59E59 Theaters Announces Productions For 2019 Brits Off Broadway

59E59 Theaters announce the line-up of shows for 2019's Brits Off Broadway, the critically acclaimed festival dedicated to featuring the UK's most innovative and provocative theater in New York City. Brits Off Broadway begins on Tuesday, April 16 and runs through Sunday, June 30. The single ticket prices range from $25 - $70 ($20 - $49 for 59E59 Members). Tickets to Brits Off Broadway go on sale on Tuesday, February 26 at Noon, with a special pre-sale for 59E59 Members beginning Tuesday, February 19 at Noon. Tickets are available by calling 59E59 Theaters Box Office on 646-892-7999 or online at www.59e59.org.

Theater A lights up with two acclaimed productions making their NYC premieres. Torben Betts (Invincible) returns to Brits Off Broadway with CAROLINE'S KITCHEN, a glorious send-up of TV chefs and the fickle nature of celebrity. The prickly relationship between two of the world's most powerful women, Queen Elizabeth and Margaret Thatcher, are imagined in Moira Buffini's acclaimed Olivier Award-winning comedy HANDBAGGED.

Theater B launches this year's Brits Off Broadway with the side-splitting comedy INSTRUCTIONS FOR AMERICAN SERVICEMEN IN BRITAIN, based on a war-time publication that promised to school US servicemen on the exotic ways of their British counterparts. FERAL, a 2013 Fringe First Award-winner, blends performance, puppetry, film, and live animation to create an unmissable piece of stunning visual story-telling. JULIE MADLY DEEPLY, a musical ode to Julie Andrews, features songs from her iconic roles.

Theater C sparkles with KILLING TIME, a smart, spikey comedy about death and dying that stars acclaimed Scottish actress Brigit Forsyth and her daughter Zoe Mills. The deeply personal and unflinching POSTING LETTERS TO THE MOON features the touching wartime correspondence between actress Celia Johnson and her husband Peter Fleming (brother to James Bond creator Ian Fleming) performed by their daughter Lucy Fleming with Simon Williams (Upstairs Downstairs). Cheer on poor Max as he negotiates the school-yard expectations of masculinity in SQUARE GO, which features music from the Scottish indie band Frightened Rabbit.

The full 2019 Brits Off Broadway lineup:

April 16 - May 12
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AMERICAN SERVICEMEN IN BRITAIN by Dan March, Matt Sheahan, James Millard, and John Walton; directed by John Walton
Adapted with kind permission from the Bodleian Library's publication "Instructions for
American Servicemen, 1942"
With Dan March, James Millard, and Matt Sheahan
Produced by Fol Espoir in association with Jermyn Street Theatre and The Real MacGuffins
Tickets: $25 - $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members)

It's 1942 and a horde of Yankee servicemen have just arrived in England, where the locals speak a strange dialect, boil all their food, and talk endlessly about the weather. The Americans see the Brits as a strange race. Judge for yourself in a night of joyous laughter and downright silliness as a crack team of experts attempt to explain the rules of British life.

April 18 - May 12
KILLING TIME by Zoe Mills; directed by AnTony Eden
With Brigit Forsyth, Robin Herford, and Zoe Mills
Produced by Word Mills and Dead Letter Perfect in association with the Stephen Joseph Theatre
Tickets: $25 ($20 for 59E59 Members)

If you could leave the world your very last words...what would you say?

Inspired by an original cello composition by Brigit Forsyth, written by her daughter Zoe Mills, and starring both, this sparkling and spiky dark comedy explores inspiration, music, life, and the right to die.

Time is up for the vivacious Hester Brooke: celebrated cellist, wild woman, lover, mistress, friend, recluse. She's lived her life on her terms and, with a cancerous death sentence looming, she is raising a glass of Rioja to her fate with no regrets. But into her world drops Sara, an enduringly adolescent social worker obsessed with death and social media. Deep and muddy waters are stirred and death is not as easy as it looks.

April 25 - May 25
CAROLINE'S KITCHEN by Torben Betts; directed by Alastair Whatley
With Jasmyn Banks, Elizabeth Boag, Tom England, Aden Gillett, Caroline Langrishe, and James Sutton
Produced by Original Theatre Company, Ghost Light Theatre & Eilene Davidson
Tickets: $25 - $70 ($49 for 59E59 Members)

Direct from its hit London run, this searing, sharp, state of the nation comedy makes its American premiere at Brits Off Broadway.

Caroline Mortimer is the nation's favorite TV cook. In the glow of the studio lights, she has it all - a sparkling career, a big house, a (golf) loving husband, smart kids, and the best kitchen money can buy. But when the camera turns off the truth comes out, and when an unexpected guest disrupts a night of celebration, there is more to spill than just the wine.


May 14 - June 9
FERAL devised by Tortoise in a Nutshell, directed by Ross MacKay
With Alex Bird, Jim Harbourne, Arran Howie, and Matthew Leonard
Produced by Tortoise in a Nutshell / An Original Co-Production with Cumbernauld Theatre
Tickets: $25 - $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members)

Joe looks back on his bright, vibrant, and idyllic childhood town. But as Joe journeys on, walls and lives are peeled back as Joe's haven of comfort falls around him. FERAL combines puppetry, film, and live sound and animation to create - then destroy - Joe's world in front of the audience's eyes. This Fringe First Award-winning show, originally presented as a work-in-progress at the National Theatre of Scotland 's Reveal 2012, was called "technically, visually, aurally and politically...a tremendous show" by The Scotsman.


May 14 - June 2
POSTING LETTERS TO THE MOON compiled by Lucy Fleming
With Lucy Fleming and Simon Williams
Produced by Jermyn Street Theatre in association with Lucy Fleming
Tickets: $25 ($20 for 59E59 Members)

An evening of wartime letters shared between the actress Celia Johnson and her husband Peter
Fleming with Lucy Fleming (their daughter) and Simon Williams (Upstairs Downstairs).

Celia Johnson's experiences during the war come to vivid life in these touching and amusing letters to her husband. From coping with a large, isolated house full of evacuated children, learning to drive a tractor, dealing with rationing, failing at cooking, and all the while accepting offers to act: in wartime propaganda films, broadcasts, for David Lean and Noel Coward (in This Happy Breed and In Which We Serve), and ultimately, starring in the classic film Brief Encounter.

Peter Fleming, who was away for most of the war, shares his adventures working on deceptions in India and the Far East and escaping capture after a glider crash in the jungle.

Poignant and funny and highly engaging, the letters provide a fascinating historical insight into that time of true austerity and fearfulness.


June 2 - June 30
HANDBAGGED by Moira Buffini; directed by Indhu Rubasingham
With Anita Carey, Kate Fahy, Beth Hylton, John Lescault. Susan Lynskey, and Cody LeRoy Wilson
Produced by Round House Theatre
Tickets: $25 - $70 ($49 for 59E59 Members)

The Iron Lady. The Queen. Born six months apart, each woman had a destiny that would change the world. But when the stiff upper lip softened and the gloves came off, which one had the upper hand? Indhu Rubasingham, Artistic Director of the Kiln Theatre (formerly known as Tricycle Theatre), returns to direct after helming acclaimed productions at Round House, Tricycle and the West End in London. HANDBAGGED is the wickedly funny comedy that imagines what the world's most powerful women talk about behind closed palace doors.

June 5 - June 30
SQUARE GO by Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair; directed by Finn Den Hertog
With Gavin Wright and one more actor TBD
Original music by Frightened Rabbit
Produced by Francesca Moody Productions in association with Seared Productions
Tickets: $25 ($20 for 59E59 Members)

Direct from its smash-hit, sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival comes the New York premiere of the Fringe First Award-winning SQUARE GO. Max is a normal-ish kid in a normal-ish town. He spends his days daydreaming and hanging out with his weird wee pal Stevie Nimmo. But when Max is called for his first Square Go, a fight by the school gates, it's his own demons he must wrestle with first. An unmissable collaboration between award-winning writers Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair, with an original soundtrack by members of Frightened Rabbit. SQUARE GO is a raucous and hilarious new play about playground violence, myths of masculinity, and the decision to step up or run.

June 11 - June 29
JULIE MADLY DEEPLY written by Sarah-Louise Young with contributions from Russell Lucas; directed by Russell Lucas
With Michael Roulston and Sarah-Louise Young
Produced by Julie Clare Productions & New Diorama Theatre
Tickets: $25 - $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members)

The West End and Toronto hit about the life and work of showbiz legend Julie Andrews makes its US premiere. Charming yet cheeky, JULIE MADLY DEEPLY weaves songs from musicals including Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, and My Fair Lady with stories and anecdotes about Andrews' life: from her beginnings as a child star to the recent challenges of losing her famous singing voice. What emerges is a delightfully funny and candid love letter to a true show business survivor.

Photo: James Millard, Dan March in Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain. Photo by Lidia Crisafulli