The Shaggs: complete casting and new dates announced

Playwrights Horizons and New York Theatre Workshop's have announced the full cast for their co-production of The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World, a new musical with book by Joy Gregory, music by Gunnar Madsen, with lyrics by both, and story by Gregory, Madsen and John Langs.

The production will open at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage on 12 May 2011, following previews from 4 Apr, and closing on 7 Jun 2011. The show had initially been scheduled to run from 12 May - 3 Jul 2011.

Joining previously-announced cast members Tony Award nominee Peter Friedman (Ragtime) and Kevin Cahoon, are Annie Golden, Steve Routman, Emily Walton, Jamey Hood, Cory Michael Smith and Sarah Sokolovic.

The musical will be directed by John Langs, with choreography by Ken Roht. The creative team also features set design by Mimi Lien, costumes by Emily Rebholz, lighting by Geoff Korf and sound by Darron L West.

Taking place between 1969 and 1973, The Shaggs is an earnest look at one of the oddest and most unlikely bands to achieve rock cult status. Forced by a demanding father, the three very awkward sisters of the Wiggin family of Fremont, New Hampshire were prepped to play in a band based on a prophecy laid out by their grandmother. Taken out of school and away from all outside influences, the Wiggin family patriarch pushed the girls to practice non-stop until he thought they were ready to record an album and perform concerts. They were not. They never were, but they did, and this wholly original musical chronicles their journey while incorporating songs influenced by The Shaggs' canon, as well as a re-imagining of their 'hit single 'Philosophy of the World.'

Austin Wiggin, the girls' father, died before he ever saw his dream realized. Following his death, The Shaggs were no more until the mid-seventies when a Boston radio station played a few cuts from their record. Their only album caught on, spurred by Frank Zappa declaring the band "better than the Beatles", celebrated by outsider-music mavens who were taken with The Shaggs' artless style. In 1980 they were Rolling Stones' Comeback Artists of the Year without having recorded anything in over a decade. Old recordings and footage have been turned into subsequent albums and collector's items for their thousands of underground fans, but they remain humble loners in the outskirts of New England.

With The Shaggs, Playwrights Horizons and New York Theatre Workshop continue their commitment to developing new musicals.

At Playwrights Horizons, these include 'Grey Gardens,' James Joyce's 'The Dead,' 'Floyd Collins,' 'Assassins,' 'Once on This Island' and 'Sunday in the Park with George,' and at New York Theatre Workshop these include 'Rent,' 'The Seven,' B'right Lights, Big City,' and 'Songs From an Unmade Bed.'

The Shaggs will mark the first time the two award-winning theaters have co-produced together.

The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World was presented as part of the Second New York Musical Theatre Festival, where it played at Theatre Row 's Beckett Theatre from the 27 Sep - 2 Oct 2005. That production was directed by John Lang and starred Peter Friedman.