The new play is called Dirty Story. The plotline could not be learned at press time. LAByrinth and Shanley first teamed in 2001 for Where's My Money?, the dramatist's dark-humored piece about two smalltime Brooklyn divorce lawyers and the women in their lives. The show ran at Center Stage in Chelsea and was later picked up, its LAByrinth cast intact, for a stay at Manhattan Theatre Club beginning in November 2001.
The advent of Dirty Story will give the rising LAByrinth two shows playing Off-Broadway at once. Stephen Adley Guirgis' Our Lady of 121st Street, previously seen in a 2002 LAByrinth run, gets a commercial Off-Broadway run beginning Feb. 18, and opening March 6 at the Union Square Theatre.
John Gould Rubin, Ira Pittelman, Robyn Goodman, Ruth Hendel, Daryl Roth, in association with Jack Thomas and Michael Filerman, present the staging directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Set in the Ortiz Funeral home, Our Lady of 121st Street "is the funny and touching story of a group of friends who are reunited after the death of Sister Rose, a much feared but beloved nun from their childhood. As the group reconnects, they must confront the reality that who they have become isn’t necessarily who they had intended to be."
Shanley's other plays include Cellini, Four Dogs and a Bone and Beggars in the House of Plenty. Shanley, speaking to PBOL in 2001, said this of LAByrinth: "I started going over there, saw a couple things they did and I became very impressed with them in several different ways. One of the [things] I liked very much that it was a truly multi-ethnic theatre. I liked the idea of writing a play that celebrated that multi-ethnicity without ever talking about it. I feel so often that Hispanic actors get cast as Hispanic people and their identities revolve around the fact that they're Hispanic, rather than that they're people. Black actors—the same thing... And I just liked them as a group. There's a lot of talent there, and a lot of good will. So I wrote Where's My Money? for them and did it there and I had one of the more pleasant experiences I've had in a long time."
