Created by husband and wife team Jim and Ruth Bauer, The Blue Flower is described as a fusion of Weimar cabaret and country-western music. Will Pomerantz will stage the production that runs Dec. 1-Jan. 9. 2011, on the Loeb Stage.

Schwartz has aided in the development of The Blue Flower since early presentations at the ASCAP Foundation Workshop. He has committed his financial support for the A.R.T. bow of the work, along with producers Andrew Levine of Flying Machine Productions and Steve Tate of Tate Theatrics. According to producers, the hope is to bring the work to a larger audience as a result of the A.R.T. run, with New York part of that goal.

"The Blue Flower is the most original and fascinating new piece of musical theater I have come across in years—funny, moving, incredibly theatrical.… It creates a completely personal musical world and yet is enormously evocative and universal. I love it," Schwartz said in a previous statement.

Music, lyrics, script and videography are by Jim Bauer, with artwork, story and videography by Ruth Bauer. The piece was previously presented by the Prospect Theatre Company in New York in 2008.

Casting is underway for the work that is inspired by Max Beckmann, Franz Marc, Hannah Hoech and Marie Curie. According to A.R.T., "The Blue Flower takes us on a journey from Belle Époque Paris to the World War I battlefields. As the artist Max Baumann assembles his memories into a spectacular collage, he reveals the story of four friends and lovers trying to make their way through a world in pieces."

Visit AmericanRepertoryTheater. A.R.T. is located at 64 Brattle Street in Cambridge, MA.