Metropolitan Revives THE POOR OF NEW YORK

Obie Award winner Metropolitan Playhouse revives Dion Boucicault's THE POOR OF NEW YORK, with music from the era. The limited run from April 19 through May 19, 2019, plays at the Playhouse home at 220 E 4th Street. Artistic Director Alex Roe directs.

Previews Begin: Friday, April 19, 2019
Opening Night: Friday, April 26, 2019
Closing: Sunday, May 19, 2019

In a desperate bid to save his own family from the financial Panic of 1837, banker Gideon Bloodgood seizes the fortune of a dying sea captain. Twenty years on, when another crisis hits the markets, Bloodgood is among the wealthy New Yorkers who have learned to prosper off others' losses. But as he grows richer, the captain's family sinks deeper into poverty, as do a wealthy heir, a wily thief, and the immigrant family who tie them all together. Will an unexpected hero be able to save them all from their private torments? Only if he survives the spectacular tenement fire in Act V.

THE POOR OF NEW YORK is a defining melodrama of the mid-19th century full of unlikely coincidence,theatrical wit, histrionic sensation, and an inevitably righteous conclusion. Like the best of the period, its social indictments are incisive, and though its characters and incidents are drawn directly from the popular theater and salacious headlines of the day, it is strikingly on target in the 21st century. A trenchant challenge to an ethos of "winning" at all costs, it exposes the bitter conflicts inherent in income inequality, the perils of a government shutdown, the interdependence of our society, and the vital contributions of immigrants to their adopted home. While the pathos is sentimental, the comedy is ironic, the characters conflicted, the critique knowing, and the writing distinctive for Boucicault's verbal wit.

Irish playwright, actor, and manager Dion Boucicault was a giant of the stage in New York, where he lived from 1854 to 1860, and 1875 to his death in 1890. A notorious figure who offended and delighted Victorian society with his scandalous, and very public private life, he drew eager crowds in New York, London, and Paris to his sensational plays with comedy, contrivance, and snappy dialogue. His plays, and particularly his American plays The Poor of New York and The Octoroon, exposed the life they imitated with a wit and clarity that is refreshing and revealing today.

Adapted from Les Pauvres de Paris by Edouard-Louis-Alexandre Brisbarre and Eugene Nus, The Poor of New York went on to succeed in England and Ireland, with modified references, under titles such as The Streets of London, The Poor of Liverpool, or The Streets of Dublin. Revived in America at the end of the century as The Streets of New York, it was later turned into a musical by that name in 1965, with book and lyrics by Barry Alan Grael. New York's most recent professional revival, an adaptation with new songs by Charlotte Moore, was at The Irish Repertory Theatre in 2002.

Metropolitan's production includes period song, sung a cappella. It is directed and designed by Alex Roe, Artistic Director of Metropolitan Playhouse whose productions include Shadow of Heroes, A Marriage Contract, Injunction Granted, The Hero, The Henrietta, Uncle Tom's Cabin. The production stars Bob Mackasek, DAVID LOGAN RANKIN (Shadow of Heroes, Indians) as Bloodgood and his nemesis, Badger. Tess Frazer, SJ HANNAH (On Strivers Row ), Luke Hofmaier, TERESA KELSEY (Marriage Contract, The Henrietta, Deep Are the Roots), JON LONOFF (State of the Union), John Long (Alison's House), ALEXANDRA O'DALY (The Henrietta), ERIC EMIL OLESON, Benjamin Russell (The Awful Truth), Jo Vetter.
Choral direction is by Trevor St. John-GILBERT, costumes by NYIT Award winner Sidney Fortner (Shadow of Heroes, The Jewish King Lear, The Climbers, A Marriage Contract), and lighting by Christopher Weston (State of the Union, You and I, A Marriage Contract, Injunction Granted).

METROPOLITAN PLAYHOUSE, in its 27th season, explores America's theatrical heritage through forgotten plays of the past and new plays of American historical and cultural moment. The theater received a 2011 OBIE Grant from The Village Voice for its ongoing productions that illuminate who we are by revealing where we have come from. Called "invaluable" by the Voice and Back Stage, Metropolitan has earned further accolades from The New York Times and The New Yorker. Other awards include a Victorian Society of New York Outstanding Performing Arts Group, 3 Aggie Awards from Gay City News, 20 nominations for NYIT Awards (3 winners), and6 AUDELCO Viv Award nominations.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

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

PERFORMANCES
April 19 - May 19, 2019
Thursday - Saturday evenings at 7:30pm; Sunday afternoons at 3:00pm
PLUS
Monday, April 22, at 7 pm (Pay What You Will Night)
Tuesdays, May 7th and 14th at 7 pm
Wednesdays, May 8th and 15th at 3pm