Pal Joey extends its run by two weeks

Roundabout Theatre Company has announced a two-week extension of Pal Joey now playing through to 1 Mar 2009.

The musical, starring Stockard Channing (Vera Simpson), Matthew Risch (Joey Evans) and Martha Plimpton (Gladys Bumps), opened at Studio 54 on 11 Dec 2008, following previews from 14 Nov, for a limited engagement that was originally scheduled to end on 15 Feb 2009.

The musical opened to Good to luke-warm reviews: "Not much magic." (New York Theater Guide); "Joyless revival" (NY Times); "Doesn't inspire." (NY Daily News); "Seriously undercut by the gaping hole at its center." (NY Post); "Pumps much-needed fresh blood into a Broadway grown anemic." (Bloomberg); "Back, with ... ambition and charm intact." (AP)

Set in Chicago in the late 1930s, Pal Joey is the story of Joey Evans, a brash, scheming song and dance man with dreams of owning his own nightclub. Joey abandons his wholesome girlfriend Linda English, to charm a rich, married older woman, Vera Simpson, in the hope that she�ll set him up in business.

The Rodgers & Hart score for Pal Joey includes �Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,� �I Could Write a Book,� �You Mustn�t Kick It Around,� and �Zip,� among others.

The new production of The Rodgers & Hart score for Pal Joey also feature �I�m Talking to My Pal,� a song that had been dropped from the score during its out-of-town tryout, and will be heard on Broadway for the first time.

Pal Joey, directed by Joe Mantello, with choreography by Graciela Daniele, also stars Robert Clohessy (Mike), Jenny Fellner (Linda English), Daniel Marcus (Ludlow Lowell) and Steven Skybell (Ernest).

Th musical has a new book by Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out), based on the original book by John O�Hara, with music direction by Tony Award winner Paul Gemignani (Lifetime Achievement Award), choreography by Graciela Daniele and directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Assassins, Take Me Out.)

The design team features two-time Tony Award winner Scott Pask (sets), five-time Tony Award winner William Ivey Long (costumes), two-time Tony Award winner Peggy Eisenhauer and eight-time Tony Award winner Jules Fisher (lights) and Tony Meola (sound).

In 1939, author John O�Hara approached Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart to collaborate on a musical adaptation of his popular Pal Joey stories that had originally run in The New Yorker. The musical premiered on Broadway on 25 Dec 1940, in a production directed and produced by George Abbott, and starring Gene Kelly and Vivienne Segal.

While considered a success in 1940, a smash hit 1952 Broadway revival revealed the show as a true landmark Broadway musical, breaking new ground in subject matter, and featuring a score by Rodgers & Hart in their penultimate collaboration. The 1952 production of Pal Joey won 3 Tony Awards including Best Choreography and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical.

A film of the musical was made in 1957, starring Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth, and Kim Novak. Bob Fosse received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in the 1963 production and the 1976 production at Circle in the Square starred Dixie Carter.