Atlantic Theater's 2015-16 Season to Include World Premiere of David Yazbek's The Band's Visit, Directed by Hal Prince

The 2015-16 Atlantic Theater season—the company’s 30th anniversary—will include the world premiere of David Yazbek and Itamar Moses’ The Band’s Visit. Harold Prince will direct the musical adaptation of the 2007 film next spring. The season will also feature two New York debuts, including These Paper Bullets! with music by Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, and a world premiere from Dominique Morisseau.

The season kicks off this fall in the Linda Gross Theater with a revival of Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill. Set in British colonial Africa and late ‘70s London, the play explores a hypothetical modern society—one where the characters who have aged only 25 years since the Victorian era. James Macdonald will direct the production.

Jackson Gay directs These Paper Bullets!, which premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 2014. The show is a modern adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, adapted by Rolin Jones and featuring songs by Armstrong. It follows four Liverpool band members (the Quartos—get it?) who have seven days to find true love and cut an album—as their former drummer attempts to destroy them. Think the Beatles meet the Bard. Performances will begin in November in the Linda Gross Theater.

Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew will begin performances in January 2016 at Atlantic Stage 2. The drama marks the final installment of her Detroit trilogy, following Paradise Blue and Detroit ‘67; it tells the story of a makeshift family of workers at the last remaining auto plant in the city.

With music and lyrics by Yazbek and a book by Moses, The Band’s Visit follows an Egyptian Police Band who, after a mix-up at the Israeli border, are sent to a remote village in the desert instead of their expected concert venue. They are quickly welcomed by the locals, and form an unlikely and unexpected relationship. The tuner, which will premiere next spring at the Linda Gross Theater, is directed by 21-time Tony Award winner Prince.

The season concludes with the New York premiere of The Purple Light of Joppa Illinois. Written by Adam Rapp, the play follows a Kentucky recluse who is forced to confront his tragic past when two teenagers arrive at his duplex doorstep. The play will run starting in June 2016 at Atlantic Stage 2.

Additional information for the five productions, including cast and creative team, will be announced at a later date.