This Beautiful City: Rebecca Naomi Jones to join cast

Rebecca Naomi Jones, most recently seen at The Vineyard Theatre in 'Wig Out!' and on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning 'Passing Strange,' is set to join the cast of The Civilians' This Beautiful City on Sat 7 Mar 2009.

This Beautiful City is playing at the Vineyard Theatre, where the play's New York premiere runs through to 15 Mar 2009, presented by The Vineyard Theatre, in a co-production with Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group..

Jones replaces Marsha Stephanie Blake, who leaves the production to join the cast of the Broadway-bound revival of August Wilson's 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone.'

The Civilians' newest work This Beautiful City, opened at The Vineyard Theatre on 22 Feb 2009, following previews from 3 Feb 2009.

The show opened to favourable reviews: "engaging, inquisitive and evenhanded work" (NY Times); "humbly praiseworthy piece" (NY Daily Post); "entertaining and thoughtful" (NY Post); "works a little better as journalism than theatre" (NY1).

Directed by Steven Cosson, the cast of This Beautiful City currently features Emily Ackerman, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Brad Heberlee, Brandon Miller, Stephen Plunkett and Alison Weller, along with musicians Chris Biesterfeldt, Benjamin Campbell and Richard Huntley. Music direction is by Erik James.

Written by Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis, with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman, This Beautiful City explores the growth of the evangelical Christian movement, and like The Civilians' Off-Broadway 'Gone Missing' last season, This Beautiful City is a docu-drama in nature, drawn principally from interviews The Civilians have conducted with people involved with or affected by the mega-church movement in Colorado Springs.

A play with music, This Beautiful City was created from interviews by Emily Ackerman, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Brad Herberlee, Stephen Plunkett, Alison Weller and the authors with actual persons over the course of 10 weeks in Colorado Springs. Every leading church in the area participated in the project, as did numerous civic organizations, progressive activists, and individuals from all walks of life.

Presented at the Humana Festival of New American Plays this past spring in Louisville, Kentucky, This Beautiful City subsequently had its Los Angeles premiere at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre prior to its bow at The Vineyard Theatre.

The production has set design by Neil Patel, costume design by Alix Hester, lighting design by David Weiner, sound design by Ken Travis, and projection design by Jason Thompson. Choreography is by John Carrafa.