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Based on Film, Saved Musical to Premiere in NYC in 2008; Gary Griffin Directs
By Kenneth Jones
03 May 2007
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Gary Griffin
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Saved, a new musical based on the sweetly satiric movie about kids in a Christian high school, will get its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in spring 2008.
Gary Griffin (The Color Purple) will direct the Off-Broadway production, the sixth show in PH's 2007-08 season.
The new musical version of the picture — in which teens struggle to find their place in a world colored by their commitment to Christian faith — has music and lyrics by Michael Friedman (the Civilians, The Public Theater's upcoming Romeo & Juliet) and book and lyrics by two-time Olivier Award nominee John Dempsey (The Witches of Eastwick) and Obie Award winner Rinne Groff (The Ruby Sunrise).
It's based on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture written by Brian Dannelly & Michael Urban.
Exact dates, casting and creative team have not been announced for the show, which will be produced by special arrangement with Elephant Eye Theatrical. Performances will play PH's Mainstage Theater on West 42nd Street.
According to Playwrights Horizons notes, "Are you down with G-O-D? Good girl Mary and her domineering best friend Hilary Faye are starting their senior year at the top of the social food chain at American Eagle Christian High School — that is, until Mary's boyfriend tells her he thinks he's gay. When Jesus appears in a vision, and Mary heeds his message 'to do everything she can to help him,' her good deeds are met with dire consequences, and Mary is forced to question everything she's ever believed. Through it all, she finds faith in unexpected places and learns what it truly means to be saved."
Playwrights Horizons is known for developing ambitious musicals, including Grey Gardens (now on Broadway), James Joyce's The Dead, Floyd Collins, Assassins and Sunday in the Park with George.
Director Gary Griffin's Broadway credits include The Color Purple and The Apple Tree, as well as the Encores! concerts The New Moon, Pardon My English, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and The Apple Tree. His Pacific Overtures for Donmar Warehouse won the Oliver Award for Outstanding Musical Production, and he was Olivier nominated.
Friedman has been the composer/lyricist for the Civilians' [I Am] Nobody's Lunch, Gone Missing, This is a Beautiful City and Canard, Canard, Goose?, as well as The Brand New Kid (Kennedy Center) and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. He's also composed the score for the upcoming Shakespeare in the Park production of Romeo and Juliet. He was the dramaturg for the recent Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun, directed by Kenny Leon. He is an artistic associate at New York Theatre Workshop, was a MacDowell fellow and is a founding associate artist of the Obie Award-winning Civilians.
Dempsey wrote book and lyrics for The Witches of Eastwick (London, Melbourne, Tokyo, Moscow), The Fix (Donmar Warehouse, directed by Sam Mendes), Zombie Prom (New York), Circles and Dick Wittington. His plays include One Miracle in a Lifetime and The Greater Goode. He has received two Olivier Award nominations for The Witches of Eastwick and The Fix, and is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Fellowship for Playwriting.
Groff's plays include The Ruby Sunrise; Jimmy Carter Was a Democrat; The Moliere Impromptu; Orange Lemon Egg Canary; What Then, Inky; Seven Supermans; and The Five Hysterical Girls Theorem. With Michael Friedman, she's written Boy in the Bubble, a new musical, which will be presented this summer at Northwestern's American Music Theater Project, directed by Michael Greif.
Playwrights Horizons is under the leadership of artistic director Tim Sanford and managing director Leslie Marcus.
For more information about PH and its subscription opportunities, visit www.playwrightshorizons.org.
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