John Tartaglia Leads BUYER & CELLAR, Opening Tonight at George Street Playhouse

George Street Playhouse and Artistic Director David Saint welcome New Jersey native John Tartaglia, from the original Broadway cast of Avenue Q, as well as TV's Sesame Street and the Emmy Award - nominated Johnny and the Sprites to New Brunswick as the sole cast member of Buyer & Cellar, the fourth production of the New Brunswick theatre's current season. Mr. Tartaglia will take the fictional journey to the fictional version of Barbra Streisand's fictional basement through March 29. Opening night is set for tonight, March 6. Mr. Saint helms the production.

"I am thrilled to welcome John to George Street, in this wonderful comedy by Jonathan Tolins," said Mr. Saint. "He has the perfect combination of comic timing and an innate likability that works so well for this character."

Tickets, starting at $28, are now on sale, as are flexible and affordable admission packages, through the George Street Playhouse Box Office, 732-246-7717 or the Playhouse website: www.GSPonline.org. George Street Playhouse is located at 9 Livingston Avenue, in the heart of New Brunswick's dynamic downtown, steps away from parking and dining for every palate and pocketbook. When planning your visit to George Street, check out GSPonline.org for parking and dining suggestions.

Taking Ms. Streisand's coffee table book My Passion for Design as its jumping off point, Buyer & Cellar is the fictional tale of an underemployed actor who becomes curator of her vast collection of costumes, dolls, clocks and other ephemera which is arranged as a shopping mall in the basement of her Malibu Beach compound (which is the focus of the book). In the course of his fictional employment, he becomes shopkeeper, confidant and drama coach to the famous actress. As the Associated Press remarked on the New York production: "Streisand won't likely be coming, but you should!"

Creating the world of the play are original Scenic Designer Andrew Boyce; lighting designer Christopher J. Bailey and Projection Designer Alex Koch. Casting is by Mc Corkle Casting, Pat McCorkle, Casting Director, Katja Zarolinski, Associate.

John Tartaglia might best be known as executive producer, creator and star of the 8-time Emmy nominated Johnny and the Sprites, now airing worldwide. He himself received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Performance in a Children's Series. He earned a Tony Award nomination for his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning musical, Avenue Q, in which he originated the roles of Princeton and Rod. Other roles on Broadway include starring as Lumiere in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and most recently, the role of Pinocchio in Shrek The Musical. A 12-year veteran of Sesame Street, Tartaglia is one of the youngest puppeteers ever to perform on the show, starting at the age of 16. In addition to his work on Sesame Street,he also starred in the Children's Television Workshop's innovative English as a Foreign Language project, Sesame English, which currently airs worldwide. Tartaglia has also appeared on Ugly Betty, Hollywood Squares, Disney Channel's Bear in the Big Blue House and JoJo's Circus and Discovery Channel's Animal Jam. He is currently developing several new live shows including directing The Musical Worlds of Jim Henson at Carnegie Hall. He is a past host of the New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts. John's production company, Gables Grove Productions (co-founded with Michael Shawn Lewis) is dedicated to creating new, immersive and multi-media family entertainment.

Jonathan Tolins (Playwright) is the author of Buyer & Cellar, which was named Best Unique Theatrical Experience by the Off-Broadway Alliance when it premiered at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Other plays include The Twilight of the Golds (Broadway, Booth Theatre), If Memory Serves (Promenade), The Last Sunday in June (Rattlestick, Century Center) and Secrets of the Trade (Primary Stages). A collection of his plays has been published by Grove/Atlantic. His film work includes The Twilight of the Golds and Martian Child. For television, he was a writer for "Queer as Folk," The Academy Awards, The Tony Awards and "Partners." He was the author of Pushkin 200: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall, acted as script consultant on Walking with Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular, and co-wrote The Divine Millennium Tour and The Showgirl Must Go On for Bette Midler. He has written articles for Opera News, Opera Monthly, TheaterWeek, Time magazine and The Huffington Post, and is a panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Radio Quiz. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America.

David Saint is in his 17th season as Artistic Director of George Street Playhouse. In that time, he has directed 33 mainstage productions, most recently Outside Mullingar, Clever Little Lies which is slated for its New York debut in 2015, Good People, Twelve Angry Men, God of Carnage, Creating Claire and Sylvia. His time here has been marked by collaborations with such artists as Keith Carradine, Tyne Daly, Rachel Dratch, Sandy Duncan, Boyd Gaines, A.R. Gurney, Uta Hagen, Jack Klugman, Dan Lauria, Kathleen Marshall, Elaine May, Anne Meara, David Hyde Pierce, Chita Rivera, Paul Rudd, Stephen Sondheim, Marlo Thomas, Eli Wallach and many others, including a remarkable partnership with Arthur Laurents. In addition, many new award-winning works have begun their life here during his tenure, such as The Toxic Avenger, Proof, The Spitfire Grill, Clever Little Lies and It Shoulda Been You. He most recently directed Clever Little Lies at Guild Hall in East Hampton, N.Y, and the National Tour of West Side Story. He also has directed on Broadway, off-Broadway and regionally at Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Primary Stages, McCarter, Williamstown, Seattle Rep, Pasadena Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public, Long Wharf and many others on premieres by writers such as Aaron Sorkin, Wendy Wasserstein, Peter Parnell, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Joe Di Pietro and Jonathan Larson. He is the recipient of the Alan Schneider Award, Helen Hayes Award, L.A. Drama Critics Award, several Drama-Logue Awards and is the President of The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director David Saint, George Street Playhouse has become a nationally recognized theatre, presenting an acclaimed mainstage season while providing an artistic home for established and emerging theatre artists. Kelly Ryman was appointed Managing Director in 2013. Founded in 1974, the Playhouse has been well represented by numerous productions both on and off-Broadway - recent productions include the Outer Critics' Circle Best Musical Award-winner The Toxic Avenger; the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Drama League nominated production of The Spitfire Grill; and the recent Broadway hit and Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play Proof by David Auburn, which was developed at GSP during the 1999 Next Stage Series of new plays. In 2015, George Street Playhouse will be represented by two productions in New York: the Broadway production of It Shoulda Been You, scheduled to open in April, and Joe DiPietro's Clever Little Lies, opening off-Broadway in March. Both shows received their premieres at the Playhouse. In addition to its mainstage season, GSP's Touring Theatre features four issue-oriented productions that are seen by more than 40,000 students annually. Buyer and Cellar is made possible in part through the generous support of The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation. George Street Playhouse programming is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Photo Credit: T. Charles Erickson

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