New Musical Coraline, Plays by Weller & LaBute on Tap at MCC
Fifty Words, by Michael Weller
Described as an expansive look at modern marriage, Fifty Words looks at what's wrong behind the idyllic façade of Jan and Adam's Brooklyn brownstone. Alternately comic and alarming, the play follows the couple as they wave their young son off to a sleepover, dissolve into tears and cross into unfamiliar territory both funny and frightening. Austin Pendleton will direct this world premiere by Weller, whose play Moonchildren debuted at the Lortel in 1973. Fifty Words will open the season and run from September 10 to October 25.
Coraline, by Stephin Merritt music and lyrics and David Greenspan book
MCC's current season will conclude with its production of LaBute's Reasons to be Pretty starring Piper Perabo and Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski and Pablo Schreiber, directed by Terry Kinney. Performances begin on May 14 at the Lortel.
In LaBute's seventh collaboration with MCC as playwright-in-residence, The Break of Noon focuses on Joe Smith, who has just had an epiphany. In a blinding flash, he's been transformed from an avowed disbeliever into a fervent believers. But he quickly finds himself at the center of his own rapidly crumbling life, as those nearest to him kick back against his newfound faith. The production will run from January 14 to February 28, 2009; no director has been set.
Adapted from a terrifying children's book by Neil Gaiman, Coraline is described as a shocking tale of menace and mayhem centering on the title character, a lonely girl who dreams of a better reality and then steps through a doorway into a perfected replica of her own world. In addition to writing the book, Greenspan stars as the musical's villain, Coraline's suspiciously nurturing Other Mother. Leigh Silverman will direct the musical, which will run from May 6 to June 20, 2009.
