RADIUM GIRLS Comes to Metropolitan Playhouse

Obie Award winner Metropolitan Playhouse presents the New York premiere of D.W. Gregory's RADIUM GIRLS, newly revised for a limited run from March 19 through April 12, 2020, at the Playhouse home: 220 E 4th Street. Laura Livingston (State of the Union, The Jazz Singer) directs.

Previews Begin: Thursday, March 19, 2020
Opening Night: Saturday, March 21, 2020
Closing: Sunday, April 12, 2020

Radium in 1920: a miracle discovery with limitless applications, from iridescent paints and make-up to cancer treatment and health tonics. The craze for radium in the late 1910s and 20s meant big business for companies across the US. It also brought exciting opportunities to painters of illuminated watch faces: dexterous young women, often under 18, who kept the paint brushes pointed and supple with their lips. But when more and more of the girls found their bodies literally falling apart, their struggle for recognition and compensation pitted them against some of the most successful corporations of the day. Their battle set the model for future worker's protection laws in the United States, but not in time to save their own lives.
 

RADIUM GIRLS is the story of Grace Fryer of Orange, NJ, and her dogged fight through the newspapers and the courts against US Radium and its lawyers, as well as her struggle to keep the support of her own family. The play is also the story of US Radium CEO Arthur Roeder, caught between his corporate ambitions and responsibilities, and the terrible realization that he has poisoned his devoted workers. The play is a celebration of fortitude and determination, study of denial and rationalization, and a reminder of the dangers of leaping into latest technology before we look at its effects.

Metropolitan's production is already the New York premiere of Radium Girls but will also be a new version of the play with edits written for the production by playwright D.W. Gregory. The play is directed by LAURA LIVINGSTON, artistic director of Freestyle Repertory Theater and director of last season's hit revivial of State of the Union. The production stars Holly Gould (The Ferryman, dir. Sam Mendes) in her Metropolitan debut as Grace Fryer and KELLY DEAN COOPER (Thunder Rock, End of Summer, A Man's World) as Arthur Roeder. The cast includes Metropolitan newcomers and veterans: Sydney Badway, GRACE BERNARDO, ADAM BRADLEY , Kate Falk , TERESA KELSEAY (Thunder Rock, Poor of New York, A Marriage Contract, Deep Are the Roots), MARIE LENZI , KYLE MAXWELL, DAVID LOGAN RANKIN (Poor of New York, Shadow of Heroes, Within the Law).

Set is by VINCENT GUNN (Shadow of Heroes, State of the Union), costumes by NYIT Award winner Sidney Fortner (The Jewish King Lear, The Climbers, A Marriage Contract), and lighting by HEATHER M. CROCKER.

TICKETS: $30 general admission, $25 students/seniors, and $10 children 18 and under.
www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/tickets, or call 800 838 3006.

PERFORMANCES: March 19 - April 12, 2020
Thursday - Saturday evenings at 7:30pm; Sunday afternoons at 3:00pm

OPENING NIGHT: Saturday, March 21st at 7:30 pm
CLOSING: Sunday, April 12th at 3:00 pm

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