'Critical Darling' at Theatre Row's Lion Theatre

The New Group (naked), a new production division of The New Group, presents Critical Darling written by Barry Levey and directed by Ian Morgan, at Theatre Row's Lion Theatre from 19 Feb - 5 Mar 2005.

Critical Darling is set at a desert hotel in New Mexico, on the eve of World War II. A trio of aging British émigrés are staking claim to their last chances for artistic success and domestic happiness when their carefully balanced lives are upset by a young Czech composer with a radical conceit: open homosexuality.

Playwright Barry Levey graduates this spring with an MFA in playwriting from the University of California, San Diego where Critical Darling was first developed as part of the 2003 Baldwin New Play Festival, where his new play 'Citizens of Rome' will be seen this spring.

Ian Morgan is Associate Artistic Director of The New Group, where he oversees play development. He¹s directed new work at Atlantic, HERE, Altered Stages, Center Stage, New Dramatists and developed new work at NYTW, Rattlestick Productions and The Public. He has also assisted at MTC and The New Group.

Critical Darling features Elizabeth Hess (B'way: M. Butterfly; Off-B'way: A Modest Proposal, Beggars In the House of Plenty), Mark Jacoby (B'way: Ragtime, Show Boat, The Phantom of the Opera, Sweet Charity), Daniel London (Off-B'way: More Lies About Jerzy, Impossible Marriage) and Andrew Polk (Off-B'way: The Truth Teller, The Ash Fire and Scaring the Fish)

Critical Darling has set by Peter R. Feuchtwanger, lights by S. Ryan Schmidt, sound by Matt Sherwin and costumes by Deirdre Wegner.