The next two offerings of Off-Broadway's Drama Dept. will be short runs featuring the likes of Jackie Hoffman, Cynthia Nixon, Christopher Fitzgerald and B.D. Wong. Hoffman will step onto the Greenwich House Theater stage Feb. 14-16 in Jackie Hoffman's Valentine's Day Massacre. The show is a sort of vaudeville variety show which promises "to make you reexamine your views of love and romance on Valentine's Day."
Expected to present their talents are Mary Birdsong ("The Daily Show"), Paul Dinello ("Strangers with Candy"), Erik Drysdale, sword swallower Johnny Fox, David Ilku, Allen Lewis Rickman and Tammy Faye Starlite).
Design is by Jeremy Tjhung (sets and costumes), Kirk Bookman (lighting), and Jodi Lennon (video). Musical direction is by Michael Garin.
Hoffman will also be part of the Douglas Carter Beane-directed Free to Be You and Me, based on the cult album. The show will run Feb. 18, 25 and March 4. The cast will feature Robert Ari, Mary Bond Davis, Christopher Fitzgerald, Ross Gibby, Julie Halston, Jackie Hoffman, Peter Jacobson, Chip Kidd, Cynthia Nixon, Jessica Stone and B.D . Wong. The original album included music and lyrics by Marlo Thomas, Peter Stone, Carl Reiner, Carol Hall, Sheldon Harnick and Shel Silverstien.
On Nov. 26, the Drama Dept. presented an early version of this show. The running order of the evening went as follows (according to the DD website): • Marlo Thomas Intro — performed by Jackie Hoffman & Mary Testa
• "Free To Be You and Me" — performed by Jackie Hoffman & Mary Testa
• "Boy Meets Girl" — Kevin Chamberlin
• "When We Grow Up" — performed by Karen Ziemba
• "Don't Dress Your Cat in an Apron" — performed by Isaac Mizrahi
• "Parents are People"
• "Housework"— Ana Gasteyer
• "Helping" — performed by Robert Ari Ari
• "Ladies First" — performed by Cynthia Nixon
• "Girl Land" — performed by Mary Beth Peil
• "Dudley Pippen and the Principal"
• "It's Alright to Cry"
• "My Dog is a Plumber "— performed by Chip Kidd
• "What are Little Boys Made Of"
• "Hooray for Babies"
• "The South Paw"
• "William's Doll" — performed by B.D. Wong
• "Atalanta"
• "Grandma"
• "Sisters and Brothers" — performed by Mary Bond Davis
• "Dudley Pippen and His No-Friend"
• "Glad to Have a Friend Like You" — performed by Mary Bond Davis, Jackie Hoffman & Mary Testa
All tickets are $35 and can be purchased by phone at the Drama Dept. ticket hotline 212-633-9632, or at the box office starting one hour before the performance.
—By Robert Simonson
