After offering boisterous plays about confused urban and suburban American twentysomethings (This Is Our Youth, The Flatted Fifth), Off-Broadway's The New Group will return to the wellspring of its first productions: working class Britain. The company premiered with playwright/filmmaker Mike Leigh's Ecstasy, and will next produce Leigh's Goose-Pimples.
Performances began Nov. 28 for Leigh's dark comedy, to be staged by Scott Elliott, the company's artistic director. Rehearsals started in late October for a Dec. 18 opening at Off-Broadway's Judith Anderson Theatre, 422 West 42nd St.
First staged at the Hampstead and Garrick Theatres in London, Goose Pimples looks at upwardly-mobile working classniks in early 1980s London. Starring in Goose-Pimples are Sam Rockwell, Caroline Seymour (Ecstasy, Present Laughter), Adam Alexi-Malle, Max Baker and Gilli Foss. Designing the show are Kevin Price (set), Eric Becker (costumes), Jan Kroeze (lighting) and Raymond D. Schilke (sound).
Elliott also directed the New Group's mounting of Stephen Bill's Curtains, a comedy/drama about euthanasia in a middle-class English family.
For tickets ($15-$30) and information on Goose-Pimples call (212) 279-4200. --By David Lefkowitz