Edward Norton to Star in Reading of New McBride Musical The Nitpicker, Dec. 4

By Robert Simonson
November 6, 2003

Edward Norton, the film actor who had an Off-Broadway success last season in Burn This, will appear in a Dec. 4 concert of songs from The Nitpicker, a new musical by composers Mary McBride and Aaron Maxwell.

The event, to take place at Sin-e, at 150 Attorney St. on Manhattan's Lower Side, will also star Obie winner James Urbaniak, Laura Cantrell, Craig Wedren, Sam Bisbee, Amy Miles, Aaron Maxwell, Laurena Allan, Nina Hellman, Jeremy Shamos and Carolyn Baeumler. Performing the music will be bands and artists including Nada Surf, The Silos, Sex Mob, Crookston and King of France.

The theatre group Hourglass Group commissioned the work, which it hopes to produce Off-Broadway in 2004, under the direction of Anne de Mare. The story concerns "Winnie Wanda Wiggins, a nitpicker in an elementary school in a small southern town during a lice epidemic gone awry, and the chicken fried chaos that ensues when the town tries to keep from scratching itself to death." Among the songs in the score are "Betty's Got Lupus," "Midgets in Love," "Roasting Pigs on Judgement Day," "Bucketful of Bugs," "Mother's Fingers," and "Me? I want to be an Entymologist"

The Nitpicker will be presented at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $20 in advance/$25 at the door. For reservations or more information, call (212) 439-8122 or visit www.hourglassgroup.org.