Roundabout's New Off-Broadway Musical THE TIN PAN ALLEY RAG Opens 7/14

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) presents the New York premiere of the new musical The Tin Pan Alley Rag, written by Mark Saltzman, with Music & Lyrics byIrving Berlin & Scott Joplin, directed by Stafford Arima.

The cast includes Randy Aaron, Michael Boatman, Derrick Cobey, Jenny Fellner, Rosena M. Hill,James Judy, Mark Ledbetter, Michael McCormick, Erick Pinnick, Tia Speros, Michael Therriault,IDara Victor. 

The Tin Pan Alley Rag began performances on Friday, June 12th and opens officially tonight Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street). This production marks the first time a musical has been presented in this theatrical space.

The Tin Pan Alley Rag features choreography by Liza Gennaro and musical direction by Michael Patrick Walker. The design team includes: Beowulf Boritt (Sets), Jess Goldstein (Costumes),Howell Binkley (Lights), Walter Trarbach (Sound).

The Tin Pan Alley Rag tells the story of an imagined meeting of two of America's greatest musicians, composer Scott Joplin (Boatman) and songwriter Irving Berlin (Therriault). Joplin was a musical prodigy, born the son of a slave, who received a conservatory education and slowly rose to acclaim. Berlin was a Russian Jewish immigrant who couldn't read music, yet catapulted to stardom at the age of 23. Both men changed the landscape of music forever with their contributions to the first American musical genre, ragtime. Beneath Joplin and Berlin's toe-tapping, syncopated rhythms lay fascinating stories of fame, love and loss. In The Tin Pan Alley Rag, these tales come to vivid life and two great icons realize they have more in common than they ever suspected.

The score for The Tin Pan Alley Rag includes such classic songs as Irving Berlin's "I Love a Piano", "Play a Simple Melody", "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" & "The Entertainer", among others.

The Roundabout Theatre Company production is presented in association with Rodger HessProductions, Inc. The Tin Pan Alley Rag was most recently seen in January 2006, at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre in Jupiter, FL.

Roundabout is pleased to welcome Michael Boatman back to their stages following his role in 2003's Master Harold...and the Boys, Jenny Fellner who starred in Pal Joey last fall and Michael McCormick who was featured in the Tony Award winning production of The Pajama Game.

Tickets are available by calling Roundabout Ticket Services at (212)719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre box office (111 West 46 Street). Ticket prices range from $75.00-$85.00. The Tin Pan Alley Rag will play a limited engagement through Sunday, September 6th.

The Tin Pan Alley Rag will play Tuesday through Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. with Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.

Roundabout Theatre Company is one of the country's leading not-for-profit theatres. The company contributes invaluably to New York's cultural life by staging the highest quality revivals of classic plays and musicals as well as new plays by established writers. Roundabout consistently partners great artists with great works to bring a fresh and exciting interpretation that makes each production relevant and important to today's audiences.

Roundabout Theatre Company currently produces at three permanent homes each of which is designed specifically to enhance the needs of the Roundabout's mission. Off-Broadway, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre, with its simple sophisticated design is perfectly suited to showcasing intimate plays and musicals. The grandeur of its Broadway home on 42nd Street, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. Together these three distinctive venues serve to enhance the work on each of its stages.

American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. Roundabout productions are made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts; and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. American Express is the 2008-2009 season sponsor of theRoundabout Theatre Company.

Roundabout Theatre Company's 2008-2009 season included Lisa Loomer's Distracted featuringCynthia Nixon, directed by Mark Brokaw; Christopher Hampton's The Philanthropist, starringMatthew Broderick, directed by David Grindley; Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, starring (in order of speaking) Nathan Lane, Bill Irwin, John Goodman, John Glover, directed by Anthony Page. Roundabout's sold out production ofThe 39 Steps made its second Broadway transfer to the Helen Hayes Theatre on January 21, 2009.

Roundabout Theatre Company's 2009-2010 season includes Patrick Marber's After Miss Julie, starring Sienna Miller, directed by Mark Brokaw; Michael Stewart, Lee Adams andCharles Strouse's Bye Bye Birdie, directed and choreographed by Robert Longbottom; Mark Saltzman,Irving Berlin & Scott Joplin's The Tin Pan Alley Rag, directed by Stafford Arima; Noël Coward's Present Laughter starring Victor Garber, directed by Nicholas Martin. For more information, visitwww.roundabouttheatre.org.

Photo by Joan Marcus

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