NewsPHOTO RECALL: Lysistrata Jones Opens on Broadway; Arrivals, Curtain Call and PartyBasketball. Cheerleaders. Sex. Show tunes. The stately Walter Kerr Theatre was the home court for all of that in the musical comedy Lysistrata Jones, which closed on this date 2 years ago after 34 previews and 30 performances.
By
Matthew Blank
January 08, 2014
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PHOTO RECALL: Lysistrata Jones Opens on Broadway; Arrivals, Curtain Call and Party
PHOTO RECALL: Lysistrata Jones Opens on Broadway; Arrivals, Curtain Call and Party
Basketball. Cheerleaders. Sex. Show tunes. The stately Walter Kerr Theatre was the home court for all of that in the musical comedy Lysistrata Jones, which closed on this date 2 years ago.
Written by Tony nominee Douglas Carter Beane (Sister Act, The Little Dog Laughed) and Lewis Flinn, and directed and choreographed by Tony nominee Dan Knechtges, Lysistrata Jones is the pop reimagining of the 411 B.C. Greek play Lysistrata, by funnyman Aristophanes, about a sex strike in wartime. The story is now placed in the realm of college basketball, with cheerleaders trying to inspire their team to victory. The plan of blonde, belting Lyssie (played by Patti Murin) is to withhold sex in order to motivate the boys. Or, as the girls sing it, "No More Giving It Up!"
Lysistrata Jones featured Patti Murin (Lysistrata Jones), Liz Mikel (Hetaira), Josh Segarra (Mick), Jason Tam (Xander), and Lindsay Nicole Chambers (Robin) with Alexander Aguilar ('Uardo), Ato Blankson-Wood (Tyllus), Katie Boren (Lampito), Kat Nejat (Cleonice), LaQuet Sharnell (Myrrhine), Teddy Toye (Harold) and Alex Wyse (Cinesius), with understudies LaVon Fisher-Wilson, Libby Servais, Charlie Sutton, Barrett Wilbert Weed and Jared Zirilli. Here's how the producers characterize the show: "The Athens University basketball team hasn't won a game in 30 years. But when spunky transfer student Lysistrata Jones (Patti Murin) dares the squad’s fed-up girlfriends to stop 'giving it up' to their boyfriends until they win a game, their legendary losing streak could be coming to an end. In this boisterous new musical comedy, Lyssie J. and her girl-power posse give Aristophanes' classic comedy a sexy, modern twist and take student activism to a whole new level."
Librettist Beane is the Tony Award-nominated dramatist of Sister Act, Xanadu and The Little Dog Laughed. Composer-lyricist Flinn contributed to The Divine Sister. Director-choreographer Knechtges' choreography credits include Xanadu (for which he was Tony-nominated), 110 in the Shade, Sondheim on Sondheim and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
The creative team includes set designer Allen Moyer (Tony nominee for Grey Gardens); costume designers David C. Woolard (Tony nominee for The Rocky Horror Show and The Who's Tommy) and Thomas Charles LeGalley; lighting designer Michael Gottlieb; sound designer Tony Meola (Drama Desk winner for The Lion King; Wicked; The Wild Party; Les Miserables); hair designer Mark Adam Rampmeyer; music director Brad Simmons; music coordinator Dean Sharenow; and associate choreographer Jessica Hartman.
