Harvey Fierstein's Casa Valentina, Directed by Joe Mantello, Sets World Premiere Dates at MTC

Four-time Tony winner Harvey Fierstein's world premiere play Casa Valentina will be part be a part of Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2013-14 season. Directed by two-time Tony winner Joe Mantello, the play will begin previews on April 1, 2014 and open on April 23 at Broadway's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Casa Valentina marks Fierstein's first play in almost 30 years.

Based on actual events, Casa Valentina is set in the 1960s and tells the tale of men who went to the Catskill Mountains to escape the summer heat, and something else entirely: being men. Nestled in the land of dirty dancing and borscht belt comedy sat an inconspicuous bungalow colony that catered to a very special clientele: heterosexual men whose favorite pastime was dressing and acting as women. It was paradise for these men—white-collar professionals with families—to spend their weekends discreetly and safely inhabiting their chosen female alter egos. But when faced with the opportunity to become an official organization, these "self-made women" had to decide whether public recognition would help them gain a place in open society or spell their own personal disaster.

Casa Valentina joins an already jam-packed season for MTC that includes Sharr White’s The Snow Geese, directed by Daniel Sullivan and starring Mary-Louise Parker, Amanda Peet’s The Commons of Pensacola, directed by Lynne Meadow and starring Blythe Danner and Sarah Jessica Parker; John Patrick Shanley's Outside Mullingar, directed by Doug Hughes and starring Brian F. O'Byrne and Debra Messing; Dennis Kelly's Taking Care of Baby, directed by Erica Schmidt and starring Reed Birney and Margaret Colin; Sarah Treem’s When We Were Young and Unafraid, directed by Pam MacKinnon and starring Cherry Jones; and David Grimm’s world premiere play Tales From Red Vienna.