The musical has earned a cult following since its award-winning 2000 Los Angeles staging and its subsequent sold-out, five-week Off-Broadway run in 2004. Plans for a wider New York City life fell through at that time, but a studio recording was later made, attracting fresh international fans.
With book and music by Damon Intrabartolo and book and lyrics by Jon Hartmere, bare has played regional productions in the past few years, including a 2009 run in Toronto. The writers have revised the script and score over the years.
This latest New York City exploration is directed by Olivier Award nominee Stafford Arima (London's Ragtime, Off-Broadway's Altar Boyz), with musical direction by Lynne Shankel (Cry-Baby). Arima (who'll helm MCC Theater's upcoming revisal of Carrie) also directed a 2010 reading of bare.
Producing team shepherding the show includes Paul Boskind, Gregory Rae, Randy Taradash and Carl White.
Fans have embraced the sung-through rock score as a kind of sister show to Rent and Spring Awakening. With gay teen suicides making headlines now more than ever, the show might be seen as more relevant than in its earlier incarnations.
Bare received its world-premiere staging at the Hudson Theatre in Los Angeles, CA, in 2000 and was produced Off-Broadway in 2004. In L.A., it won the 2001 LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Musical Score, and the LA Weekly Award for Best Original Score & Best Musical.
The 2007 release of "bare the album," a studio recording of the entire show, was made available through www.barethealbum.com and then went wide on iTunes.