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FROM THE DESK OF CASTING TIM SANFORD UPDATE (AS OF 3/1)

its content. The creators of Far From Heaven strive for a fidelity to its source, but also DEAR FRIENDS, transform it. Scott Frankel’s expansive, The guidelines of our literary department stylish score provides the breadth and col- state that we do not accept dramatic adap- oration supplied in the film by the cinema- tations from other sources, except for mu- tography. And Michael Korie’s lyrics crack sicals. As a writer’s theater, we often find Marinda Anderson open the subtext that aches with its un- the authorial voice becomes commingled spokenness in the film. Richard Greenberg or overshadowed by the originating writer somewhat modestly ascribes his role as a in straight adaptations. But the form of caretaker of tone, and much of his dialogue the musical theater is essentially synthetic is lifted verbatim from Haynes’s screenplay, (made, not observed) and depends on the but as the initiator of the project, the impor- collaborative synergy of its creators to come James Moye tance of this aesthetic oversight cannot be into being. The best musicals find their minimized. originality and their voice through transfor- mation. It usually behooves the creators I remember running into Richard at the clos- FIRST ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT to steer clear of widely known or beloved ing night of Grey Gardens on Broadway. He BROADWAY: Parade, Beauty and the Beast, Me and My novels or films where an audience might J.B. ADAMS seemed ever so slightly abashed to have Girl, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. FILM: Far From Heaven. have firmly held preconceptions about the been caught waiting until the last minute, source. Musicals based on somewhat more MARINDA ANDERSON Off-Broadway debut. but he also seemed uncharacteristically ex- obscure sources usually provide the cre- cited to see it. It seems to me the seeds for NANCY ANDERSON BROADWAY: Wonderful Town, A Class Act. ators more artistic leeway. OFF-BROADWAY: Fanny Hill (York Theatre, Drama Desk Nomination). Far From Heaven might have been planted that night. The two pieces are sharply dif- QUINCY TYLER BERNSTINE BROADWAY: In the Next Room. OFF- Far From Heaven hardly qualifies as an ob- ferent. Cathy Whitaker seems about as un- BROADWAY: Neva (The Public); Love, Loss, and What I Wore (Westside scure film, having won several NY Film Crit- Arts); Dreams of Flying, Dreams of Falling (Atlantic); Family Week like a character as Edie Beale as possible. (MCC); Ruined (MTC); The Misanthrope (NYTW). ics Awards and Academy and Golden Globe And the conformism that dominates Far Awards nominations in 2003. But it is also SECOND ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT From Heaven seemed an unattainable mi- a film with a very particular aesthetic, one rage even in the imagined first act of Grey JUSTIN SCOTT BROWN Off-Broadway debut. whose translation into musical theater form Gardens. But both musicals take a wide-an- OFF BROADWAY: Wild With Happy (The Public). does not seem readily apparent. Edward KOREY JACKSON gled view of American culture, keenly aware TV: “Homeland,” “Law & Order: SVU.” Lachman’s distinctive cinematography fea- of the seismic shifts that have been and con- tures super-saturated color, reminiscent JAMES MOYE BROADWAY: Million Dollar Quartet, Urinetown. OFF- tinue to rattle our foundations of class, race, BROADWAY: Dogfight (Second Stage); Silence! The Musical; Happi- of ’50s style Cinemascope, along with fur- gender, and psychological identity. ness (Lincoln Center Theater). tive, dramatic shadows, à la Douglas Sirk. The dialogue is tightly wound, rippling up KELLI O’HARA BROADWAY: Nice Work If You Can Get It (Tony nomina- Far From Heaven is one of the most ambi- tion), South Pacific (Tony nomination), The Pajama Game (Tony nomi- to the edges of melodramatic exposure, tious artistic undertakings we have ever nation), The Light in the Piazza (Tony nomination). OFF-BROADWAY: but never breaking through. Only Elmer King Lear (The Public); Bells Are Ringing (City Center Encores!). FILM: produced. I am grateful to The Andrew W. Sex and the City 2. Bernstein’s lush, sweeping score limns the Mellon Foundation for its monumental sup- oceanic emotions lurking within. But as THIRD ROW, LEFT TO RIGHT port of it, to Kelli O’Hara for her long-stand- Scott, Michael and Richard discuss in the ing commitment to it, and to Michael Greif SARAH JANE SHANKS BROADWAY: Wonderful Town. OFF-BROAD- short interview contained within WAY: Unlock’d (NYMF, Barrow Group); Applause (City Center Encores!); for his sure-handed stewardship of it from Bye, Bye, Birdie (City Center Encores!). TV: “Law & Order: SVU.” these pages, one of the its earliest stages. most impressive fea- MARY STOUT PH: Cather County. BROADWAY: Beauty and the Beast, tures of the film is Jane Eyre. FILM: Sweet and Lowdown, Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. its transformational self-consciousness. Todd Haynes lov- Tim Sanford ingly recreates the Artistic Director ethos of the period, MEET THE TEAM but also imbues it The Mainstage Bulletin is During the run of Far From Heaven, post-performance dis- with modernity cussions with the creative team have been scheduled for generously funded, in part, by the through its the following dates: f r a n k LIMAN FOUNDATION. treat- Sunday, May 12 following the matinee ment Friday, May 17 o f Wednesday, May 22

American Airlines is the official airline These discussions are an important aspect of our play sponsor of Playwrights Horizons. development process. We hope you can take part! MAKING IT THEIR OWN: AN INTERVIEW WITH THE CREATORS OF FAR FROM HEAVEN

How did the three of you decide to work together on this musical? You’ve all made adaptations before. What were the unique demands presented RICHARD GREENBERG: Scott called me. I’d really liked Grey Gardens and he sug- by Far From Heaven? gested we work together. RG: I guess it was approximating the style, which is almost ineffable. It more-or- less used camp techniques – that kind of hyper-noticing – for non-camp ends. SCOTT FRANKEL: I’ve known Rich for a gazillion years, and we talked about want- ing to work together on a project. Far From Heaven was Rich’s idea; and when he SF: Todd’s screenplay is marvelously constructed: taut and coiled; enormously first proposed it, I knew immediately that it was the right one! satisfying. When you have that kind of pre-existing architecture in place, it makes the process of adaptation much smoother. Unlike, say, with Grey Gardens, which Why Far From Heaven? doesn’t have a traditionally ordered narrative – so we had to discover a very particu- RG: We went to the diner to talk about ideas. It popped out. Weirdly, I’d been trying lar two-act organizing structure for the musical. to think of something to work on with another composer for months and this had never occurred to me. It turned out Scott loved the movie as much as I did. MK: Finding the right tone was the biggest challenge in writing the lyrics. Grey Gardens had larger-than-life characters, always ‘on stage’ in their minds, and so MICHAEL KORIE: In New York, it’s always the right time for a musical about re- they sang bravura show-stopping turns. Cathy and Raymond and Frank speak di- pressed homosexuality, spousal abuse, and racial politics. Now is particularly the rectly, without artifice, without show-biz. And they are naïve, not yet aware of the right time because in a stealthy way it’s about today. My goal is to create musicals nature of the problems they face. Their conflicts with the world around them dawn about the America we live in but without making it obvious. The audience at first on them gradually, and can’t be explicated neatly in what theater songwriters refer believes it’s seeing a period piece. Then the realization creeps up, ‘Oh, this all still to as an “I Am” or an “I Want” song. Whoever they are and whatever they want happens!’ isn’t clear to them at first, and is about to change. Each of their mini-scores within the overall score moves continuously towards self-understanding, and has its own What was your first experience with the source material? Watching the film for musical characteristics – a leitmotif. In some ways, it’s a musical constructed like a the first time, did you immediately have an impulse to translate it for the stage? through-composed opera even though there is spoken dialogue and the music is MK: I first saw the film in a movie theater when it came out. It never occurred to in popular song form. me that it was a potential musical. But when Richard suggested making a musi- cal of it, it made sense to me because so much of the film’s emotional impact was What comes first? Music? Lyrics? Text? heightened by the almost continuous film score. The film used it as a stylistic de- RG: The movie. Really, the movie. Choosing what to musicalize and what to save vice – and since musicals are all stylization, it was a short leap to putting lyrics into from the screenplay and then bridging when necessary. I would have been happy the characters’ voices. not to write a single original line because I find the screenplay’s tone so unerring. In some ways, I’m only freely diverging now. SF: When the film first came out, I saw it in Chelsea with an audience that seemed to be comprised of savvy cinéastes well-schooled in the Douglas Sirk canon. They MK: Most of the time, Scott and I bounce ideas back and forth, come up with a title, were completely simpatico with Todd Haynes’ vision – and how he was bending and some music, some lyrics, some more music, some different lyrics, and pretty soon deconstructing the source material. Some months later, I was visiting my grand- there’s a song. I needed a medical procedure that took me out of commission for mother in Cleveland – and I took her to see the movie. She was completely gripped nearly a year. ‘The show must go on,’ so Scott wrote almost the entire score, music by the plot, the melodrama and the storytelling – and was much less conscious of first, and imagined what the words might be in his head. It turned out to be the best the filmic references and devices. way to write the score to this show. All except for one song, all of the songs in the score are ‘music first.’ RG: My impulse was to see the movie again. SF: I had particular ideas for song moments, song ideas – Was it difficult to get the rights to the property? hunches, first impulses – and just went with my visceral takes SF: First, I approached Chris- on a lot of them. tine Vachon, the producer of the movie and also the head The visual language of the film of Killer Films. I made my case makes reference to an earlier that Far From Heaven could cinematic style, drawing inspi- work as a stage musical – and ration from the films of Doug- then she put me in touch with las Sirk. How do you echo a

Todd. I am a tremendous fan DEZON ZACK BY PHOTOS cinematic choice in another of his work, going all the way medium? back to Superstar: The Karen RG: You don’t. There’s no way Carpenter Story. So I went out of coming into relation with, to Portland, Oregon, where he say, an earlier model of musical lives – and after some lively comedy in the way that the film conversation, a delicious sea- did with Sirk. We can’t sudden- food dinner and a few rounds ly base it on South Pacific or of cocktails, we had a meeting something. We’ve had to make of the minds and he gave his peace with that. blessing. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 4)

MICHAEL KORIE RICHARD GREENBERG SCOTT FRANKEL MAKING (CONT’D IT FROM PAGE 3) BACKSTORYRUNNING IN SIRK-LES

MK: We wanted the music and lyrics to evoke that 1950s-Technicolor-picture postcard vision of “It was a simpler time” rings the mantra of the Greatest Gen- America with Sirk-ian psychological shadows, foreboding, premonitions, sun and shade. Music eration when reflecting upon the American 1950s. Enshrined in took over the role of cinematography. Also, unlike in a movie, in the theater there are no close- our memories by iconic shows like “Leave it to Beaver” and “I ups. Music and lyrics provide an actor with the equivalent of a close-up on the screen, a defining Love Lucy,” the 1950s housewife has assumed an almost mythi- gesture that stops time and glimpses momentarily into the soul. cal presence in our cultural consciousness, lamenting an easier time of economic prosperity when neighbors greeted one an- SF: It’s interesting. Todd’s film is in some ways about the very gestalt of film and film-making: other in their driveways, kids played stickball in the streets till artifice; remove; references to other films and other genres of films. I didn’t feel that the musical dusk and the idyllic June Cleaver eagerly awaited her husband’s needed to have some of those elements. I mean, the very notion of people breaking into song return from work with a plate of piping hot dinner in her care- is fundamentally a stylistic conceit; a heightening of particular moments. So in some ways, the fully manicured hand. actual medium of musical theater works well as a substitute for some of the cinematic conven- tions in the film. When Todd Haynes took up the mantle of the iconic Hollywood Technicolor classics of the 1950s in Far From Heaven, he did How long did it take to complete a draft you felt represented your vision of the piece? so with an acute awareness of the fetishism that accompanies RG: We’re still working! this period in American history. In his 2002 homage to Doug- las Sirk’s 1955 classic All That Heaven Allows, Haynes care- SF: As I recall, we had a first draft in about fifteen months. fully reconstructed the melodramatic structure of the original, meticulously recreating not only the period’s signature speech MK: The nature of a musical is that it isn’t finished until the audience weighs in, so it takes as cadences, but also the lush lighting and decadent costumes long to write as it takes to produce it. We’ll be working and revising right until the curtain goes cherished in old Hollywood. up on opening night, and probably afterwards. One day I would love to type ‘The End’ on the last page, and actually be finished, and not have to defend my choices in rehearsal to actors who Set pointedly in 1957, the same year that Little Rock, Arkansas insist ‘My character would never say this line.’ They’re almost always right. made headlines throughout the United States, Far From Heaven delves into the societal unrest beneath the carefully manicured How do you make someone else’s characters your own? surface. While Sirk’s leading lady faced high society scrutiny RG: You don’t. The point is to merge. You’re as much dramaturg as playwright. You don’t want over her affair with her socially inferior gardener, Haynes chose to be visible. to explore issues surrounding homosexuality and race through his heroine, Cathy Whitaker, caught between a sexless mar- How did you arrive at a “sound” for Far From Heaven? Is it authentically period music? What riage with her closeted husband and an emotional entangle- are your influences? ment with her black gardener. SF: Well, the first thing I did was to stop listening to the glorious Elmer Bernstein score! It’s mag- nificent – and I didn’t want to be overly influenced by it, or cowed by it. That said, Bernstein’s film From the first sweeping shot of suburban Connecticut in score has a real sweep to it... atmospheric, lush, unafraid of the big gesture. I wanted to keep Haynes’ film, his mirroring of Sirk’s style in undeniable. While that quality – the largeness of the emotional topography of the characters. Beyond that, I have a Haynes attests that his opening iconic images are not frame-by- tremendous affection for music of the 1950s, so the score has some specific homages to the era. frame reproductions, he successfully employs Sirk’s signature At the end of the day, I wrote what I thought was best for the characters – what embodied their angles and color palette to explore the careening emotionality tremendous passion and pain, highs and lows, hopefulness and despair. within his subjects. From the soft fades-in to the saturated and lush colors that explode off the screen, it’s impossible not to Did you always envision Kelli O’Hara playing the role of Cathy Whitaker? feel Sirk’s presence in every frame. Despite a “mere” $14 mil- SF: Always. And it was her voice I had in my head as I was writing the score. She seemed a lion budget, Haynes talked about his desire for “just one Tech- perfect fit with the role… beautiful, emotionally transparent. And her voice is one of the glori- nicolor print” from the movie that would capture Sirk’s essence, ous instruments of our time. Although highly trained and capable of flawless vocal production, toiling for weeks with his team to establish the broad colorful she also has the ability to produce a very naturalistic, un-operatic sound, even in a high regis- spectrum of the Whitakers’ world. For Haynes, it was crucial ter. I was also seduced and inspired by the thought of giving her an enormous variety of musical that the colors be as lush and adventurous as the original ’50s styles: highly legit passages, soaring lyrical duets, jagged dissonant sections, and even a coun- melodramas to create a story that “refuses a lot of familiar nar- try/pop-inflected waltz called “The Only One” that closes the first act. rative touchstones and contemporary codes of naturalism,” al- lowing for “a completely synthetic language that comes directly What’s the most challenging part of writing lyrics for an already well-known and well-defined out of the world of film.” character? Is it limiting, or does it give you a richer palette to work with? MK: Once a well-known character starts to sing, he or she has to be re-defined through music. It is with this reverence that Haynes approached the seemingly Prior knowledge of that character doesn’t matter if they don’t have the right words to sing, and superficial language of the film: “it’s all on the surface in a way sometimes a familiar phrase or speech can be reiterated in song. It can enrich the challenge of that we’re not accustomed to in our naturalistic codes of acting writing for them – like Henry Higgins asking ‘Why can’t the English teach their children how to today.” Instead, Haynes’ stylized language frees his characters speak?’ On Grey Gardens, I had the joy of Little Edie’s phrase-book to draw from, such as when from verbally summarizing their emotions or situations allow- she demonstrated “The Revolutionary Costume for Today.” In Far From Heaven, Frank’s stut- ing the lighting and music to speak for themselves, imploring tered words ‘I never knew’ grow into an emotional outpouring specific to this musical. Cathy’s viewers to draw their own conclusions. In this manner, the flat “Autumn in Connecticut” is never spoken in the film – it’s just a feeling I imagined she’d have, archetypes that we associate with the 1950s are given new vi- coming home from the market and pausing in the driveway of her home to notice something tality, their rigid language masking worlds of emotions that we inspiring in the air. If I hadn’t already known her, I wonder if I’d have dared to be that simple. ‰ are finally able to access. ‰

– Amy Taylor Rosenblum, Musical Theater Resident THE AMERICAN VOICE: A BRIEF HISTORY OF ADAPTATION There seems to be a modern complaint about musicals today that you can’t throw a The lushness of the film’s visual language has been translated into another means stone down Broadway without hitting a marquee for a show adapted from a recent of communication: the lushness of Scott Frankel’s score. In transforming the story hit film. As often as not, these productions are seen as a quick fix for the instant from one medium to another, the authors have the ability to continue to explore marketing and branding of commercial enterprises rather than original shows. and reexamine the themes the film touches on, while digging deeper into the rich- However, adaptation in musicals is nothing new, and people have been turning to ness of the characters’ complex emotional lives. other sources for a very long time. What’s often overlooked is that the process of adaptation, at its best, finds ways to expand the form of the musical and deepen Frankel’s score has a complexity that holds a mirror up to the inner turmoil of the the manner in which these stories explore our essential humanity. characters. Alternating between a jazz vocabulary for Frank Whitaker, the con- flicted husband, and the melodramatic tropes of an Elmer Bernstein-inflected film In 1931, Lynn Riggs’ Green Grow The Lilacs was a modest drama that played a mere soundtrack for Frank’s wife Cathy, the music firmly establishes its period and pro- sixty-four performances on Broadway despite a cast that featured Lee Strasberg vides the emotional guideposts for the audience to navigate the secret repression and screen star Franchot Tone. Mr. Riggs’ play, which told the story of brewing ten- and prejudices of Far From Heaven’s main characters. sions between cowboys and farmers in the Oklahoma territories at the turn of the 20th century, caught the eye of a young writer named Oscar Hammerstein. With Greenberg, Frankel and Korie, in their adaptation of the source material, have been composer Richard Rodgers, the two created a show which evolved into one of the able to examine and expand upon the ideas that exist in the original film, ideas the first book musicals: Oklahoma! In it, songs and choreography were seamlessly medium of non-musical cinema couldn’t fully explore. integrated into the telling of a well-made story. The musical was a smash success, running for a total of 2,243 performances – a new record. This record lasted until This ultimately feels like the reason for adaptation in the first place: existing side 1956, when My Fair Lady, adapted from the popular George Bernard Shaw play by side with its inspiration, two pieces speak to and complement each other, but Pygmalion, topped it with a shattering 2,717 performances. still exist as wholly original works on their own. A successful musical adaptation will always bring something new to its audiences and to the table, aspects which Rodgers and Hammerstein, of course, would continue to adapt musicals from only music, dance, character, and dialogue – the essential elements of a musical other sources: plays (Carousel), short stories (South Pacific), and even memoirs – can bring. It takes a tricky balance to make a story sing in its own unique voice, (The Sound of Music). From the very beginning of the modern musical, creating but, when it does, it can be downright magical. ‰ stories from source material or adapting them from one mode of storytelling to another has been a ubiquitous means of creation. Over the intervening years, the – Kent Nicholson, Director of Musical Theater sources from which these stories spring have become numerous, from 1968’s Burt Bacharach and Hal David musical Promises Promises (based on the 1960 film, The Apartment) to 1976’s A Chorus Line, created out of interviews with Broadway gyp- sies, no source is off limits. THE LAB REPORT Of course, musicals at Playwrights Horizons are no exception. From those drawn Every new play contains a unique system of rules, a volatile and from movies, such as Saved or The Spitfire Grill, to musicals whose inspiration delicate alchemy of character and story, language and spectacle, comes from a mix of sources such as Once On This Island (adapted from a short content and form. As a playwrights’ theater, our goal is to decode story with elements from Shakespeare and fairy tales thrown in) the nature of how the rules specific to each new play. This asks for a malleable and where musicals come from demands that writers search far and wide for their laboratory environment, shape-shifting according to the inspiration. Rare is the musical, such as Sunday in the Park with George or Fal- needs of each project. We call this our New Works Lab, settos, where the story is wholly original and the inspiration comes from a non- in which we seek out, commission, and develop the country’s most essential, adventurous playwriting. narrative source. It was cold and snowy outside this February, Composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie’s work has encompassed film but in the Lab we had more than a few irons in adaptation before, most notably in Playwrights Horizons’ 2006 production of the the fire. We kicked off the month in the com- new musical Grey Gardens. Among the first musicals to be adapted from a docu- pany of our friends at Clubbed Thumb with our mentary film, Grey Gardens took an unflinching look at our American infatuation third SuperLab of the 2012/13 Season, Phoebe with riches-to-rags stories by dissecting the dysfunctional relationship between a In Winter, by Jen Silverman (Crane Story), directed mother and daughter with Kennedy connections, and their fall from high society. by Adrienne Campbell-Holt (Recall). At the end of the By turning the documentary into a book musical, Frankel and Korie (along with Pu- month, we spent three days getting to know The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters litzer Prize-winner Doug Wright, who wrote the book) were able to turn a spotlight with PH veteran Marlane Meyer (The Chemistry of Change) and director Lisa on the Beales’ glory days and reveal the central characters’ inner lives, which, in Peterson (The Model Apartment). Finally we dove into March by spending three turn, enabled audiences to do more than just witness their famous pathologies. days with PH Weingarten Commission Serial Black Face by Janine Nabers (An- nie Bosh is Missing), directed by Carolyn Cantor (The Great God Pan). Coming With Far From Heaven, Frankel and Korie – this time in collaboration with Richard up next is yet another SuperLab: Sex Play by Sylvan Oswald (Nightlands), di- Greenberg, who wrote the book – are able to explore our cultural obsession with rected by Eric Hoff (Pony). nostalgia for a “simpler” time. Of course, we realize in hindsight that those times had a dark side, a side that forced people to live in denial of their own prejudices Look for updates like this one in each new bulletin and find out more at and desires. The film upon which it is based places its main characters on the edge www.playwrightshorizons.org/about/new-works-lab/. of a repressed 1950s that bleeds into a socially conscious 1960s. Shot in a melo- dramatic style as an homage to cinema auteur Douglas Sirk, it naturally contains all the elements of a great musical: a strong plot and simple character arcs that Leadership support for the New Works Lab is generously belie inner emotional struggles. provided by the Time Warner Foundation. CONTACT INFO & HOURS OF OPERATION PATRONS & GENERATION PH MEMBERS hours prior to your performance. You may reserve your house seats by calling the TICKET CENTRAL, the box office for Playwrights Development Administrator (contact info in first EXCHANGES Horizons, is open Noon–8pm daily and can be column). SUBSCRIBERS, PATRONS & GEN PH MEMBERS reached via phone at (212) 279–4200 and in per- have unlimited exchange privileges. MEMBERS son at 416 West 42nd St., New York, NY 10036 (be- GUEST TICKETS SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY AND FLEXPASS HOLDERS may exchange once per tween 9th and 10th Avenues). X SUBSCRIBERS: You may order one guest ticket production. for $50 each (reg. $80) per package. 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YOUNG MEM- quest that your tickets be mailed, they will be sent BERS: 30&Under Member tickets are $20; Student out immediately, UNLESS your performance date Member tickets are $10. Young members may or- takes place in fewer than 10 days, in which case der online, by phone, or in person. they will be held at the box office. If you are un- able to attend a performance for which you have a reservation, please call Ticket Central at least 24

Listed below are local businesses that have agreed to participate in Playwrights Horizons’ Neighborhood Business Circle. All generously offer a discount on their services to you, our patrons, subscribers, and donors. When you come to our area, please patronize these businesses, and be sure to show your season I.D. card when you order or make your purchase. *These restaurants have given generously to Playwrights Horizons. We encourage you to support them.

44 & X ETCETERA ETCETERA LITTLE TOWN NYC YUM YUM 3 622 10th Avenue 352 West 44th Street 366 West 46th Street 658 9th Avenue PARKING New American Italian/Mediterranean Contemporary Brewpub Thai and Vietnamese (212) 977–1170 (212) 399–4141 (212) 677-6300 (212) 956–0639 ALLIANCE PARKING Mention PH and receive a compli- 10% discount on purchase. 15% discount on entire check. 10% discount on purchase. Strand Apartment Building mentary fallen chocolate soufflé 500 West 43rd Street & 10th with dinner. FRAGOLINO TRATTORIA THE MEAT FACTORY STEAKHOUSE YUM YUM BANGKOK Avenue 653 9th Avenue “Brazil Brazil” 650 9th Avenue ABOVE Italian 330 West 46th Street Thai $12 flat rate for weeknights after At The Hilton Times Square (212) 333–5300 Brazilian Steakhouse (212) 262–7244 5 pm and weekends. Rate is $19 234 West 42nd Street 10% discount on entire check (212) 957–4300 10% discount on purchase. after 5 hours, up to 12 hours. Contemporary American when paying in cash. Discount 10% discount on entire check when Subscribers must show ticket (212) 642–2626 unavailable on Friday & Saturday. paying in cash. Discount unavail- ZEN PALATE stub at the garage to receive 10% discount on lunch or dinner. able on Friday & Saturday. 663 9th Avenue discount. Parking is first-come, IL PUNTO RISTORANTE Vegetarian first-served. To guarantee a spot BANGKOK HOUSE 507 9th Avenue SARDI’S (212) 582–1669 at the “online special” rate of $17 360 West 46th Street Italian 234 West 44th Street 10% discount on take-out and for any 10-hour period, purchase Thai (212) 244–0088 American Traditional delivery. online and download a coupon at (212) 541–5943 Complimentary dessert with (212) 221–8440 AllianceParkingServices.com. 10% discount on purchase. purchase of an entree. Complimentary glass of house ZUNI wine with entrée. Reservations 598 9th Avenue BROADWAY JOE STEAKHOUSE KYOTOFU suggested. Contemporary American MANHATTAN PARKING 315 West 46th Street 705 9th Avenue (212) 765–7626 475 West 41st Street. American Steaks & Seafood Japanese Dessert & Sake Bar THEATRE ROW DINER 10% discount on purchase. (212) 246–6513 (212) 974–6012 424 West 42nd Street $15 flat rate for 6 hours. Download 20% discount on lunch or dinner. Complimentary glass of sake with Diner the discount coupon in the “Plan dinner or dessert. (212) 426–6000 *CHEZ JOSEPHINE SPECIALTY ITEMS Your Visit” section of our website or 10% discount on purchase. ask for a coupon at the concessions EXCLUSIVE NEIGHBORHOOD DISCOUNTS 414 West 42nd Street L’ALLEGRIA DRAMA BOOK SHOP counter during your visit. French 623 9th Avenue *WEST BANK CAFE 250 West 40th Street (212) 594–1925 Italian 407 West 42nd Street (212) 944–0595 Complimentary glass of house wine (212) 265–6777 American 10% discount with dinner. 10% discount on entire check when (212) 695–6909 (some items excluded) Reservations suggested. paying in cash. Unavailable on Complimentary glass of house wine Friday & Saturday. with entrée, per person. EMPIRE COFFEE & TEA LANDMARK TAVERN HOUSING WORKS THRIFT STORE 568 9th Avenue 626 11th Avenue WESTWAY DINER 9th Avenue at 49th Street Coffee and Treats Contemporary American 614 9th Avenue housingworks.org (212) 268–1220 (212) 247–2562 Diner 20% discount 15% discount on all products 10% discount on purchase. (212) 582–7661 excluding cups of coffee. 10% discount on purchase. BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW! You MUST reserve during your priority period to  guarantee your seats. UPDATE (AS OF 3/1) FAR FROM HEAVEN

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

SUBSCRIBERS AND MEMBERS are limited to one MAY 8 9 10 11 guest ticket per package. 8:00 pm 8:00 pm 8:00 pm 8:00 pm

12 18 13 14 15 16 17 2:30 pm 2:30 pm 7:00 pm 7:00 pm 8:00 pm 8:00 pm 7:30 pm 8:00 pm 19 25 20 21 22 23 24 2:30 pm 2:30 pm 7:00 pm 7:00 pm 8:00 pm 8:00 pm 7:30 pm 8:00 pm JUNE 1 26 27 28 29 30 31 2:30 pm 2:30 pm 8:00 pm 7:00 pm 8:00 pm 8:00 pm 7:30 pm 8:00 pm 8 2 3 4 5 6 7 2:30 pm 2:00 pm 7:00 pm 7:00 pm 8:00 pm 8:00 pm 8:00 pm 9 15 10 11 12 13 14 2:30 pm 2:30 pm 7:00 pm 7:00 pm 8:00 pm 8:00 pm 7:30 pm 8:00 pm 22 16 17 18 19 20 21 2:30 pm 2:30 pm 7:00 pm 7:00 pm 8:00 pm 8:00 pm 7:30 pm 8:00 pm

23 29 24 25 26 27 28 2:30 pm 2:30 pm 7:00 pm 7:00 pm 8:00 pm 8:00 pm 7:30 pm 8:00 pm

30 KID-FRIENDLY? Open Captioned perf. for Indicates post- 2:30 pm theatergoers who are PPD performance We recommend Far From Heaven for deaf and hard of hearing discussion 7:30 pm audiences aged 9+

WE COULDN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOU. Since 1978, Playwrights Horizons has been committed to devel- bring this musical to life in the Mainstage Theater. The donors oping and producing new works of musical theater alongside who responded to this project are indeed extraordinary: they be- new plays. Groundbreaking and award-winning musicals have lieve strongly in Far From Heaven’s writers, script, score, and its premiered at Playwrights Horizons, including Sunday in the Park future as a great American musical. Thank you to the following with George, Once on this Island, Assassins, James Joyce’s The foundations and individuals, and to the many others who are Dead, and Grey Gardens. Audiences count on Playwrights Hori- supporting this production: zons to present intimate, character-driven musicals that empha- size story over spectacle. Now the theater is producing the world The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation premiere of Far From Heaven by Richard Greenberg, Scott Frankel The Laurents / Hatcher Foundation and Michael Korie. Playwrights Horizons has been involved with the musical from the start: the theater commissioned the piece Stacey & Eric Mindich Fund through*$16 its Musicals in Partnership Initiative, held two develop- for New Musicals at Playwrights Horizons mental workshops that enabled the creative team to collaborate Joanne & Daniel Smith on revisions, and partnered with the Williamstown Theater Festi- val to further develop the musical. Cathy & Stephen Weinroth

National Alliance for Musical Theatre Far From Heaven is the largest production in Playwrights Hori- zons’ history, featuring 18 actors, 7 musicians, and period set The Tobin Theatre Arts Fund and costume design. It was clear that it would take the extraor- The Elroy and Terry Krumholz Foundation dinary support and vision of a diverse group of supporters to 416 West 42nd Street • New York, NY 10036

BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW FOR FAR FROM HEAVEN A NEW MUSICAL BY RICHARD GREENBERG SCOTT FRANKEL MICHAEL KORIE BASED ON THE FOCUS FEATURES/VULCAN PRODUCTIONS MOTION PICTURE WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY TODD HAYNES

DIRECTED BY

MICHAEL GREIF READY, SET, RENEW! Keep an eye out for information on renewing your season package for 2013/14. You’ll save by renewing early as a This is the sixth and final production Subscriber and receive a free guest ticket with your package! in the 2012/13 Season. WHO’S WHO ON FAR FROM HEAVEN RICHARD GREENBERG (Book) is the author of Take Me Out (Drama Desk, NY Award, and ASCAP Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award. His songs with Frankel Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel, and Tony awards for Best were spotlighted at The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage Broadway Today. He Play), which received an acclaimed production on Broadway after successful serves on the council of The Dramatists Guild where he also chairs the Awards runs at The Donmar on London’s West End and The Public Theater in New York Committee, contributes articles to The Dramatist magazine, and is a mentor of City. Other works include The House in Town, The Violet Hour, The Dazzle (Outer The Fellows Program. He is on the faculty of the Yale School of Drama where he Critics Circle Award: John Gassner, Lucille Lortel nominations), Everett Beekin, teaches lyric writing. Three Days of Rain (L.A. Drama Critics Award; Pulitzer finalist; Olivier, Drama Desk, Hull-Warriner nominations; Broadway revival starring Bradley Cooper and MICHAEL GREIF (Director) most recently directed Julia Roberts), Hurrah At Last, Night and Her Stars, The American Plan, Life Un- LaChuisa’s and Pearson’s Giant (Dallas Theater der Water, and The Author’s Voice, among many other plays. His adaptation of Center/Public Theater), Tony Kushner’s Angels Strindberg’s Dance of Death was seen on Broadway starring Ian McKellen, Helen in America Parts I and II (Signature Theater Com- Mirren, and David Straithairn. Upcoming productions include The Assembled pany) and The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Parties at MTC and Breakfast at Tiffany’s on Broadway. Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scrip- tures (Public Theater). Other recent work includes SCOTT FRANKEL (Music) was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics The Winter’s Tale and Romeo & Juliet for the Public’s Circle awards for his work on Grey Gardens. He has written the music for Hap- Delacorte Theater. On Broadway, he directed the piness (Lincoln Center Theatre), Doll (Ravinia Festival, Richard Rodgers Award), musicals Next to Normal (also at Second Meet Mister Future (winner, Global Search for New Musicals), and Finding Nev- Stage Theatre and Arena Stage), Grey Gar- erland, all with lyricist Michael Korie. Mr. Frankel is the recipient of the ASCAP dens (also at Playwrights Horizons), and Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award and the Frederick Loewe Rent (also at New York Theatre Work-

Award. He is a fellow of the MacDowell Colony and a graduate of Yale University. shop, 1996; New World Stages, 2011), DEZON ZACK BY PHOTO receiving Tony nominations for each. MICHAEL KORIE (Lyrics) was nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards and Other Off-Broadway work includes pre- won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Broadway’s Grey Gardens, written in col- mieres by John Guare, Neal Bell, There- laboration with Scott Frankel and Doug Wright. Also with Scott Frankel, Korie sa Rebeck, Nilo Cruz, Susan-Lori Parks, created lyrics to Happiness (Lincoln Center Theater) and Finding Neverland. His at The Public, Playwrights Horizons, opera credits include Harvey Milk, Hopper’s Wife, Kabbalah, Where’s Dick?, The MTC, MCC, and The Roundabout. ‰ Grapes of Wrath, and the upcoming The Garden of the Finzi-Continis and Senna. Mr. Korie’s lyrics have received The Kleban Award, Jonathan Larson Foundation MICHAEL GREIF