Photo Flash: First Look at New Line Theatre's BUKOWSICAL

New Line Theatre, "the bad boy of musical theatre," closes its 22nd season May 30-June 22, 2013, with the regional premiere of one of the most outrageous shows the company has ever produced. With book and lyrics by Spencer Green and Gary Stockdale, and music by Stockdale, BUKOWSICAL is a wacky, high-energy - and gleefully adult - musical comedy, an ironic and insightful 21st-century reboot of the classic American musical comedy, exploring the intersection between sex, drugs, booze, and art, all through the life story of the great American novelist and poet Charles Bukowski. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage below!

The New Line cast includes Zachary Allen Farmer as Bukowski, with an ensemble of New Line All-Stars, Ryan Foizey, Joel Hackbarth, Nicholas Kelly, Kimi Short, Christopher Strawhun, Marcy Wiegert, and Chrissy Young. Farmer has appeared with New Line as Barry in the American regional premiere of High Fidelity, as Sheriff Merle Karnopp in the world premiere of Love Kills, as Dr. Prospero in Return to the Forbidden Planet, as Charles Guiteau in Assassins, as Proteus in Two Gentlemen of Verona, and in several other shows as well, including this season's Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Next to Normal.

BUKOWSICAL will be directed by Scott Miller, with music direction by Justin Smolik, choreography by Robin Michelle Berger, scenic design by Scott L. Schoonover, costume design by Amy Kelly, and lighting design by Kenneth Zinkl.

Bukowski was known for the vulgarity of his language and the adult content of his work. So BUKOWSICAL tells Bukowski's life story on his terms, the way he'd write a musical, if the inclination had ever struck him, using the all-American conventions of old-school musical comedy ironically, to explore his dark, damaged, decadent life. Along the way, the show also takes a look at how the experiences of an artist's life affect his art, and how that art becomes universal through its truth-telling.

The musical started life as a 50-minute one-act in Los Angeles, was revised and expanded, and then went on to the New York Fringe Festival, where it won the award for Outstanding Musical.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His work focused on the ordinary lives of the working poor, on the act of writing, on work, on alcohol, and on his disastrous relationships with women. He wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories, and six novels, eventually publishing over sixty books. In 1986 Time called Bukowski a "laureate of American lowlife." Adam Kirsch of The New Yorker wrote, "the secret of Bukowski's appeal is that he combines the confessional poet's promise of intimacy with the larger-than-life aplomb of a pulp-fiction hero." The Los Angeles Times Book Review once said, "Wordsworth, Whitman, William Carlos Williams, and the Beats in their respective generations moved poetry toward a more natural language. Bukowski moved it a little further."

New Line Theatre is a professional company dedicated to involving the people of the St. Louis region in the exploration and creation of daring, provocative, socially and politically relevant works of musical theatre. New Line was created back in 1991 at the vanguard of a new wave of nonprofit musical theatre just starting to take hold across the country. New Line has given birth to several world premiere musicals over the years and has brought back to life several shows that did not do well in their original New York productions. Altogether, New Line has produced 67 musicals since 1991, and the company was recently given its own entry in the latest edition of the Cambridge Guide to American Theatre. New Line receives funding from the Regional Arts Commission, the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation, and the Missouri Arts Council.

BUKOWSICAL runs May 30-June 22, 2013, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, at 8:00 p.m., at the Washington University South Campus Theatre (formerly CBC High School), 6501 Clayton Road, just east of Big Bend. May 30 is a preview. Tickets are on sale now through the Fox Theatre Box Office, or by calling 314-534-1111. This show contains adult content and adult language.

For more information about the show, visit http://www.newlinetheatre.com/bukowsicalpage.html.

Photo Credit: Jill Ritter Lindberg

The cast of New Line Theatre's "Bukowsical," 2013. L-R, Ryan Foizey, Nicholas Kelly, Christopher Strawhun (in back), Chrissy Young, Zachary Allen Farmer (as Charles Bukowski), Marcy Wiegert, Kimi Short, Joel Hackbarth.

Zachary Allen Farmer as Charles Bukowski

Zachary Allen Farmer as Charles Bukowski

The cast of New Line Theatre's "Bukowsical," 2013. L-R, Nicholas Kelly, Christopher Strawhun, Zachary Allen Farmer (as Charles Bukowski), Chrissy Young, Joel Hackbarth, Ryan Foizey, Kimi Short, Marcy Wiegert.

Zachary Allen Farmer (as Charles Bukowski) with (L-R) Chrissy Young, Kimi Short, Marcy Wiegert

Zachary Allen Farmer (as Charles Bukowski) with (L-R) Chrissy Young, Kimi Short, Marcy Wiegert

The cast of New Line Theatre's "Bukowsical," 2013. L-R, Nicholas Kelly (in front), Ryan Foizey, Christopher Strawhun (in back), Chrissy Young, Zachary Allen Farmer (as Charles Bukowski), Marcy Wiegert, Kimi Short, Joel Hackbarth.

The cast of New Line Theatre's "Bukowsical," 2013. L-R, Nicholas Kelly (in front), Ryan Foizey, Christopher Strawhun (in back), Chrissy Young, Zachary Allen Farmer (as Charles Bukowski), Marcy Wiegert, Kimi Short, Joel Hackbarth.

Kimi Short as One True Love and Zachary Allen Farmer as Charles Bukowski

Kimi Short as One True Love and Zachary Allen Farmer as Charles Bukowski

Joel Hackbarth as the narrator and Zachary Allen Farmer as Charles Bukowski

Joel Hackbarth as the narrator and Zachary Allen Farmer as Charles Bukowski