Email this Article Printer-friendly RELATED ARTICLES: 09 Sep 2004 -- Tom Waits' Black Rider Extends Again at ACT 27 Aug 2004 -- ACT's Black Rider Extends Run to Oct. 3 13 Jul 2004 -- Marianne Faithfull and Matt McGrath Set for Tom Waits Musical The Black Rider in CA

By Ernio Hernandez
26 Aug 2004

Broadway's Matt McGrath and songstress Marianne Faithfull star as the Tom Waits musical The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets begins at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, Aug. 26.

The staging, which boasts it is the "exclusive North American engagement," is set to open at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater Sept. 1 for a run through Sept. 26.

The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets is a musical theater piece featuring music and lyrics by Tom Waits, text from William S. Burroughs and musical arrangements by Greg Cohen and Waits. Robert Wilson directs the work billed as a "re-imagining of a 19th century folk tale about a clerk who makes a Faustian pact with the devil, accepting magic bullets in order to win the hand of his beloved in a shooting contest."

International pop singer and actor Marianne Faithfull stars in the The Black Rider as Pegleg, the devil incarnate opposite Cabaret vet Matt McGrath (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) as clerk Wilhelm. Canadian singer Mary Margaret O'Hara (sister of film's Catherine O'Hara) portrays Kätchen, Wilhelm’s true love.

The ensemble also includes Sona Cervená, Alan Charlesworth, Janet Henfrey, Jessie Kilguss, Nigel Richards, Dean Robinson, Gabriella Santinelli, Richard Strange, Monika Tahal, Jake Thornton and Jack Willis.

The design team of The Black Rider includes Wilson (set and lights), Frida Parmeggiani (costumes) and Heinrich Brunke (additional lights). Wolfgang Wiens provides dramaturgy.

Bent Clausen serves as musical director with David Coulter as associate music director over an eight-member orchestra called "The Magic Bullets" featuring Thomas Bloch, Terry Edwards, Caroline Hall, Rory McFarlane, Jack Pinter and Kate St John. The score of The Black Rider calls for an eclectic pit of such instruments as the toy piano, the pocket trumpet, the Stroh violin, the Ondes Martenot, the glass harmonica, the Cristal Baschet, the drunk piano and the musical saw.

The Black Rider was previously seen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The San Francisco run is produced by BITE:04, Barbican, London, and Cultural Industry, and co-produced by A.C.T. and Sydney Festival (where the show will travel next) in association with The Black Rider Circle.

For tickets to The Black Rider at A.C.T., 415 Geary St. in San Francisco, CA, call (415) 749-2250. For more information, visit www.act sf.org.

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