Ghetto Klown, John Leguizamo's fifth HBO solo special, will tape Nov. 16 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. Adapting his Drama Desk Award-winning one-man stage show of the same name, the exclusive presentation will debut on the network in 2014.
"
John Leguizamo's one-man shows are always electrifying, thought-provoking entertainment," noted
Michael Lombardo, president,
HBO Programming. "The provocative
Ghetto Klown is the latest chapter in a longtime partnership that has been highly rewarding for HBO, and for our viewers."
Written by Leguizamo,
Ghetto Klown will be directed by
Fisher Stevens, who directed the Broadway production and national tour.
Arnold Engelman, who produced the live show, also produces the
HBO special.
Leguizamo has described the show in Playbill as
Being "about my journey as an artist, what made me want to be an actor, and why I put up with all the nonsense, the successes and failures, the hitting bottom and then picking yourself up again."
Writing about
Ghetto Klown, the Los Angeles Times described Leguizamo as "a nuclear performer...true to his ghetto roots" and the New York Times said that the show "is enlivened by substantial doses of Mr. Leguizamo's brash, impish humor."
John Leguizamo's previous
HBO specials, all of which were adaptations of his hit one-man stage shows, include "Mambo Mouth" (1991), "Spic-O-Rama" (1993), "Freak" (1998), for which he won an Emmy, and "Sexaholic...A Love Story" (2002).
Ghetto Klown is produced by Rebel Productions, Insurgent Films and Silver Lining Entertainment; executive producers,
John Leguizamo,
Fisher Stevens, Jeff Golenberg and Sam Maydew. The Broadway production "
Ghetto Klown" was originally produced by
Westbeth Entertainment,
Daveed D. Frazier and
Nelle Nugent.
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