Randy Sharp to Direct Sidney Kingsley's DEAD END at Axis Theatre

Axis Company has announced that Randy Sharp, who has won acclaim for directing Edgar Oliver's celebrated trilogy of solo performances charting his life in New York City, will stage a new production of Dead End, Sidney Kingsley's seminal play about kids growing on the streets of the City during the Great Depression.

Dead End was a hit when it premiered on Broadway in 1935, introducing a group of young actors who went on to appear in the film adaptation, starring Humphrey Bogart, and numerous other movies under monikers such as the Dead End Kids, the Little Tough Guys, the East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys.

Randy Sharp says, "Dead End is the quintessential New York City play, and one that is incredibly exciting for us to examine. The story and milieu are unequivocally American, and the people at the heart of the play-the Bowery Boys-are, to me, American icons, and certainly New York legends. They and their landscape are rich in cultural symbols and history."

Dead End will run April 26 - May 20. Performances will take place Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7pm, and Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm. There will be an additional performance Monday, May 1, at 7pm. Critics are welcome Friday, April 28; Saturday, April 29; and Monday, May 1, at 7pm for an official opening Wednesday, May 3, at 7pm.

Admission is $30 for adults; $20 for senior and students; and $15 for artists and those under 30. Tickets can be purchased at 212.807.9300 and www.axiscompany.org. Axis Theatre is located at 1 Sheridan Square in the heart of the West Village.

Dead End takes place in a New York City where tenement houses and luxury apartments stand side by side, and extreme wealth and abject poverty intersect every day. Gangsters and bankers, prostitutes and lost children, failure and dreams of the future all live on this street. In her new production of the play, Sharp illuminates these stark contrasts with an understanding of their mythology as well as their resonance in the New York City of today.

The cast of Dead End, whichis now complete, includes Spencer Aste, Shira Averbuch, Brian Barnhart, Regina Betancourt, George Demas, Britt Genelin, Phil Gillen, Laurie Kilmartin, Emily Kratter, Jon McCormick, Lynn Mancinelli, Jake Murphy, Brian Parks and Katie Rose Summerfield.

The production features set design by Chad Yarborough, lighting design by David Zeffren, costumes by Karl Ruckdeschel and original music by former Blondie member Paul Carbonara.

Dead End follows Edgar Oliver's critically lauded Attorney Street (2016), the final entry in a trilogy of solo shows written and performed by Oliver-an Axis company member-and directed by Sharp. In a Critic's Pick review for The New York Times, Ben Brantley described Attorney Street as "extraordinary" and a "haunting lamentation for an evanescent now." HeLen Shaw's four-star review for Time Out NY called the show "lyrical" and "heartbreaking."

Dead End is the latest work in which Sharp has explored the history of early 20th century New York City, including last year's Evening - 1910, a musical she created with Paul Carbonara, about an immigrant to 1910 New York and a Bowery theater facing eviction; and, previously, Solitary Light, about the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

Randy Sharp (Director) is Axis Theatre Company's founder and Artistic Director. Her plays include the Drama Desk Award-nominated Last Man Club (published by DPS), Nothing on Earth, Down There, Seven in One Blow (published by DPS and performed every December in NYC and around the country) and the long-running serial Hospital. Sharp wrote and directed The Vast Machine (2015), and co-wrote (with Paul Carbonara) and directed Evening - 1910,which premiered at acclaim at Axis in 2016.Sharp's directing credits also include Last Man Club, Nothing on Earth, Down There, Seven in One Blow, Hospital, Edgar Oliver's East 10th Street: Self Portrait with Empty House (Fringe First Award, Edinburgh Fringe; Spoleto Festival USA 2011) and In the Park (2014) and Attorney Street (2016), as well as A Glance at New York (Edinburgh Fringe & NYC), Julius Caesar and the U.S premiere of Sarah Kane's Crave, starring Deborah Harry.

Randy Sharp founded Axis Company in 1996. The company acquired a permanent home in 1998 at 1 Sheridan Square in New York City's West Village. Built in 1834 by Samuel Whitmore, the building once housed Café Society, the historic site of performances by Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughn, Art Tatum, Big Joe Turner and other jazz greats; and later was the home of Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company. Axis transformed interior performance space into one where audiences are totally immersed, surrounded by the experience of a theatrical production the moment they enter. Distractions from the material are minimal.

Among the wide variety of works Axis has produced in the theater are Beckett's Play; Benjamin Baker's 1848 vaudeville A Glance at New York (also at the Edinburgh Festival); the U.S. premiere of Sarah Kane's Crave, starring Deborah Harry; the premieres of Edgar Oliver's East 10th Street (New York Times Critic Pick; Fringe First Award at Edinburgh Fringe Festival; Spoleto Festival, USA), In the Park and Attorney Street; David Crabb's Bad Kid (New York Times Critic Pick, now an acclaimed book published by HarperCollins Perennial); Marc Palmieri's The Groundling; and Sharp's The Vast Machine, Last Man Club (Drama Desk-nomination), Solitary Light, Nothing on Earth, Down There, Seven in One Blow and Hospital.

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