OBIE winner Donna Lynne Champlin, who starred in the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, as well as James Joyce's The Dead, By Jeeves and Hollywood Arms, will perform her one-woman show, Finishing the Hat, as a benefit for the Drama Desk Award-winning, off-Broadway theatre company, Transport Group, on Monday, May 11, at 7:00pm, at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, 407 West 42 Street, at Ninth Avenue.
Finishing the Hat is an inspired pairing of stories and songs from Ms. Champlin's professional and personal adventures (such as "Stalking
Brian d'Arcy James" and "The Worst Audition Ever"), which
The Audience picks randomly from a hat. Variety calls Finishing the Hat "an incisive portrait full of sparkle and sophistication."
David Hurst of Cabaret Scenes Magazine calls the evening "hilarious, heartbreaking, and brilliant," and
Peter Filichia of TheaterMania asks "Why can't all cabaret shows be as wonderful as Finishing The Hat?"
Ms. Champlin has appeared in numerous
Transport Group productions, including First Lady Suite,
The Audience, Bury the Dead, Marcy and the Galaxy, and
William Inge's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs for which she received an OBIE Award.
Founded in 2001,
Transport Group, under the leadership of
Jack Cummings III, Artistic Director, and
Lori Fineman, Executive Director, is a not-for-profit theatre company that develops and produces work by
American Playwrights and composers with the aim of exploring the American consciousness in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Transport Group presented its premiere production in 2002:
Thornton Wilder's Our Town, which featured older actors in the roles of Emily and George and a twelve-year-old girl as the Stage Manager. Its second production, Requiem for William, an evening of seven seldom produced plays by
William Inge, that featured a cast of 26 as well as original songs, premiered in 2003. In 2004 the company presented the first New York revival of
Michael John LaChiusa's First Lady Suite, which received rave reviews, played to sold-out houses, and earned two Drama Desk Award nominations including outstanding revival of a musical. Recent productions include the world premiere of the musical
The Audience, which featured a cast of 46 actors and earned three Drama Desk Award nominations, including outstanding musical; Normal, a new musical about a mother's battle to save her daughter from anorexia; cul-de-sac, a new play by Tony Award nominee
John Cariani; the first New York revival of
Tad Mosel's Pulitzer Prize play, All the Way Home; the 50th anniversary, Obie-winning production of
William Inge's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, the world premiere musicals Crossing Brooklyn and Marcy in the Galaxy, and the first New York revival of
Irwin Shaw's Bury the Dead. Both First Lady Suite and Bury the Dead were filmed for the New York Performing Arts Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive.
Transport Group is the winner of a special 2007 Drama Desk Award for its "breadth of vision and its presentation of challenging productions."
Finishing the Hat plays Monday, May 11, at 7:00pm, at the
Laurie Beechman Theatre, 407 West 42 Street, at Ninth Avenue. Tickets to Finishing the Hat are $25 (plus a $15 minimum) and may be purchased by phoning 212 695 6909.
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