11th Hour Theatre Company to Kick Off 2017 with Philadelphia Premiere of Rock Musical LIZZIE

11th Hour Theatre Company brings 2017 in with a rock 'n roll bang. Three years ago, 11th Hour Company introduced audiences to LIZZIE in its Next Step Concert Series. That concert was very well received and audiences consistently asked for a full production. A fully realized production of LIZZIE takes center stage in 2017 as 11th Hour's Mainstage show.

This Philadelphia Premiere runs January 12-29 at Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St. Opening Night is Monday, January 16 at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $19-$44 and are available online at www.11thhourtheatrecompany.org or by phone 267-987-9865.

LIZZIE features music by Steven Cheslik-Demeyer and Alan Stevens Hewitt, lyrics by Steven Cheslik-Demeyer and Tim Maner, and book by Tim Maner.

"Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks..." August, 1892 - a young woman commits an unspeakable crime. She is brought to trial, but with no witnesses and scant evidence, how could a jury possibly believe her to be capable of such violence? In this rock retelling of the infamous Lizzie Borden story, four fierce actresses bring audiences the legend in a way it has never been experienced before. In this explosive new musical, the four actresses front a six-piece rock band for a performance filled with rage, sex, betrayal, and bloody murder. As a musical, LIZZIE owes less to Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber and more to Bikini Kill, the Runaways, and Heart.

11th Hour Associate Producer Kate Galvin directs her first 11th Hour Mainstage show. She brings back her cast from the concert. Alex Keiper plays Lizzie Borden. Cara Noel Antosca plays Lizzie's older sister Emma Borden. Meredith Beck is the Borden sisters' friend Alice Russell. Rachel Brennan is the Borden's live in maid Bridget Sullivan. Dan Kazemi is the Music Director. Thom Weaver is Set and Lighting Designer. Kayla Speedy is the Costume Designer and creating costumes that harken back to 1892, with a decidedly modern twist. Peter Andrew Danzig is the production's Choreographer. Toby Pettit is the Sound Designer. Robin Stamey is the Production Manager. James Jackson is the Technical Director.

With this full production, Galvin is excited to add the design elements to the show after helming the concert. "We're using these elements weave in bigger ideas about women's place in society and the social dynamics that lead not only to the murders, but also to the verdict -- and there will be axes and blood!"

She adds, "I didn't know anything about Lizzie Borden when I encountered this show for the first time. When I heard the rhyme, it sounded vaguely familiar, but that's all. What hooked me from the start was the incredible rock score and the fact that it was an all-female cast. They all should be rock goddesses to really do this show justice. It's not a typical "rock musical" -- it's much harder hitting than most musicals in the rock genre. Once I started researching the history, beginning when we did the Next Step concert back in 2013, I found it to be a really fascinating true crime story. It became apparent to me that Lizzie was really the only person with the motive and opportunity to commit these murders, but a jury of men in the Victorian era were basically incapable of wrapping their heads around the possibility that an upper-class woman from a highly-respected family, who was a Sunday school teacher and a spinster, was capable of committing such a violent crime. To believe that Lizzie was guilty would literally shatter their understanding of the world around them. Now, that said, there were a few mistakes made by the police and they simply didn't have the forensic science to really dissect the crime scene properly. So we'll never know who really did it, and that's part of the fascination too!"

Why this show now? Galvin finishes, "For people already familiar with the Lizzie Borden story, this show definitely forces you to consider it in a different light. For people who don't know the story, it's a fantastic introduction because it is extremely faithful in many ways - much of the dialog and lyrics taken directly from trial testimony, or inspired by testimony. Lizzie's story is still relevant today, as true crime tales have a huge hold on the public imagination right now. Just look at the success of programs like Serial, Making of a Murderer, and The Jinx. All of those programs gave us a unique perspective on not only the crime in question, but also the legal system. This show certainly does that, and tells the story with a killer rock score."

The band includes: Alex-Michael Alleva, Nero Catalano, Justin Yoder, Mike DiFebbo, and Mark Cristofaro.

11th Hour Theatre Company is the only company in Philadelphia dedicated to producing all musicals, all the time. Intimate by design, 11th Hour creates a lasting experience with the audience by producing character-driven musical theatre.

11th Hour produces a broad spectrum of musicals that fill a niche in the diverse Philadelphia theatre landscape: musicals that spark the creativity of artists and the imaginations of audiences. Over the past eleven seasons, they have produced seventeen full-scale musicals, nine of which were Philadelphia premieres. In addition to the World Premiere of their first commission, Field Hockey Hot, the company has contributed to the development of several new musicals beginning with Angst, a ten-minute musical that premiered in the Spark Festival of 2005. 11th Hour produced the American premiere of Austentatious that went on to success at the New York Musical Theatre Festival; and a 29-hour reading of Fantasy Football, the Musical? before its production at New York University. Both Austentatious and Fantasy Football have since been published and are now professionally licensed. In the fall of 2014, 11th Hour partnered with University of the Arts to workshop Persephone Unplugged, a new twist on the classic Greek myth. With support from the Independence Foundation, 11th Hour recently commissioned their second musical from a local writing team, a Civil War-themed project currently titled Something Like a War.

11th Hour has received a total of forty-six Barrymore Award nominations. Their work has been recognized with ten awards, including two consecutive awards for "Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical" (The Bomb-itty of Errors, The World Goes 'Round), and several individual awards for their artists. Founding member Steve Pacek was also the proud recipient of the 2012 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist. In 2013, 11th Hour became the first-ever recipient of the June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theater.

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