Kander and Ebb's Skin of Our Teeth Musical May Bow at Westport | Playbill

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News Kander and Ebb's Skin of Our Teeth Musical May Bow at Westport The long-in-development John Kander and Fred Ebb musical based on Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, may bow in Westport, CT, in 2007, before coming to Broadway.

Columnist Army Archerd quoted producer David Brown as saying the show, now called All About Us, was headed to Broadway, but would first debut at the Westport Country Playhouse. The Playhouse confirmed that negotiations were currently underway, though nothing is yet set in stone. Joseph Stein wrote the book to the show.

All About Us—which was once called Over and Over and later Skin of Our Teeth—has been around for several years. It had a 1999 premiere at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA. Since then, further work has been done to the script and numerous presentations have been given. The most recent reported workshop was in June 2005 at the McCarter Theatre Center's Berlind Rehearsal Room in Princeton, NJ. Karen Ziemba was featured.

After the 1999 regional run, the writers went back to the drawing board and in spring 2002 presented a Gabriel Barre-directed reading at Manhattan Theatre Club. At that point, the title changed from Over and Over to Skin of Our Teeth.

Stein previously told Playbill.com, "The Virginia version was — I hate to use the word 'fiasco' — but I think it was badly mishandled. Characters were added which I felt were unnecessary. It just didn't work properly, but we saw what was wrong, and I think we fixed it. We based it on a damn good play. I made a lot of changes, and the third act of the play practically doesn't exist in the musical. Basically, the line of the play, we have kept. And the three major characters we have kept intact. We made the changes that will improve it for a contemporary audience. It has a much more contemporary feel than the play."

Sabina is the maid and narrator in the 1942 play about human resilience, in which the Antrobus family survives disasters and dramatic changes of Biblical proportions. The show received another reading in June 2003.

Ebb died on Sept. 11, 2004.

 
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