michael john lachiusa - Josef Weinberger Ltd. London

MICHAEL JOHN LACHIUSA
Photo: Waring Abbott
FIRST LADY SUITE
HEL O AGAIN
LIT LE FISH
MARIE CHRISTINE
THE WILD PARTY
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THE MUSICALS OF MICHAEL JOHN LACHIUSA
“Michael John LaChiusa is a big breakthrough talent”
- William A. Henry III, Time magazine
I
n 1993, the Obie Awards for off-Broadway theatre cited HELLO AGAIN
and FIRST LADY SUITE, two new musicals by Michael John LaChiusa,
and marked out a powerful new presence on the American theatre scene.
LaChiusa earned his first Tony nomination for CHRONICLE OF A DEATH
FORETOLD in 1996 and, in 2000, ‘arrived’ on Broadway with MARIE
CHRISTINE and THE WILD PARTY, both of which won Tony nominations.
LITTLE FISH premiered in New York in 2003, while 2004 saw a high-profile
off-Broadway revival of FIRST LADY SUITE and the premieres of R SHOMON
at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and THE HIGHEST YELLOW at the
Signature Theatre, Arlington, plus workshops of LaChiusa’s new musical of
Garcia Llorca’s THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA at the Lincoln Center ahead of its full premiere in the 05-06 season.
American theater is seeing and will see more of LaChiusa’s musicals. London audiences’ first chance to see his work
came with the Bridewell’s 2001 staging of HELLO, AGAIN. Now, we at Josef Weinberger are delighted to introduce
the musicals listed herein to theatre producers and directors in the UK and Europe. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you
..... the musicals of Michael John LaChiusa.
FIRST LADY SUITE
“Intellectually stunning and emotionally breathtaking” Broadway.com
Every country has them and (mostly) loves them. America loves its First
Ladies and FIRST LADY SUITE is the result of LaChiusa’s longtime
fascination with the subject. A humorous, heartfelt tribute to a treasured
national institution - the lady at the side of her presidential consort - it’s peppered with comedy
(particularly the scenes in which Bess Truman torpedoes her daughter’s recital and Mamie Eisenhower
time-travels back in time and confronts the driver with whom Ike allegedly had an affair) but counters the
comedy with poignancy and carries a serious message at its centre -the virtual imprisonment of these
women at the political summit and their unfulfilled need to escape.
A chamber piece for between 7 and 13 performers comprising four part-fact, part-fiction scenarios
involving Jackie Kennedy, Mamie Eisenhower, Bess Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt, it was first seen in
1993 and won rave reviews in a 2004 revival at New York’s Connelly Theatre.
Cast: Casting is flexible - the New York production used an ensemble of 6 women and 1 man (the women playing 13 characters
in total).
Band: Piano/Conductor
THE MUSICALS OF MICHAEL JOHN LACHIUSA
HELLO AGAIN
“Smart, beguilingly world-weary... the best
original musical of the season...” - New York Times
“Hello Again can be thought of as a ballet with words”,
says its author, a nod to the role played in its creation by
choreographer-director Graciela Daniele and the
importance of dance in depicting the sexual encounters
of each of the ten scenes.
An erotic adult musical fantasy inspired by Arthur Schnitzler’s ‘La Ronde’, it explores the search for the
ideal lover, each scene featuring one character from the previous scene and one new character
(signifying the eternal and cyclical nature of the search). The characters’ search for erotic fulfilment
finds some kind of enlightenment in the final scene, when the Prostitute of the opening scene returns
and we witness the show’s one and only kiss, but is this the end of the quest, or just a new beginning?
A heady mix of styles and moods overflow from LaChiusa’s brilliant score.
Cast: 6M, 4F
Band: Piano, Violin, Percussion, Cello, Horn, Reed, Keyboard
LITTLE FISH
“Little Fish translates the sort of neurotic, sidewise
narrative associated with The New Yorker’s fiction
into the terms of musical comedy.... a direct, latter-day
answer to [Sondheim’s] Company” The New York Times
A musical about contemporary life in Manhattan (think a quirky version of Sex and the City without the
sex), described by LaChiusa as “a metaphor for the crises that force people to reconsider who they are
and what is important”.
Writer Charlotte, a wistful, disengaged soul overwhelmed by life, paralysed by passivity in the face of it
and surrounded by people who advise her on how to live, decides she has to quit smoking to change her
life (setting LaChiusa up for two extraordinary numbers depicting the smoker’s obsessiveness and the
fantasising that goes with withdrawal). Gradually, thanks to her friends, Charlotte begins to cope and
becomes a better friend, a better writer and (yes, there is such a thing) a better New Yorker.
Cast: 4 men, 3 women, 1 girl (doubling)
Band: 2 Keyboards, Reed, Guitar, Bass, Percussion
THE MUSICALS OF MICHAEL JOHN LACHIUSA
MARIE CHRISTINE
"A major work by one of the most highly regarded new
serious songwriters for the stage.”
San Francisco Examiner
A powerful re-telling of the tragic Medea myth set in the twilight
years of the 19th century, MARIE CHRISTINE chronicles its
doomed heroine's journey from her genteel life of privilege in New
Orleans Creole society through betrayal and incomprehensible
vengeance in boisterous Chicago. This gripping tale of one headstrong and passionate young woman's
all-consuming love for an ambitious sea captain provides a tour-de-force for its leading lady.The final
Broadway musical of the 20th century - premiered at the Lincoln Center in December 1999 - and an
extraordinary creation that investigates unsettling mysteries of the psyche that are as old as the
human condition itself.
on behalf of
Cast: 6M, 10, 2 boys
Band: 4 Reeds, 2 Trumpet, Piano/organ, 2 Violins, Viola, Cello, Bass, 2 Horns, 2 Percussion, Onstage Drums
THE WILD PARTY
“The first musical triumph of the new century!”
New York Daily News
Music by Michael John LaChiusa
Book by Michael John LaChiusa and George C. Wolfe
Based on a poem by Joseph Moncure March
Premiered in 2000 at the Virginia Theatre, New York starring Mandy Patinkin, Toni Collette and Eartha
Kitt, THE WILD PARTY brings a riotous Manhattan blow-out in the 1920s - as memorialised by poet
Joseph Moncure March - to the stage. The hosts are Queenie, a vaudeville singer, and her vicious lover,
a black-face minstrel, the guests a vivid collection of the unruly and the undone; Queenie's conniving
rival; a cocaine-sniffing bisexual playboy; a washed-up boxer; a black brother act; a diva of
indeterminable age and infinite life experience; the fresh-off-the-farm ingenue whose naivite quickly
evaporates; a lesbian actress and her comatose girlfriend; and the bargain basement Valentino who
catches Queenie's roving eye. The jazz and gin soaked party rages to a mounting sense of threat as
artifice and illusion are stripped away. When midnight debauchery leads them to tragedy at dawn, the
high-flying characters land with a sobering thud, reminding us that no party lasts forever.
Cast: Ensemble cast featuring 8M, 7F
Band: 4 Reeds, 2 Trumpets (dbl Flugelhorn) , Trombone, Piano (dbl Celeste), Bass (acoustic, dbl Tuba), Guitar (dbl
Banjo, Standard Ukulele, Baritone Ukulele) Violin 1 & 2 Violin 3 (dbl Viola), Percussion, Drums
on behalf of