Primary Stages Revival of David Ives' All in the Timing Ends Off-Broadway Run April 28

By Adam Hetrick
28 Apr 2013

Jenn Harris and Carson Elrod
Jenn Harris and Carson Elrod
Photo by James Leynse

Primary Stages' revival of All in the Timing, a collection of short comic plays by Tony Award-nominated playwright David Ives, ends its extended Off-Broadway run April 28 at 59E59 Theaters. 

Tony Award winner John Rando (Urinetown; A Christmas Story, The Musical) directed the evening of six one-act comedies that began previews Jan. 23 and officially opened Feb. 12. 

The cast features Broadway Peter and the Starcatcher cast members Carson Elrod and Matthew Saldivar, as well as Jenn Harris (Silence! The Musical), Eric Clem (Blue Man Group) and Liv Rooth, who covered the role of Vanda in Ives' Venus in Fur on Broadway. 

All in the Timing, according to Primary Stages, features "Sure Thing and The Universal Language which have become contemporary classics..." The production marked the first major New York revival of the piece that premiered at Primary Stages in 1993 and ran for over 600 performances.

"It's been surprising fun to go back to these plays," Ives said in a recent interview with Playbill.com. "I thought it might be hard because I haven't done anything like this where I've revisited something after this length of time — and something that was so special because, at the time, no theatre in town accepted All in the Timing except Primary Stages. It had been turned down by every theatre in town."

He continued, "Each one of these little plays were a little education in some particular aspect of theatre. The Universal Language is about how far you can go with people speaking gibberish. Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread — how much of a musical you can write in six minutes without having an orchestra. Each one of these was a challenge, and it's been nothing but fun revisiting them (knock wood)."

Read Playbill's feature with playwright Ives here. 

The production has scenic design by Beowulf Boritt, costume design by Anita Yavich, lighting design by Jason Lyons and original music and sound design by Ryan Rumery.

Primary Stages performs at 59E59 Theaters. Visit PrimaryStages.org.

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Carson Elrod, Jenn Harris, Matthew Saldivar, Liv Rooth and Eric Clem
Photo by James Leynse