The work starring Antoinette LaVecchia, Ellen McLaughlin, Mary Testa and Sharon Washington began performances Sept. 15 and opened Sept. 28 for run through originally slated through Oct. 24 at the company's new home at 59E59 Theaters.
String of Pearls bands together the stories of more than two dozen women, all connected to the titular necklace in some way. The tales between wife and husband, mother and daughter, friends, sisters and more weave a journey through love, loss, desire and destiny.
The actions bounces from New York to Milwaukee to Los Angeles to Paris and then back to New York. Along the way, the pearls pass through the hands of a WASP-ish wife and mother, a cancer victim, a Midwestern divorcee, a GOP operative, a hotel maid, a Parisian jeweler, a class-conscious Southerner, a Jewish New Yorker with an overbearing mother, a funeral home worker, a gravedigger and a fish.
Eric Simonson directs the work starring Antoinette LaVecchia (Magic Hands Freddy), Ellen McLaughlin (Angels in America, Helen), Mary Testa (42nd Street, On The Town) and Sharon Washington (House and Garden).
The design team for String of Pearls features Loy Arcenas (scenic), David Zinn (costume), D.M. Wood (lighting) and Lindsay Jones (sound). Lowe, whose work often focuses on the trials and complaints of women in modern society, made her Broadway debut with the play The Smell of the Kill. Other plays include Map of Heaven, Backsliding in the Promised Land, Germany Surrenders and the book and lyrics for the musical Hit the Lights! She is currently at work on a Geva Theatre Centre commission called Community Service.
Director Simonson had previously staged The Song of Jacob Zulu and performed in The Grapes of Wrath on Broadway. The Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member has also directed Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright, Moby Dick and Slaughterhouse-Five — all of which he has penned or adapted. The writer-director of the upcoming Carter's Way (with music by Darrell Leonard) also recently indulged Second Stage Theatre audiences with his tale of woe from Broadway's The Capeman in Fired!
Tickets to String of Pearls at Primary Stages' 59E59 Theaters space, 59 East 59 Street (between Madison and Park Avenue) are available by calling (212) 279 4200. For more information, visit Primary Stages' website at www.primarystages.com.
