Playwrights Horizons Announces Lottery For $5 'Saved' Tix

Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, April 30 at 10AM, Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) will be accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to its next production, the World Premiere of the new musical SAVED.  A total of 50 tickets will be available via the online lottery.

 A new initiative created this season as part of the theater company's Arts Access program, LIVEforFIVE makes available $5 tickets for the first preview performance of each Playwrights Horizons production through a lottery via the company's website (www.playwrightshorizons.org).  The LIVEforFIVE lottery for SAVED will be for tickets to the first preview on Friday, May 9 at 8PM at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

SAVED features music & lyrics by Obie Award winner Michael Friedman (The Civilians' Gone Missing and recent Paris Commune) and book & lyrics by 2-time Olivier Award nominee John Dempsey (The Witches of Eastwick) & Obie Award winner Rinne Groff (The Ruby Sunrise, writer on Showtime's "Weeds"), based on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture written by Brian Dannelly & Michael Urban.  Directed by Gary Griffin (The Color Purple) and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys), the production will have its official opening on Tuesday, June 3 at 7PM and continue through Sunday, June 22.

The cast of SAVED features Tony Award nominee Celia Keenan-Bolger (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Les Misérables), Tony Award nominee John Dossett (Gypsy, Mamma Mia!), Drama Desk Award nominee Julia Murney (The Wild Party, Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway and national tour), Mary Faber (Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky at Playwrights Horizons, Avenue Q), Josh Breckenridge (The Ritz), Juliana Ashley Hansen (national tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie), Curtis Holbrook (Xanadu), Van Hughes (Hairspray), Jason Michael Snow (Fredric in Pirates of Penzance at Goodspeed), recent Lortel Award nominee Aaron Tveit (Next to Normal), Emily Walton (national tour of A Christmas Carol), Morgan Weed (Next to Normal) and Daniel Zaitchik (Kimberly Akimbo, 365/365).

Details for the LIVEforFIVE lottery are as follows: beginning Wednesday, April 30 at 10AM, theatergoers can enter the lottery by filling out an entry form at www.playwrightshorizons.org. Entries will be accepted until Monday, May 6 at 12 Noon.  Winners of the lottery will be notified via email by Monday May 5th at 12 Noon with instructions on how to book their $5 tickets.  One or two tickets may be purchased for $5 each.  At least 50 tickets will be available for Mainstage shows via the lottery.

 In SAVED, good girl Mary (Celia Keenan-Bolger) and her domineering best friend Hilary Faye (Mary Faber) are starting their senior year at the top of the social food chain at American Eagle Christian High School – that is, until Mary's boyfriend (Aaron Tveit) tells her he thinks he's gay.  When Jesus appears in a vision, and Mary heeds his message "to do everything she can to help him," her good deeds are met with dire consequences, and Mary is forced to question everything she's ever believed.  Through it all, she finds faith in unexpected places and learns what it truly means to be saved.

Debuting with the current 2007/2008 season, LIVEforFIVE is a new initiative as part of the theater company's Arts Access program, which allows the institution to reach out to those who may not be able to afford the cost of a full-price theater ticket.

Reflecting Playwrights Horizons' ongoing commitment to making its productions more affordable to younger audiences, the theater company will continue to offer HOTtix, $20 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before showtime to patrons aged 30 and under. Proof of age required. One ticket per person, per purchase.  The company will also continue to offer STUDENT RUSH $15 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before curtain to full-time graduate and undergraduate students. One ticket per person, per purchase. Valid student ID required.

LIVEforFIVE, HOTtix, and STUDENT RUSH are just a few of Playwrights Horizons' popular Arts Access initiatives, which allow the theater company to reach out to those who may not be able to afford the cost of a full-price theater ticket.

Playwrights Horizons is grateful to the lead sponsor of Arts Access at Playwrights Horizons, Goldman, Sachs & Co.  Arts Access is also supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Elroy and Terry Krumholz Foundation.

Playwrights Horizons is supported in part by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York City Council, the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.  In addition, Playwrights Horizons receives major support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Charina Endowment Fund, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, and Time Warner Inc.

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American Playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work.  In its 37 years, Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 375 writers and has received numerous awards and honors, most recently being honored with a special 2008 Drama Desk Award for "ongoing support to generations of theater artists and undiminished commitment to producing new work." Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play), Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George, as well as Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Tony Award-winning Grey Gardens (three 2007 Tony Awards), Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch, Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting), Craig Lucas's Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead, William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere and Franny's Way, Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire, Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room, A.R. Gurney's Later Life, Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's Floyd Collins and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet.

For subscription and ticket information to all Playwrights Horizons productions,
call TICKET CENTRAL at (212) 279-4200, Noon to 8 pm daily,
or purchase online at the Playwrights Horizons website at
www.playwrightshorizons.org

To post a comment, you must register and login.