A Chicago run of the show earlier this year was hoped to be a lead-in to a fall run in New York City, but a Manhattan booking has not yet solidified. The San Francisco run is billed as a pre-Broadway engagement, but no Broadway dates have been announced yet.
According to the producers, "In Russian on the Side, virtuoso Mark Nadler takes audiences on a zany 90-minute journey from Stravinsky to Sondheim. With music from celebrated American songwriters of the 20th century such as Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Cole Porter and Ira Gershwin, Nadler 'tickles the ivories' while dishing scintillating gossip about some of the world's greatest composers."
Nadler starred in and co-wrote the Off-Broadway Gershwin revue, American Rhapsody, which was nominated for a 2001 Drama Desk and two Lucille Lortel Awards and received the Manhattan Association of Cabarets (MAC) Award for Outstanding Musical Revue.
Russian on the Side is directed by Mark Waldrop, whose credits include Bea Arthur On Broadway and the Drama Desk award-winning Off-Broadway revue, When Pigs Fly, for which he also provided book and lyrics.
In association with the Marines Memorial Theatre, Russian on the Side is produced by Michael Alden and Karen Lotman. Alden produced the Tony Award nominee Grey Gardens. Other credits include Bridge & Tunnel (2006 Special Tony Award), Bad Dates at The Laguna Playhouse (directed by Judith Ivey), and Palm Beach at The La Jolla Playhouse (directed by Des McAnuff). In 2001 Alden produced Bat Boy: The Musical at the Union Square Theater in New York (2001 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical, and Drama Desk-nominee), which went on to a West End run at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London. His other stage credits include the Off-Broadway production of Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell and Save it for the stage: The Life of Reilly, written and starring Tony Award-winner Charles Nelson Reilly.
Lotman's previous credits as producer include Always: the Love Story of Irving Berlin and A Swell Party - RSVP Cole Porter at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia.
San Francisco's Marines Memorial Theatre is at 609 Sutter at Mason, 2nd floor. Opening night is Oct. 21.
For tickets and information, call (415) 771-6900, or visit Ticketmaster.com or www.MarinesMemorialTheatre.com or www.RussianOnTheSideOnline.com.
