Terrence McNally, Tony winning-author of Master Class, Love! Valour! Compassion! and librettist for the forthcoming musical Ragtime, will open his new play, Corpus Christi, at off-Broadway's Manhattan Theatre Club as part of MTC's 25th anniversary season, 1996-97.
The season's lineup includes new plays or New York premieres by major playwrights including Donald Margulies, John Patrick Shanley, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Cristofer.
The Manhattan Theatre Club's 1996-97 season includes the following:
Stage I:
* Opening the season is the New York premiere of Leslie Ayvazian's Nine Armenians previewing Oct. 22 and running Nov. 12 through Dec. 29. This show is a portrait of three generations of an Armenian-American family. Nine Armenians was presented at the Intiman Theatre in Seattle last season. The show will be directed by Lynne Meadow, artistic director of the Manhattan Theatre Club.
* The New York premiere of Psychopathia Sexualis by John Patrick Shanley, the Academy Award-winning author of Moonstruck. In this play Arthur and Lucille are engaged to be married, but first Arthur has a problem to resolve of a rather personal nature. The play premiered at Seattle Repertory Theatre this past spring. Dates TBA * The world premiere of Terrence McNally's new play, Corpus Christi. McNally is still working on the script for this play to date. It will be set in Corpus Christi, TX, which is McNally's home town. This will be the ninth play by McNally to be produced by Manhattan Theatre Club. Dates TBA
* The world premiere of The Green Heart, a new musical comedy based on the story by Jack Ritchie. The book is by Charles Busch and the music and lyrics are by Rusty Magee. This is a story of a fast-living and faster-spending playboy and a shy, awkward, and very rich botanist. Busch is also the author of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, You Should Be So Lucky, The Lady in Question and the recent Swingtime Canteen. Dates TBA
Stage II
* The Stage II season opens with the New York premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael (The Shadow Box) Cristofer's The Blues are Running, directed by Melvin Bernhardt. The show takes three unrelated couples and one Central Park bench and weaves them all together into a tale of mistaken identity and murder. The show begins previews Oct. 8 and runs Oct. 29 through Nov. 24.
* The New York premiere of Donald Margulies' new play Collected Stories. This play looks at the relationship between an aging writer and her young protege. Margulies is the Obie Award-winning author of Sight Unseen and The Loman Family Picnic. Dates TBA
* There will be two more shows on Stage II To be announced at a later date.
The Manhattan Theatre Club has been producing new works by the world's foremost playwrights and upcoming talents for the last 25 years. Some of their productions from the past include Love! Valour! Compassion!, Sylvia, Sight Unseen, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Crimes of the Heart, and Ain't Misbehavin'.
The Manhattan Theatre Club is at City Center, 131 West 55th Street. For subscription information call 212-645-5848.
-- By Katie Webber
