Artistic director Emily Mann announced the coming slate, which will also include David Mamet's American Buffalo directed by Amy Morton (March 9-28, 2010) and Oliver Goldsmith's 18th-century comedy She Stoops to Conquer (starting Oct. 13). The new season marks Mann's 20th anniversary with the company.
The season will begin on Sept. 11 with one of Mann's greatest hits: Having Our Say, written and directed by Mann, adapted from the book by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth. The McCarter favorite played there in 1995 before transferring to an award-winning Broadway run (and later a national tour). It's about the lives and times of (now late) African-American sisters Sadie and Bessie Delany, "whose poignant and irreverent outlook on a transforming American landscape offers a life-affirming testament to legacy and hope," according to McCarter. It will play in McCarter's intimate Berlind Theatre.
Take Flight, by John Weidman (book), David Shire (composer), Richard Maltby, Jr.(lyricist), directed by Sam Buntrock, concerns man's passion for conquering the sky. The musical had its world premiere in London, and its cast album in on the PS Classics label.
Maltby and Shire's musicals include Starting Here, Starting Now, Big, Closer Than Ever and Baby. Tony Award-winning librettist Weidman penned the books o Assassins, Pacific Overtures, Big and Happiness.
"With style, and panache, this lush musical Take Flight melds fact and fiction to tell the interweaving stories of three pioneers of aeronautics: the Wright Brothers, Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart," according to McCarter. "As their dreams become reality, these aviators discover the real costs of their sky-high ambitions." Buntrock is the acclaimed British director of London and Broadway's recent Sunday in the Park with George. Take Flight will play the Berlind Theatre April 30-June 6, 2010.
McCarter will begin 2010 with Fetch Clay, Make Man, "an explosive new drama" from acclaimed playwright, actor, rapper, and educator Will Power. According to notes, "In the days before one of the most controversial fights in boxing history, 23-year-old heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali forms an improbable bond with disgraced former Hollywood star Stepin Fetchit. Set in the heady times of the mid-1960s, Fetch Clay, Make Man explores the true story of two wildly different men, each struggling to create and shape his image and legacy. Will Power's absorbing tale is a rhythmic, expressive, and innovative exploration of one of the missing pages in America's history book."
Fetch Clay, Make Man is a McCarter commission, to play the Berlind Theatre stage Jan. 8-Feb. 14, 2010.
A Christmas Carol will also be part of the season.
For tickets or more information, call the Ticket Office at (609) 258-2787 or visit www.mccarter.org. McCarter Theatre Center is located at 91 University Place, Princeton, NJ.
