NATIONAL PASTIME Begins Off-Broadway, 8/8

When the aspiring Broadway bound musical NATIONAL PASTIME opens at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, it will have baseball memorabilia decorating the lobby. With baseball season in full swing, NATIONAL PASTIME, a new screwball musical comedy by Tony Sportiello about the greatest baseball team to never exist, will begin performances on August 8, 2012 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons in Manhattan (416 West 42nd Street). The music and lyrics for NATIONAL PASTIME are by Al Tapper and Nancy Robillard directs the show, with musical direction by David Wolfson. The musical runs through August 25th, 2012.

NATIONAL PASTIME centers around a radio station crew in 1933 so desperate for ratings that they create a fictional baseball team that can’t lose. This musical also gives theatergoers an opportunity to see some baseball history through the collection of rare baseball memorabilia on display within the Peter Jay Sharp Theater lobby. This unique collection will bring a little bit of the National Baseball Hall of Fame to New York City.

Among the seldom seen collectibles are: The original home plate from Yankee Stadium, built in 1923; The cleats TEd Williams wore in his last game; The glove that Cleveland Indians third baseman Ken Keltner wore when he robbed Joe DiMaggio of two hits and stopped his 56 game hitting streak; Babe Ruth’s polo cap that the Babe wore for over 20 years; A ticket stub from the July 4th, 1941 game where Lou Gehrig made his immortal speech; A Leroy Nieman original drawing of Mickey Mantle; A signed picture of Abbott and Costello performing the classic "Who's On First?"; Personal letters from Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, and Jackie Robinson; and “The Babe Bows Out.”, one of only two “true” type 1 original photos known to exist and considered “The most celebrated photograph in sports history”.

There will also be a steamier side of the sport on display, such as a letter Babe Ruth wrote to his mistress imploring her not to visit his hotel for fear his wife was heading that way.

Tony Sportiello is a playwright and lifetime baseball fan, which grew up idolizing the Baltimore Orioles. In 1991 he wrote a one-act play entitled Contract Time, which was presented at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He was inspired to write a full length for the Hall of Fame, which became NATIONAL PASTIME. For the musical he wanted to replicate the feel of the Hall here in Manhattan so he collected some of baseball's most invaluable memorabilia to display in the lobby. "To go to the Hall of Fame and see all that history of America's greatest game is jaw-dropping. Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio. I want people to have a little of that same feeling when they come to see NATIONAL PASTIME. The fact that we have the actual cap that Bobby Thomson wore when he hit the most famous home run in baseball is amazing."

Al Tapper composed the ballet The Seduction of Bathsheba, whose premiere performance at Mechanics Hall was presented by the Central Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra 1988. Mr. Tapper’s five musicals have also garnered success throughout the years opening in various cities on the eastern seaboard. Beginning in 1992, David Opened as a workshop production at 890 Broadway in New York City and in Washington, D.C. in 1994 at the Washington Jewish Theater. His off-Broadway musical, ImPerfect Chemistry, for which he composed the music and created the story, opened at the Minetta Lane Theater in New York City in April of 2000. The musical revue From Where I Stand opened at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in March of 2004. His musical Sessions ran Off Broadway for over 400 performances. In addition, the musical was translated into Spanish and played in Mexico where it won the “Best Musical of the Year” in 2011. He wrote the musical An Evening at the Carlyle, which ran at The Algonquin Theater and was reviewed as “Best Show of the summer”… 2010 by UPI. NATIONAL PASTIME has played at the Keegan Theater in Washington DC in 2011 and was chosen to be considered for a Helen Hayes Award. Mr. Tapper is a member of the Dramatists' Guild of America and a member of ASCAP.

NATIONAL PASTIME has also played at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

The playing schedule for NATIONAL PASTIME is as follows: Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7PM with matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2PM.

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