Massachusetts' American Repertory Theatre production of Aristophanes' Lysistrata will not be the originally announced adaptation subtitled (Sex and the City-State) by Larry Gelbart. Instead, the co-production with Philadelphia's Prince Music Theatre will use an adaptation by A.R.T. artistic director Robert Brustein, according to Prince Music spokesperson.
A.R.T. founding member Cherry Jones will still star in Lysistrata under the direction of Andrei Serban. The production will play A.R.T.'s Loeb Drama Center May 10-June 9 and then transfer to the Philadelphia venue June 15-30.
Forget about a writers' or actors' strike, in this classic comedy the women of Athens, weary of the years of war with Sparta, unite to withhold sex. Larry Gelbart (book writer for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) had retooled the work to features songs by William Bolcom and Arnold Weinstein. No word yet on musical contributors for the new adaptation.
For tickets to any of the productions at A.R.T., 64 Brattle Street, just outside Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, call (617) 547-8300. For more information, visit their website at www.amrep.org. Also visit thePrince Music Theatre's website.
— by Ernio Hernandez