McNally, Shear, Wright and Beane Top La Jolla’s 2009-2010 Season

La Jolla Playhouse has announced its upcoming 2009-2010 season. Along with new works by Terrence McNally, Claudia Shear, Doug Wright and Douglas Carter Beane, the San Diego theater will present a new staging of the rarely revived musical Herringbone, starring B.D. Wong, and a workshop production of The Hudsucker Proxy, a musical adaptation of the Coen Brothers’ 1994 film.

Coming to La Jolla after its world premiere at the Philadelphia Theatre Company in November, McNally’s Unusual Acts of Devotion takes place during a sweltering summer night, when a couple celebrate their fifth anniversary with a few neighbors on their Greenwich Village rooftop. As danger lurks in the air, each confronts unfulfilled desires and secret longings for each other, as McNally charts damaged cities and damaged souls, loves lost and recovered, and the joys of simple yet enduring acts of devotion.

Claudia Shear’s Restoration tells the story of Giulia, a feisty Brooklyn art restorer who receives the much-coveted job of “refreshing” Michelangelo’s David in time for its 500th birthday celebration in Florence. Her encounters with the masterpiece's curators, guardians and tourists sparks a life-changing journey for Giulia, who discovers the statue's imperfections and flaws, as well as her own. Christopher Ashley will direct this world premiere production.

Ashley will also oversee the world premiere of The Big Time, a new musical featuring a book by Beane and music and lyrics by Douglas J. Cohen that involves two last-chance lounge singers who get booked on a United Nations cruise ship. When the ship is taken hostage by terrorists intent on destroying the world, romance and mistaken identities abound as the lounge singers become heroes and radicals become hoofers.

Adapted and directed by Wright, the world premiere of Creditors will give August Strindberg’s classic work a modern-day twist. The savagely witty play centers on two men, an artist and a mysterious stranger, who strike up a seemingly innocent conversation at a seaside resort. As they exchange increasingly intimate perspectives on art, marriage and women—in particular, the artist's wife—undercurrents of sexuality, language and economics build up a tangled web of intrigue, suspicion and revenge.

B.D. Wong will star in a revival of Herringbone, the 1982 musical that features a book by Tom Cone, music by Skip Kennon and lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh. Set in 1929, this solo play with music centers on a young musical prodigy, George, who is pushed into the Hollywood limelight to earn money for his poor family, only to become possessed by a demented, murderous spirit. Roger Rees will direct.

Rounding out La Jolla’s new season is a workshop staging of The Hudsucker Proxy. Based on the Coen Brothers’ 1994 film, the new musical features a book and lyrics by Glenn Slater, who earned a Tony Award for The Little Mermaid, and music by Stephen A. Weiner. It tells the story of a naive mailroom employee who's promoted to CEO by a board of directors in a plot to drive their company’s stock down.