinetown: The Musical, Into the Woods) and an OBIE Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Dora Award and nominations for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards (Urinetown: The Musical). Other Broadway credits include Dirty Blonde; Love! Valour! Compassion! with Nathan Lane; Dance of Death with Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren; Dance of the Vampires and Good Vibrations for which he was also Director. Carrafa was a 2007 Media Choreography Honoree for the Robert Zemeckis film The Polar Express starring Tom Hanks, in which he pioneered the use of motion capture technology to create dances for film. He has choreographed more than 20 other feature films including The Thomas Crown Affair with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo, The Last Days of Disco, Earthly Possessions with Susan Sarandon, Love! Valour! Compassion! and most recently Bride Wars starring Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway. For television he was a regular choreographer for Sex and the City. Off-Broadway and regionally he has worked with writers such as Sarah Ruhl, Wendy Wasserstein, A.R. Gurney, Terrance McNally and Paula Vogel. Recent productions include the Weill/Brecht musical Happy End at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, This Beautiful City with The Civilians at Vineyard Theater, Eurydice and All's Well That Ends Well at Yale Repertory Theatre.

Clowning Director Paul Kalina is a founding member of the Chicago Physical Theatre company 500 Clown and has performed their shows all over the United States and England including PS 122 in New York, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Lookingglass Theatre Company and Orange County Performing Arts Center. He was the Movement Director for Closer at Steppenwolf and Court Theatre's production of Romance Cycle. Kalina co-created the clown duo Le Pamplemousse and the critically acclaimed clown acrobatic duo The Bumblinni Brothers. He was the 2006 recipient of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers National Directing Fellowship at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He has taught acting, directing, clowning, mask and physical theater for The Actors Gymnasium, Lookingglass Theatre Company, University of Chicago, University of Idaho, Boise State University, Columbia College, The Big Apple Circus and DePaul School of Theatre. Paul is a represented artist with Cirque du Soleil and Assistant Professor of Movement at the University of Iowa.

Music Director Doug Peck makes his Goodman Theatre debut. A three-time Jeff Award winner (seven nominations) and two-time After Dark Award winner, Peck has music directed at Court Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Marriott Lincolnshire, Apple Tree Theatre, Northlight Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Ravinia Festival, Peninsula Players, Porchlight, American Theatre Company, and Wagon Wheel Theatre. Credits include Caroline, or Change; Carousel; Man of La Mancha; Raisin; Guys and Dolls; James Joyce's The Dead; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; Little Women; Shenandoah; Wings; Dessa Rose; Hello Again; Grey Gardens; Cabaret; Curtains; Seussical!; Fiorello!; Camelot; The Most Happy Fella; Into the Woods and Assassins. Peck can be heard on the original cast album of Loving Repeating: A Musical of Gertrude Stein. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and also trained at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. Upcoming projects include Oh, Coward! at Writers' Theatre and Fiddler on the Roof at Marriott Lincolnshire.

In Animal Crackers, chaos ensues at the estate of Mrs. Rittenhouse when a celebrated sculpture is stolen during a party honoring the African explorer Captain Spaulding. A series of madcap Marx Brothers antics follows as the guests set out to find the burglar. The cast of Animal Crackers includes Joey Slotnick as Captain "Jeffrey T. Spaulding," the Groucho Marx's role; Molly Brennan as "The Professor," Harpo Marx's role; Jonathan Brody as "Emanuel Ravelli," Chico Marx's role; Ed Kross as "Horatio Jamison," Zeppo Marx's role; Ora Jones as Mrs. Rittenhouse; Jessie Mueller as Grace Carpenter; Tony Yazbeck as Wally Winston; Mara Davi as Arabella Rittenhouse and Stanley Wayne Mathis as Hives.

Tickets are currently available by season subscription - www.ExploreTheGoodman.org or call 312.443.3800. Individual tickets ($25 - $76) go on sale August 14 (online at GoodmanTheatre.org) and August 17 (by phone at 312.443.3800). Tickets can also be purchased at the box office (170 North Dearborn). Mezztix are half-price mezzanine tickets available at 12 noon at the box office, and at 10am online (promo code MEZZTIX) day of performance; Mezztix are not available by telephone. 10Tix are $10 mezzanine tickets for students available at 12 noon at the box office, and at 10am online on the day of performance; 10Tix are not available by telephone. Valid student I.D. must be presented when picking up the tickets. Limit four per student with I.D. All tickets are subject to availability and handling fees apply. Discounted Group Tickets for 10 persons or more are available at 312.443.3820.

 

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