CLIVE, Starring Ethan Hawke, Begins Performances

The New Group presents the world premiere of Clive, written by Jonathan Marc Sherman and directed by and featuring Ethan Hawke in the title role. This production features Brooks Ashmanskas, Vincent D'Onofrio, Stephanie Janssen, Mahira Kakkar, Zoe Kazan, Aaron Krohn, Dana Lyn and Jonathan Marc Sherman, with Music and Sound Sculptures by GAINES. Clive plays a limited Off-Broadway engagement January 17 through March 9 at The New Group at Theatre Row (The Acorn Theatre / 410 West 42nd Street). Official Opening Night is Thursday, February 7 at 7:00pm.

Inspired by Bertolt Brecht's inflammatory play Baal, Clive tracks a dissipated songwriter in 1990s New York City from the hedonistic heights of seduction and consumption into an ecstasy of self-destruction. This production reunites playwright Jonathan Marc Sherman and director Ethan Hawke, who teamed previously at The New Group on Things We Want (written by Sherman, directed by Hawke, 2007 extended run). At once a celebration and a nightmare vision of life lived for pleasure, Clive boasts an eclectic selection of classic American songs performed live.

Ethan Hawke appears in the title role, joined by Brooks Ashmanskas (B'way: Promises, Promises, Present Laughter, The Ritz, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me (Tony nom.), The Producers, Gypsy, Little Me, Dream, How to Succeed...; Film: Julie & Julia, Little Children), Vincent D'Onofrio (B'way: Open Admissions; Off-B'way: Tooth of Crime (Second Dance); Film: Full Metal Jacket, Mystic Pizza, Adventures in Babysitting, Steal This Movie, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, Chelsea Walls, Happy Accidents, The Player, Ed Wood, Strange Days, Stuart Saves His Family, Men in Black, The Whole Wide World, JFK and the Academy Award-winning short The New Tenants; TV credits include "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "HOMICIDE: Life on the Street"-Emmy award nom.), Stephanie Janssen (B'way: Death of a Salesman, Mrs. Warren's Profession; Off-B'way: Ivanov, Blackbird), Mahira Kakkar (Off-B'way: Harper Regan, Miss Witherspoon, Opus, Sophistry, No Word in Guyanese for Me), Zoe Kazan (B'way: A Behanding in Spokane, The Seagull, Come Back, Little Sheba; Off-B'way: at The New Group: Things We Want, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, also 100 Saints You Should Know; as a playwright: We Live Here - MTC, also Absalom; Film: Ruby Sparks (wrote screenplay, starred opposite Paul Dano and served as executive producer), Revolutionary Road, It's Complicated), Aaron Krohn (B'way: The Farnsworth Invention, The Coast of Utopia, Julius Caesar, Henry IV; also BAM/The Bridge Project: The Tempest, As You Like It), Dana Lyn (BAM/The Bridge Project) and Jonathan Marc Sherman (most recently appeared in Ivanov - CSC; Film: Death and the Red Dress, The Hottest State, among others).

Clive features Music and Sound Sculptures by GAINES (A Lie of the Mind - Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Music in a Play) with live violin performance by Dana Lyn.

This production includes Set Design by Derek McLane (upcoming: 2013 Academy Awards; past credits include: B'way: Nice Work If You Can Get It, Gore Vidal's The Best Man, How to Succeed..., Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Anything Goes, 33 Variations - Tony Award; at The New Group: The Good Mother, Burning, Marie and Bruce, Blood From A Stone, A Lie of the Mind), Costume Design by Catherine Zuber (B'way: Golden Boy, Dead Accounts, An Enemy of the People, How to Succeed..., Born Yesterday, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, The Royal Family - Tony Award, South Pacific - Tony Award, The Coast of Utopia - Tony Award, The Light in the Piazza - Tony Award), Lighting Design by Jeff Croiter (B'way: The Anarchist, The Performers, Peter and the Starcatcher - Tony Award, Newsies The Musical, The Pee-Wee Herman Show, Next Fall, Kiki and Herb: Alive on Broadway; at The New Group: A Lie of the Mind) and Sound Design by Shane Rettig (at The New Group: Marie and Bruce, A Lie of the Mind, The Starry Messenger, Groundswell, Rafta, Rafta..., The Music Teacher; other New York: She Kills Monsters - Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Sound Design in a Play).

Jonathan Marc Sherman's plays include Things We Want (The New Group, 2007 extended run), Knickerbocker, Sophistry, Evolution, Sons & Fathers, Jesus on the Oil Tank, Serendipity & Serenity, Wonderful Time, Veins & Thumbtacks (the basis for the movie The Jimmy Show) and Women & Wallace (which he adapted for American Playhouse).

Ethan Hawke's credits at The New Group include Blood From A Stone (OBIE Award) and Hurlyburly (Drama League nomination) as an actor; and as a director, A Lie of the Mind (Drama Desk nomination) and Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want. Broadway: The Coast of Utopia (Tony nom.), Henry IV, The Seagull. Off-B'way: Ivanov (CSC), Sophistry, The Late Henry Moss, The Bridge Project (Drama Desk nom.). Films include: Training Day (Academy Award nom.) and Before Sunset (Academy Award nom. as a writer, Best Adapted Screenplay). Hawke directed the films Chelsea Walls, Straight to One (also wrote) and The Hottest State (also wrote & appeared). He has written two novels.

The New Group began its 2012-2013 season with the Francine Volpe's The Good Mother directed by Scott Elliott, featuring Mark Blum, Darren Goldstein, Gretchen Mol, Alfredo Narciso and Eric Nelsen. In Spring 2013, The New Group presents the world premiere of the new musical Bunty Berman Presents... by Ayub Khan Din (Book, Lyrics, Co-Composer) and Paul Bogaev (Co-Composer), directed by Scott Elliott.

Last season, The New Group (Scott Elliott, Artistic Director; Geoff Rich, Executive Director) presentEd Thomas Bradshaw's Burning, the extended run of Erika Sheffer's Russian Transport (both directed by Scott Elliott), and David Rabe's An Early History of Fire directed by Jo Bonney. In 2010-2011, the company presented Tommy Nohilly's Blood From A Stone featuring Ethan Hawke (Obie winner), the revival of Wallace Shawn's Marie and Bruce starring Marisa Tomei and Frank Whaley, and One Arm by Tennessee Williams, adapted and directed by Moisés Kaufman. Other productions include A Lie of the Mind, The Kid, Groundswell, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Hurlyburly, Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years, Abigail's Party, Smelling a Rat, Goose-Pimples and Ecstasy, Wallace Shawn's The Fever and Aunt Dan and Lemon, Kenneth Lonergan's The Starry Messenger featuring Matthew Broderick and This is Our Youth, and Kevin Elyot's Mouth to Mouth and My Night With Reg. The New Group is a recipient of the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical (Avenue Q). The New Group and Artistic Director Scott Elliott were honored with a Special 2010-11 Drama Desk Award "for presenting contemporary new voices, and for uncompromisingly raw and powerful productions."