On April 26 and 27, Alan Alda, Katie Finneran, Maria Tucci, Matt McGrath, Julie Bonde, Simon Jones and Mercedes Ruehl will take part in readings of new works by Roger Rosenblatt and Ruth Wolff. Tickets are $10 to the general public and free to members.
The Rosenblatt piece, titled Essay/4 Voices, comes first, on April 26 at 7 PM. Rosenblatt, a respected journalist and occasional dramatist, described the work as "essays presented as monologues, dialogues and skits. Most of them are funny, some are serious, all are the product of a very odd mind. I’ve never seen anything like this tried before, and at the end of the evening we all may know why." Alan Alda, Katie Finneran, Maria Tucci and Matt McGrath are Rosenblatt's "four voices."
Julie Bonde, Simon Jones and Mercedes Ruehl will read Aviators by Ruth Wolff, on April 27 at 11 AM. Jones and Ruehl are Jan and Harry Hawkesworth, contented academic who have been married for 20 years and have no idea that a visit from the past and a young woman are going to soon smash everything to smithereens. For information, call (631) 725-9500. *
The Bay Street's 2003 season was recently announced.
Ben Gazzara will play baseball great Yogi Berra in Nobody Don't Like Yogi, a new play which will premiere at the Bay Street this summer. Paul Linke Directs. Thomas Lysaght wrote the one-man show, which shows Berra stepping foot in Yankee Stadium, his old stomping ground, after a 14-year absence. The play runs May 20-June 1. Gazzara, a stage and film veteran, has starred in "The Spanish Prisoner" and "The Big Lebowski" as well as the original Broadway productions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Hatful of Rain. Aug. 5 to Aug. 31 are the dates for Julie Andrews' return to The Boy Friend, the 1954 musical that marked her Broadway debut. As previously reported, Andrews will direct a production of the Sandy Wilson musical.
Bay Street is run by Emma Walton (Andrews' daughter), along with Walton's husband Steve Hamilton and Sybil Burton Christopher. There are hopes that the musical will find its way to Broadway.
Andrews told Variety, "I'm going places I never thought I'd go...The Boy Friend was the turning point in my career. I'm awed [at the prospect of directing], but I'm in friendly hands — it's a big family thing."
The season is rounded out by Earth to Bucky, a new play by Vanities author Jack Heifer (July 8-27) and two plays directed by Daniel Gerroll: The Lover by Harold Pinter and Bacchanalia by Arthur Schnitzler (June 10-29).
