Jerry Zaks to Helm HARPS AND ANGELS at Mark Taper Forum

The Los Angeles Times reports that famed director Jerry Zaks will helm the world premiere of the Randy Newman musical project, "Harps and Angels," which is set to close out the Mark Taper Forum's 2010 season next fall.

Conceived by Jack Viertel, the musical will feature previously composed songs is described as a "frequently satirical commentary on being born and growing up in the U.S."

"Harps" will include the songs "I Love L.A.," "I Think It's Going to Rain Today," "Sail Away," "Marie," "Rednecks," "My Country," "Louisiana 1927," "Feels Like Home" and "You've Got a Friend in Me." Previews begin Nov. 10 and run Nov. 21-Dec. 19, 2010. 

Harps and Angels was the title of Randy Newman's first studio album of all new material in nearly a decade is, and remarked as "by turns, hilarious, poignant and scathingly satirical. Harps and Angels often has an easy going Crescent City feel, with Newman on piano fronting a small combo and revealing, as Rolling Stone put it after the Carnegie Hall show, his serious love and study of the New Orleans piano tradition."

Center Theatre Group, a non-profit organization, is one of the largest and most active theatre companies in the nation, programming subscription seasons year-round at the 739-seat Mark Taper Forum and the 1,600 to 2,000-seat Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center of Los Angeles, and the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to providing theatre of the highest caliber to the rich, diverse communities of Southern California and beyond, CTG supports a significant number of play development and arts education initiatives.

Jerry Zaks most recently directed Chazz Palminteri's A Bronx Tale on Broadway as well as the acclaimed City Center Encores! productions of Girl Crazy and Stairway to Paradise and the National Tour of 101 Dalmatians. He will soon direct Michael Feinstein and Dame Edna in All About Me for its Broadway premiere.  He has received four Tony® Awards, four Drama Desks, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, on Obie and an NAACP Image Award nomination for his national tour of The Tap Dance Kid. He has directed more than 30 productions in New York, including Guys and Dolls (Tony Award), Six Degrees of Separation (Tony Award), Lend Me A Tenor (Tony Award), House of Blue Leaves (Tony Award), A Funny Thing...Forum (Tony Award nomination), Smokey Joe's Café (Tony Award nomination), Anything Goes (Tony Award nomination), La Cage aux Folles (Tony Award, Outstanding Musical Revival), The Foreigner (Obie Award), The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award), The Caine Mutiny Court Marshal, Little Shop of Horrors, The Man Who Came to Dinner, A Bad Friend, The Front Page, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Assassins (Drama Desk nomination), Wenceslas Square, Sister Mary Ignatius..., and Beyond Therapy. Since 1990 he has been proudly affiliated with Jujamcyn Theaters.

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski

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