The New Group Presents THE KID 4/16

Up next for The New Group is the new musical The Kid, beginning performances on Friday, April 16. Official Opening Night is set for Monday, May 10. This marks the final production in The New Group's current 2009-2010 season, which featured Kenneth Lonergan's The Starry Messenger and most recently, the hit revival of Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind, directed by Ethan Hawke. The Kid plays a limited Off-Broadway engagement through May 29 at The New Group @ Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street).

The Kid is based on the true story of what happens when sex columnist Dan Savage and his boyfriend decide to start a family. Created by Andy Monroe (music), Michael Zam (book) and Jack Lechner (lyrics), it was the winner of the 2009 BMI Foundation Jerry Bock Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre.

Dan Savage, author of The Kid: What Happened after My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant, is widely recognized for his internationally syndicated relationship and sex column "Savage Love" and the weekly podcast "Savage Lovecast." He is editorial director of the Seattle weekly The Stranger, where he was formerly Editor-in-Chief. He is a regular contributor to PRI's "This American Life" and the opinion pages of The New York Times. He has been featured as a "Real Time Reporter" on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC and "The Colbert Report." Other published works include a memoir entitled The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage and My Family, and contributions to the collected work Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me, among others. The Kid was represented to The New Group by Amy Schiffman of the Intellectual Property Group (IPG); Elizabeth Wales of Wales Literary Agency placed the title with Penguin USA, Carole DeSanti acquiring and Brian Tart editing for Dutton, which published the memoir in 1999. The memoir The Kid... won a PEN USA West Award for Creative Nonfiction.

Directed by Scott Elliott, the cast of The Kid features Christopher Sieber (Broadway: Shrek - Tony® Award nomination, Monty Python's Spamalot - Tony nom.; TV: "Pushing Daisies") in the role of Dan Savage, and Lucas Steele (B'way: The Threepenny Opera, Off-B'way: Oliver Twist-TFANA, Corpus Christie-Bouwerie Lane Theater, Wickets-3LD) as Dan's boyfriend Terry. The company also features Kevin Anthony (B'way: Grease!), Susan Blackwell ([title of show]), Jill Eikenberry (B'way: All Over Town, Moonchildren; Film: Arthur; Television: "L.A. Law") as Dan's Mom, Jeannine Frumess as Melissa, Ann Harada (Avenue Q), Tyler Maynard (B'way: The Little Mermaid, Mary Poppins, Mamma Mia!; Off-B'way: Altar Boyz - Theatre World Award, Drama Desk nominee 2005), Brooke Sunny Moriber (B'way: The Wild Party, James Joyce's The Dead, The Threepenny Opera; Off-B'way at The New Group: Aunt Dan and Lemon, Hazelwood Jr. High), Justin Patterson (B'way: 9 to 5, Young Frankenstein, All Shook Up) and Michael Wartella as Bacchus.

Set Design is by Derek McLane (B'way: Miracle Worker, Ragtime, Grease, I Am My Own Wife; Off-B'way at The New Group: A Lie of the Mind, The Starry Messenger, Groundswell, Rafta, Rafta..., Aunt Dan and Lemon, numerous others), Costume Design is by Jeff Mahshie (B'way: Next to Normal, The Little Dog Laughed; Off-B'way: Hurlyburly at The New Group), Lighting Design is by Howell Binkley (B'way: All About Me, Memphis, In the Heights, West Side Story, Avenue Q) and Sound Design is by Ken Travis (B'way: Memphis, The Threepenny Opera, Barefoot in the Park, Steel Magnolias). Music Supervision/Arrangements/Orchestrations are by Dominick Amendum (B'way: Wicked, Music Director/Conductor; Tours: Wicked, Oliver!, Cabaret). Musical Direction is by Boko Suzuki (B'way: RENT, Nat'l Tours: Wicked, Swing!, Mamma Mia!). Musical Staging is by Josh Prince (B'way: Shrek The Musical; Other: The Bridge Project at BAM, Jerry Springer: The Opera at Carnegie Hall). Animation is by Jeffrey Scher, whose work appears in the Permanent Collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Academy Film Archives, Hirshhorn Museum, Pompidou Centre, Musee d'Art Moderne, Vienna Kunsthalle and Austrian National Archive, and others.

The Kid features Boko Suzuki on piano, Ed Levy on guitar, Steve Gilewsji on bass and Kevin Rice on drums.

Scott Elliott (Director) is the founding Artistic Director of The New Group, where he has produced over 45 plays, 20 of which he has personally directed, including Groundswell, Rafta, Rafta..., The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the 2005 revival of Hurlyburly, Aunt Dan and Lemon, What the Butler Saw, and 5 plays by Mike Leigh: Two Thousand Years, Abigail's Party, Smelling a Rat, Goose-Pimples, and Ecstasy. Broadway credits include Present Laughter, Barefoot in the Park, and 3 plays produced by The Roundabout: The Threepenny Opera, The Women, and Three Sisters. He is also a film director and screenwriter.

Andy Monroe (music) wrote the music and lyrics for The Tragic and Horrible Life of The Singing Nun (2006 New York Musical Theater Festival). His musical short The Life and Times of Joe Jefferson Benjamin Blow has been produced regionally and his other musical short Sally Peaches was presented in 4@15 at The York Theatre. He is the recipient of both the 2001 BMI Foundation Jerry Harrington Musical Theater Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement and the 2009 Jerry Bock Award. Dramatist Guild Fellow (2007-8) and proud member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.

Michael Zam (book) is penning a stage adaptation of the novel Selfish & Perverse by Bob Smith for director Jerry Mitchell. Screenplays include (with co-writer Jaffe Cohen) Best Actress (Black List of Best New Screenplays, 2009), to be produced by Plan B Entertainment and directed by Ryan Murphy; and Wife Vs. Ninja for DreamWorks Pictures. With his collaborators, Zam was honored with BMI's Jerry Bock Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theatre for The Kid. He teaches screenwriting at NYU (Award for Teaching Excellence, 1998 and 2007) and Modern British Drama every August at NYU in London.

Jack Lechner (lyrics) is a songwriter, most recently for the HBO special A Family Is A Family Is A Family (with Andy Monroe); a writer (Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You and Mary Had A Little Lamp); an NYU professor; and a film and TV producer, based at Washington Square Films. Executive Producer: The Fog Of War (Oscar winner), Left Of The Dial (Emmy nominee), Sunset Daze, Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys. Producer: Mad Men (pilot). Executive: The Crying Game, Good Will Hunting, The Full Monty. Member of BMI Musical Theater Workshop (Advanced); won 2004 Jerry Harrington Award.

Now presenting its first musical production since Avenue Q, The New Group (Scott Elliott, Artistic Director; Geoff Rich, Executive Director) began its 2009-10 season with Kenneth Lonergan's The Starry Messenger featuring Matthew Broderick, which enjoyed an extended run and the sold-out revival of Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind directed by Ethan Hawke. The 2008-2009 season featured the U.S. premiere of Kevin Elyot's Mouth to Mouth, Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra and Ian Bruce's Groundswell. The company's 2007-2008 season featured the premiere of Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want directed by Ethan Hawke, Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years and Ayub Khan-Din's Rafta, Rafta.... The 2006-07 season featured Jay Presson Allen's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Wallace Shawn's The Fever and Bernard Weinraub's The Accomplices. Other past productions include David Rabe's Hurlyburly, Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party, Smelling a Rat, Goose-Pimples and Ecstasy, Wallace Shawn's Aunt Dan and Lemon, Kenneth Lonnergan's This is Our Youth, Kevin Elyot's My Night With Reg, and many more. The New Group is a recipient of the 2004 Tony® Award for Best Musical (Avenue Q).

The Kid plays at The New Group @ Theatre Row (The Acorn Theatre / 410 West 42nd Street, between 9th & 10th Avenues) as follows: Monday at 8:00 PM, Tuesday at 7:00 PM, Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00 PM, with a matinee on Saturday at 2:00 PM.

Tickets may be arranged through Ticket Central at www.ticketcentral.com or (212) 279-4200, or at the Theatre Row Box Office (12:00-8:00 PM daily). Tickets are $60.00 plus $1.25 restoration fee.

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