J.Stephen Brantley's CHICKEN-FRIED CICCONE Comes to FRIGID New York, Now thru 3/3

FRIGID New York presents A Hard Sparks production: CHICKEN-FRIED CICCONE: A TWANGY TRUE TALE OF TRANSFORMATION, written and performed by J.Stephen Brantley and directed by David Drake. The show will run tonight, February 20th - March 3rd, 2014.

Armed with an acoustic guitar, actor-playwright J.Stephen Brantley reveals how he got from junkie to functional with a little help from the queen of reinvention. Chicken-Fried Ciccone is one man's journey to heroin and back, set to countrified covers of new and classic Madge. Obie-winning master of the one man show David Drake directs.

New York Innovative Theatre Award nominee, Indie Theatre Now Person Of The Year, and former homeless heroin addict J.Stephen Brantley puts a country spin on Madonna's oeuvre in this autobiographical quasi-cabaret about addiction and recovery.

In addition to telling his own true story, Texas-born Brantley cooks up country-flavored covers of "Burning Up", "Frozen", "Vogue", "Like a Virgin", "Like A Prayer", and more. In all, twenty-two songs are performed, in whole or in part, during this fast-paced fifty-five minute acoustic tribute to the Queen of Pop. All twelve of Madonna's studio albums are represented.

True to its titular muse, Chicken-Fried Ciccone is an unapologetic comeback story about turning adversity into personal triumph. In Brantley's hands, Ms. Ciccone's work takes on new meaning. A Johnny Cash-inspired "Secret" accompanies the playwright's first taste of heroin. "Don't Tell Me" is a Twelve Stepper's two-step. "Into The Groove" gets mashed with "Erotica" for an uncomfortably comic take on sadomasochistic sex work.

The out gay actor and playwright also chronicles his relationships along the way, most notably with a three different men each called Robert - the First, the Second, and the Great. His journey takes Brantley from the East Village to South Texas, from Bellevue to Kabbalah, from detox to Dublin on a funny, poignant, provocative celebration of personal freedom and art's healing power.

Performance Schedule:

Wednesday, February 19 at 7:05

Monday, February 24 at 5:30

Friday, February 28 at 7:05

Thursday, March 6 at 10:15

Saturday, March 8 at12:30

Tickets $13.00 / $16.00. Available by calling SmartTix at 212.868.444 or online at www.frigidnewyork.info. Performances run at UNDER St. Mark's Theater, 94 St. Mark's Place between 1st Avenue and Avenue A, NYC.

J.Stephen Brantley (writer/performer) is an actor and playwright whose work has been commissioned by Performance Space 122, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and East Hamptons' Guild Hall. His plays Blood Grass, Break, Furbelow, The Jamb, Nevertheless, Shiny Pair Of Complications, and Struck have been performed across the U.S. and in Canada and Ireland. His Eightythree Down, winner of the 2009 Georgia Theatre Conference award, was nominated for six 2012 New York Innovative Theatre Awards and is published by Indie Theatre Now as part of their Best of 2011 collection. Brantley has performed with Big Dance Theatre, CapsLock, Cucaracha, The Directors Company, Horse Trade, Jewish Plays Project, Neo-Political Cowgirls, and Theatre 167, and at venues including 59E59, HERE, Queens Theatre, Metropolitan Playhouse, P.S.122, Soho Rep, Guild Hall, and Provincetown Theater. He received the Micheál MacLiammóir Award for Best Actor at the 2013 International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival and a 2013 NYIT Award nomination for his work in the FRIGID New York production of Kathleen Warnock's That's Her Way. J.Stephen is a graduate of NYU's Experimental Theatre Wing and an Indie Theatre Now 2013 Person Of The Year. His latest full-length play, Pirira, was recently produced Off-Broadway by Theatre 167.

David Drake (director) is an actor-writer-director best known as the Obie Award-winning playwright/performer of The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, one of the longest-running solo shows in Off-Broadway history. David also starred in Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (succeeding Charles Busch for 856 performances), originated the role of "Miss Deep South" in the hit Pageant, as well as co-starring with Jim J. Bullock in End of the World Party at the 47th St. Theater, and with B.D. Wong in A Language of Their Own at The Public. His TV credits: The Good Wife, Law & Order, The Beat, NY Undercover. Feature films: Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia, as well as It's Pat, Naked in New York, David Searching, Bear City, Longtime Companion, and his own adaptation of The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me. As a stage director, David has twice been a Directing Fellow at the Sundance Theater Lab, and has directed new works at The Public's Under the Radar Festival, Joe's Pub, NYMF, and Rattlestick, among others. Most recently in New York, David was a director of the 2009 world premiere of Taylor Mac's The Lily's Revenge, which made the "10 Best Lists" in The New Yorker, The NY Post, The Advocate, Paper Magazine, and won a 2010 Village Voice Obie Award.

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