Zaks Will Direct New Randy Newman Musical in L.A.; Carlyle Will Provide Musical Staging

By Kenneth Jones
30 Nov 2009

Jerry Zaks
Jerry Zaks

Four-time Tony Award-winning Jerry Zaks will direct the world premiere of composer-lyricist Randy Newman's Harps and Angels, which will borrow from the songwriter's catalog, in fall 2010 at Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

Warren Carlyle, who directed and choreographed the current production of Broadway's Finian's Rainbow, will create the musical staging for the new show. Harps and Angels is conceived by Jack Viertel, the artistic director of the Encores! concert series.

Harps and Angels, as previously reported, is the final production of the Center Theatre Group's 2010 season at the Mark Taper Forum and will be presented Nov. 10-Dec. 19, 2010. Opening is Nov. 21.

According to CTG notes, "Randy Newman's witty, complex, bittersweet and often satirical songbook is at the heart of this new work, in which the personal and the socio-political entwine creating a compelling, honest and humorous commentary on what it is like to be born, grow up, fall in love, and live and die in America."

Some of the Newman songs that will be featured include "I Think It's Going to Rain Today," "Sail Away," "Marie," "Rednecks," "My Country," "Louisiana 1927," "Feels Like Home," "You've Got a Friend in Me" and "I Love L.A.," among many others.

Zaks received four Tony Awards for his direction on Guys and Dolls, Lend Me a Tenor, Six Degrees of Separation and The House of Blue Leaves, and earned Tony Award nominations for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Smokey Joe's Café and Anything Goes. He directed the The 101 Dalmatians Musical, now on tour.

Carlyle directed and choreographed Broadway's recent A Tale of Two Cities and choreographed On the Town, Juno and Stairway to Heaven for Encores!

Newman has received 17 Academy Award nominations, five Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002. In addition to his 13 albums from 1968 to the present, his film scores include, among others, "Ragtime," "Awakenings," "The Natural," "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life" and "Monsters, Inc." (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Song).

Tickets for the Taper's 2010 season are currently available by subscription. For information and to charge season tickets by phone, call Audience Services at (213) 972-4444. To purchase online, visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.