Tom Kitt, Kate Baldwin & Bryce Pinkham

Second Stage Theater announces 2018-2019 Off-Broadway Season

2ST announces two world premieres and a Pulitzer Prize finalist to play the Tony Kiser Theater during the 2018-2019 season.

Tom Millward
Tom Millward

Today Second Stage Theater announced details of its forthcoming 40th Anniversary season with three new productions to play its off-Broadway home - the Tony Kiser Theater. 2ST will produce two world premieres next season - a new play by the Tony Award-winning scribe behind Dear Evan Hansen and a new musical with an original score by the Tony Award-winning composer of Next to Normal - as well as a 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Artistic Director Carole Rothman commented: "I'm incredibly excited to celebrate our 40th Anniversary with a fantastic line-up of works that includes both world premieres and celebrated plays that deserve a second viewing. The world premiere productions include Steven Levenson's Days of Rage, which taps into a young and vital political impulse that I think is very important at this moment in our country, and it's in expert hands with Trip Cullman who steered Lobby Hero to renewed life on Broadway this spring. And a world premiere musical is always an event, but one that combines the talents of Tom Kitt, John Logan, and Jason Moore promises to be something truly remarkable; I can't wait for audiences to discover this fresh and emotionally powerful new musical. In 2019 we'll bring Christopher Shinn's acclaimed play, Dying City, back to New York for a well-deserved second viewing through the lens of the fearless young director Lila Neugebauer. All of this, plus the previously announced Broadway productions of Young Jean Lee's Straight White Men and Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song at the Hayes, promises to make our upcoming 40th season, both on and off Broadway, a highpoint of Second Stage's four decades of bringing American plays to life."

The world premiere of Days of Rage begins previews on October 2, 2018, at the Tony Kiser Theater and is expected to open later that month.

Synopsis: "Against the backdrop of an endless, unwinnable war raging halfway across the world, and a polarizing president recklessly stoking the flames of racist backlash at home - a generation of young people rises up to demand change from a corrupt political establishment. It is October, 1969 and unbeknownst to the rest of the world, three 20-something radicals are busy planning the impending revolution from a quiet college town in Upstate New York. But when two strangers appear, disrupting the group's delicate balance, new dangers and old wounds threaten to tear the collective apart. By the Tony Award-winning writer of Dear Evan HansenDays of Rage is a timely new play about means and ends, ideals and extremes, and the perils of changing the world."

This will be followed off-Broadway by the world premiere of new musical Superhero, featuring a book by Tony Award winner John Logan, music & lyrics by Pulitzer Prize & Tony Award winner Tom Kitt and directed by Tony Award nominee Jason Moore. Initial casting for the production includes two-time Tony Award nominee Kate Baldwin (who can currently be seen as Irene Molloy in the acclaimed Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!), Tony Award nominee Bryce Pinkham (last seen on Broadway in the Irving Berlin musical Holiday Inn) and newcomer Kyle McArthur. Previews begin on January 31, 2019, with an official opening expected for late February.

Synopsis: "Before we can save the world, we have to save each other. From the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer of Next to Normal and the Tony Award-winning writer of Red comes a deeply human new musical about a fractured family, the mysterious stranger in apartment 4-B, and the unexpected hero who just might save the day."

The final off-Broadway production of 2ST's 40th Anniversary season will be Christopher Shinn's 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist drama Dying City, which is expected to begin previews at the Tony Kiser Theater in late July 2019 and officially open in mid-August. This new production will be directed by Lila Neugebauer.

Synopsis: "Dying CIty is an intimate and compassionate play set in a sparse Manhattan apartment, where a young widow receives an unexpected visit from the twin brother of her deceased husband. It explores the human fallout of global events, including the Iraq War and the terrorist attacks of 9/11, through the interwoven stories of three unforgettable characters."

Additional casting and creative team members for all three productions will be announced at a later date.

2ST's final production of the 2017-2018 season at the Tony Kiser Theater is the New York premiere of Tracy Letts' Mary Page Marlowe, also directed by Lila Neugebauer, which is set to run from June 19 through to August 12, 2018.

On Broadway, Young Jean Lee's Straight White Men is scheduled to play The Hayes Theater from June 29 through to September 9, 2018, and stars Armie Hammer, Tom Skerritt, Josh Charles, Kate Bornstein, and Ty Defoe.

This will be followed by the Broadway transfer of Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song, once again starring Michael Urie as Arnold Beckoff and Mercedes Ruehl as his mother, Mrs. Beckoff, running from October 9, 2018, through to February 24, 2019.

2ST will announce a final Broadway production for its 40th Anniversary season in due course.

 

Originally published on

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