Parry and Fraser Will Materialize in All of the People, the Story of Two Sleight-of-Hand Pals, Nov. 13

By Kenneth Jones
08 Nov 2006

Darwin Ortiz and David Roth, close-up magicians who specialize in sleight-of-hand, will play themselves in their autobiographical play, All of the People, All of the Time, to be seen in three industry-only performances Nov. 13-14 in Manhattan.

The play-with-magic — about how the men grew up to be magicians and their lifelong passion for illusion — was conceived and co-written by Kleban Award-winner Patrick Cook, best known as a lyricist whose works include Captains Courageous and the forthcoming Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Cook also serves as artistic coordinator for the 2006 Tony-honored BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.

Broadway veterans William Parry (Sunday in the Park with George, Passion) and Alison Fraser (Tony nominee for The Secret Garden and Romance/Romance) will play the many characters in and out of Ortiz and Roth's lives.

Michael Bush (CanStage's The Story of My Life and MTC's Based on a Totally True Story) will direct.

The presentations are 4:30 PM Nov. 13 and 2 and 5 PM Nov. 14.

According to production notes, "Ortiz is a nationally recognized authority on card cheating; he's called a game-protection consultant."

He stated, "Casinos hire me to train their surveillance crews on how to detect and prevent cheating."

Frank Evans, Lisa Dozier and Musical Mondays Theatre Lab Discovery Series are presenting the three performances. Traci Klainer is lighting designer.

The show premiered at Charlotte Repertory Theatre (under Bush's guidance) and moved for a further development at the O'Neill Theatre Conference.

For further information, industry folk may e-mail musicalmondays@aol.com.