NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY Runs At The Colony Theatre Company 4/15 - 5/17

The Colony Theatre Company presents the fifth and final production of its 2008 – 2009 season, the Los Angeles premiere of the Off-Broadway, Smash-Hit Musical Thriller, No Way to Treat a Lady, book, music and lyrics by Douglas J. Cohen, (based on the novel by William Goldman) and co-directed by West Hyler and Shelley Butler.  No Way to Treat a Lady will preview on Wednesday, April 15; Thursday, April 16 and Friday, April 17 at 8:00pm and will open on Saturday, April 18 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday, May 17 at The Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street (at Cypress) adjacent to the Burbank Town Center.

Based on the novel by William Goldman (The Princess Bride, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) which was adapted as a movie of the same name, this captivating, musical gives new meaning to "knock 'em dead." A serial killer is on the loose, and Detective Morris Brummell is on the case.

Can he find the killer, get the girl, and appease his disappointed mother -- all before the next chorus?  It's a game of cat and mouse -- a tour de force with 4 actors playing 17 roles -- and a murderously good time! Winner of the Richard Rodgers Award.

Douglas J. Cohen (Music/Lyrics/Book) is the composer/lyricist of the Broadway bound The Big Time, an original musical with a book by Douglas Carter Beane, directed by Christopher Ashley, produced by Robert Ahrens, which has been announced for the La Jolla Playhouse, November 2009.  He was awarded two Richard Rodgers Grants and the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Theatre Foundation Award for No Way to Treat a Lady (previously produced twice off-Broadway) and The Gig (MTC Stage II, California Musical Theatre, York Theatre Company concert on Jay Records CD).  Both have been optioned by producer Larry Hirschhorn.  Nominated for a 2005 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics for Children’s Letters to God (off-Broadway’s Lamb’s Theatre), Doug is composer/lyricist/co-librettist for The Opposite of Sex,  based on Don Roos’ acclaimed film (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Magic Theatre); composer of Barnstormer (Hartford Stage Co. festival, upcoming production at Red Mountain Theatre Co.);  Glimmerglass (Goodspeed, Spirit of Broadway production – voted Best Production of the Year); librettist-lyricist of Valentino’s Tango, composer of A Charles Dickens Christmas (licensed through MTI); and composer-lyricist of off-Broadway’s Boozy, created by the Obie Award-winning Les Freres Corbusier.  He is currently working on a new musical based on a Frank D. Gilroy novel, as well as an original play, A Violation of Trust.

West Hyler (Co-Director) is the associate director of the blockbuster musical Jersey Boys and has mounted companies of the show in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Toronto, and he will travel to Australia following the opening of No Way to Treat a Lady to begin work on the Melbourne production. He has directed over 40 plays, working at theatres such as Actors Theater of Louisville, The Guthrie Theater, and Trinity Repertory Company, and has been a member of a directing team on Broadway twice in the past three years. He co-created the play We Declare You a Terrorist which won a new play award from Actors Theater of Louisville in 2001 and was recently accepted into the New Harmony Project. His screenplay Five Jakes and Tom was a finalist in the Screamfest competition and was recently awarded a production grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission and will begin pre-production in July. He served as Artistic Director of Magic Carpet Children’s Theater in Fort Lauderdale and then of Mythmakers Theater Company, based in Georgetown, South Carolina. He worked as Head of the Drama Program at the Fine Arts Center Magnet High School in Greenville from 2001 to 2002. West received his Master of Fine Arts degree in directing from University of California at San Diego.

Shelley Butler (Co-Director) comes straight from the directing team of the Broadway production of Guys & Dolls. She is thrilled to be making her Colony debut and happy to be back in Los Angeles, where she's directed several productions at South Coast Repertory.  Recent directing credits include Charles L. Mee’s Agamemnon 2.0 (Cadbury Theatre, UK), The Nightshade Family (SPF on Theatre Row), the New York premiere of Adam Rapp's Mistral (Drama League), Charlotte's Web, James and the Giant Peach (South Coast Repertory), Kid Simple (UNC PAPT), the world premiere of Eric Coble's Straight On 'Til Morning (Great Lakes Theater Festival), Gerald Freedman's A Christmas Carol (Great Lakes Theater Festival), Karen Hartman's Gum (Red Hen Productions), Much Ado About Nothing (Powerhouse Theater), Romeo and Juliet (Beck Center), Steel Magnolias (Porthouse Theater), The Normal Heart (Cleveland Artists' Group), concert performances of The Savages of Hartford and Gizmo Love (Hartford Stage Brand: NEW), and Incendiary (South Coast Rep).  Shelley spent two seasons as the artistic associate for Hartford Stage overseeing new play development, three seasons as artistic associate for Great Lakes Theater Festival and a season as readings and workshops producer for New York Stage and Film.  Shelley is a member of The Lincoln Center Director's Lab, Women's Project's 2005 Directors Forum, NYU's First Look Director's Company, a Drama League Directing Fellow, a 2005 DGA Trainee with rotations on ER, Bones, The Unit and multiple pilots.  Coming next: The Brand New Kid at South Coast Rep.

Dean Mora (Musical Director) is happy to be back at The Colony Theatre, having previously worked on The Immigrant.  Other musical direction credits include Seesaw, The Dead, The Threepenny Opera, Do Re Mi, Side By Side By Sondheim, Lady MacBeth Sings The Blues (Ovation Award Winner, Best Musical Direction), Jacques Brel Is Alive ..., The World Goes Round, A Little Night Music, Pump Boys and Dinettes, City of Angels, Two By Two, Baby, Man of La Mancha, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Forever Plaid, The Sound of Music, Weird Romance, Quilters, The Boyfriend, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, The Fantasticks, and Godspell. Outside of the theatre world, Dean leads his own big band.

Heather Lee (Flora, Alexandra, Carmella, Mrs. Sullivan, Sadie) created the role of stripper Tessie Tura in the Broadway revival of Gypsy starring Bernadette Peters and directed by Academy Award-winner Sam Mendes. She originated the role of Babette, "the saucy-French-maid-turned-Feather Duster" in the first national production of Disney's Beauty & the Beast at the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles and made her Broadway debut in Guys & Dolls directed by Jerry Zaks.  Regional credits include the re-imagining of The Wiz as Addaperle-the-Good-Witch-of-the-North, Palm Beach: The Screwball Musical and Elmer Gantry, all at La Jolla Playhouse and directed by Des McAnuff; The Foreigner (Atlanta’s ALLIANCE THEATRE), The Rocky Horror Show (New Mexico Rep), the Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd (Sacramento Music Circus) as well as numerous roles at various CLO’s across the country.  In the Los Angeles area she starred as ruthless Beauty Queen Diana Devereaux opposite Gregory Harrison in Of Thee I Sing at Reprise!, A New Brain (Reprise!),  Doris McAfee in Bye Bye Birdie (CLOSBC),  Dolly Tate in Annie Get Your Gun (CLOSBC), Tintypes (Rubicon Theatre), First Lady Suite (The Blank Theatre), Expecting Isabel (Mark Taper Forum), and Birds (South Coast Rep).  Television credits include: the new ABC pilot “My American Family,” “Bouncers” (series regular), “Desperate Housewives,” “Numb3rs,” “According to Jim,” “NYPD Blue,” “Wings,” “Frasier,” and many others.  Heather appeared as a soloist at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series in Michael John La Chiusa’s The Girly Show.  Recordings: Carols for a Cure, First Lady Suite, and Gypsy (Grammy Award for Best Show Album).

Jack Noseworthy (Christopher “Kit” Gill) was born and raised in Massachusetts and is a proud graduate of The Boston Conservatory.  Jack’s career has taken him from the Broadway stage to film, television, and music videos.  Some film credits include the yet-to-be-released Pretty Ugly People as well as Phat Girlz, Undercover Brother, Poster Boy, U-571, Unconditional Love, Breakdown, Event Horizon, The Brady Bunch Movie, Barb Wire, Cecil B. DeMented and Alive. He has had the good fortune to work with such varied directors as P.J Hogan, Paul Anderson, Betty Thomas, John Waters, and Jonathan Mostow.  On television, he played a suspected rapist on “CSI,” a child molester on  “Law & Order: SVU,” a rogue cop on “Crossing Jordan,” an arsonist and stalker on “Judging Amy,” the only son of a spaceship on “The Outer Limits,” and, finally, a nice FBI agent on “Law & Order.”  Jack also has the distinction of being the series lead on MTV’s first scripted series, “Dead At 21.”  Early in his career,  Jack toured in the musical Cats, made his Broadway debut in the original company of Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, and was the final actor to be cast in the original run of the Broadway blockbuster A Chorus Line.  His personal opening night in that show – which was 17 years after show opened on Broadway – was the same day they announced the show would be closing – so, basically, Jack shut it down.  Other favorite roles include Alan Strang in Equus (L.A. Drama Critics’ Award for Best Actor), Pippin at the Papermill Playhouse, and the role of Dallas in Sweet Smell of Success opposite John Lithgow and composed by Marvin Hamlisch, who apparently forgave him for shutting down A Chorus Line.

Erica Piccininni (Sarah Stone) recently moved to Los Angeles from New York, where she was a member of the original Broadway cast of the Tony Award-winning musical Jersey Boys (Lorraine). Just prior to moving to L.A., she played Luisa in the Off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks, directed by writer and creator Tom Jones.  Erica also originated the role of Liz in Palm Beach: The Screwball Musical at its premiere at La Jolla Playhouse.  In addition to various other regional theatre productions, she has appeared in many national commercials. Television credits include “Medium,” “Lie To Me,” and “Numb3rs,” and films include Wilderness.

Kevin Symons (Morris Brummell) is very pleased to be in his sixth production at The Colony Theatre.  Previously he appeared in Rounding Third, Stage Struck, Gunmetal Blues, The Nerd, and Bea[u]tiful in the Extreme.  Most recently, he played George in Rubicon Theatre’s production of She Loves Me.  At Laguna  Playhouse, he appeared in Leaving Iowa, Alexandros, Shear Madness, The Constant Wife, Rounding Third, Tabletop, and Spinning Into Butter.  Other theatre credits include Twice Upon A Time (South Bay Cities CLO); Wicked City Blues (York Theatre, Off-Broadway); New World (MET Theatre); Tallulah and Tennessee with Betty Garrett, The Trial of Othello, Baby Cradle and All with Lee Meriwether, and Steve Allen’s A Christmas Carol (Theatre West); Demon Wine with Tom Waits and Bill Pullman, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and Boys’ Life (Los Angeles Theatre Center); Our Town (Grove Shakespeare); Finding the Sun directed by Edward Albee, and The Hairy Ape directed by Jose Quintero.  On television, he was a series regular on the NBC comedy Darcy’s Wild Life and has numerous other appearances including recurring and guest star roles on “My Name Is Earl,” “United States of Tara,” “Numb3rs,” “Mad Men,” “Big Shots,” “Shark,” “Drive,” “iCarly,” “Medium,” “Veronica Mars,” “Joan of Arcadia,” “The West Wing,” “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” “Passions,” “Models, Inc.,” and HBO’s “Indictment.”  Film credits include Alvin and the Chipmunks, Terminator II, Valhalla, The Little Death, The Wild Side, and A New Tomorrow.

No Way to Treat a Lady has assembled an award-winning design team.  The Scenic Design is by Sibyl Wickersheimer (Our Mother’s Brief Affair, A Little Night Music). The Costume Design is by Paloma Young (You, Nero and Charlotte's Web at South Coast Repertory).  The Lighting Design is by Jeremy Pivnick (Mary’s Wedding, The Voice of the Prairie ). The Sound Design is by Drew Dalzell (The Immigrant, and Grand Hotel, The Musical).  Prop Design is by Colony Theatre resident designers MacAndME.

No Way to Treat a Lady will open on Saturday, April 18 and perform through Sunday, May 17, 2009.  Performances for No Way to Treat a Lady are Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm, and Sundays at 2:00pm and 7:00pm. There will be additional performances on Saturday, April 25 & Saturday, May 2 at 3pm and Thursday, May 7 & Thursday, May 14 at 8pm. Ticket prices range from $37.00 - $42.00 (student, senior and group discounts are available).  Preview performances are Wednesday, April 15; Thursday, April 16 and Friday, April 17 at 8:00pm. Preview Tickets are $20.00 - $25.00.            

Opening night performance with reception - all tickets $50.00.  There are question-and-answer talkbacks after the performances on Friday, April 24, and Thursday, May 7.  For tickets, call the Colony Theatre Box Office at 818/558-7000 ext. 15 or online at www.colonytheatre.org.     
                     
The award-winning Colony Theatre Company is Burbank's premiere professional theatre. It was voted "Best Live Theatre in L.A." in The Daily News 2006 Readers' Choice poll, and has been named one of "25 Notable U.S. Theatre Companies" by Encyclopedia Britannica Almanac for 6 years in a row.

The Colony Theatre Company is a 34-year old organization dedicated to bringing the finest-quality theatrical productions to Los Angeles. The theatre is located at 555 North Third Street, at the corner of Cypress, in the heart of Downtown Burbank. For further information, call (818) 558-7000. Fax: (818) 558-7110. E-mail: colonytheatre@colonytheatre.org. Or visit their website at www.colonytheatre.org.

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