Donna Lynne Champlin Cast in NYC Revival of Bury the Dead
By Kenneth Jones
29 Aug 2008
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Donna Lynne Champlin
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Transport Group's autumn Off-Broadway revival of Irwin Shaw's Bury the Dead will star Obie Award winner Donna Lynne Champlin, of Transport's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and Marcy in the Galaxy.
The first major New York City revival of the anti-war play begins previews Oct. 31, opens Nov. 9, and closes Nov. 23, playing at 220 East 4 Street, between Avenues A and B, in the East Village.
As previously reported, Bury the Dead will be directed by Lucille Lortel Award winner Joe Calarco (Shakespeare's R&J). Transport Group won a special 2007 Drama Desk Award and a 2007 Obie Award.
Its season also includes the new musical Being Audrey, with music and lyrics by Ellen Weiss, book by James Hindman, additional book and lyrics by Cheryl Stern, developed with Jack Cummings III and Adam R. Perlman, and directed by Cummings.
Here's how Transport Group bills Bury the Dead: "Irwin Shaw’s harrowing 1936 classic play Bury the Dead takes place during 'the second year of the war that is to begin tomorrow night.' While a military burial detail goes about its sad duties, the dead soldiers shockingly begin to rise up, pleading not to be buried. Word of their insurrection spreads rapidly: the dead will not yield so easily. In a series of touching scenes the dead men talk with their loved ones of the days of living, now lost forever."
Champlin will play the drama's female roles. Her Broadway credits include Hollywood Arms and the recent revival of Sweeney Todd.
Calarco told Playbill.com, "In Bury the Dead there are six scenes at the end of the play after the government has gone to the women of the dead men who are refusing to be buried to ask them to go talk to their men to convince them to lie down and be buried. Donna Lynne is playing each of the six women — quite a tour de force. Also, Bury the Dead is a one-act and has often been done with a 'curtain-raiser' short play to start the evening. I am writing a new curtain-raiser for Donna Lynne."
In Being Audrey, meanwhile, "Claire Stark has it all: a beautiful life, the husband of her dreams…and a view of Bergdorf Goodman. When her world threatens to collapse, Claire seeks refuge in a romantic adventure inspired by the films of Audrey Hepburn, but now she must make one of the most difficult decisions of her life—fantasy or reality?"
As previously announced, Cheryl Stern (who played Mamie Eisenhower in Transport Group's critically acclaimed production of First Lady Suite) stars in the central role of this "jazz-infused musical."
Being Audrey begins previews March 27, 2009, opens April 5, 2009, and closes April 26, 2009.
Tickets will be available at www.transportgroup.org or by phoning (212) 560-4372 or (212) 352-3101. For more information about Transport Group, visit www.transportgroup.org.
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Founded in 2001, Transport Group, under the leadership of Jack Cummings III, artistic director, and Lori Fineman, executive director, is a not-for-profit theatre company that develops and produces work by American playwrights and composers with the aim of exploring the American consciousness in the 20th and 21st centuries.
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