George Street Season to Feature Amy Irving, Last Five Years and Blessing Premiere

By Andrew Gans
May 19, 2004

A world-premiere play, a Tony-nominated Broadway comedy and a two-person Off-Broadway musical are just a few of the offerings on the George Street Playhouse 2004-2005 calendar.

The New Jersey Star Ledger reports that the season at the New Jersey theatre will kick off with the Jule Styne-Arthur Laurents musical Hallelujah, Baby!. The musical, which boasts original lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, will feature a few revised lyrics by Amanda Green, daughter of the late lyricist. George Street Artistic Director David Saint will helm the musical, which will star Suzzanne Douglas in the role created on Broadway by Tony Award winner Leslie Uggams.

Film and stage star Amy Irving — an Academy Award nominee for her work in "Yentl" — will then head the cast of Charles Evered's Celadine, Nov. 16-Dec. 12, also under the direction of Saint. Irving will play the title role in Evered's opus, which concerns a woman in 1600's England who is a playwright but also a spy. The playwright's Wilderness of Mirrors — also about a spy — kicked off the George Street's most recent season.

The East Coast premiere of Lee Blessing's The Winning Streak will play the George Street Jan. 4-30, 2005. The baseball-themed drama will be followed by Ken Ludwig's Tony-nominated comedy Lend Me a Tenor, Feb. 8-March 6. Tenor, which is set in a Cleveland opera company, debuted on Broadway in 1989 with a cast led by Philip Bosco, Jane Connell, Tovah Feldshuh and Victor Garber.

A fifth production, playing March 15-April 10, is yet to be announced, but the season is set to conclude with Jason Robert Brown's two-person musical The Last Five Years, April 19-May 15. Colin Hanlon and Sarah Litzsinger, who starred in the George Street's production of tick, tick . . . BOOM!, will co-star in the Brown musical, which charts the rise and fall of the marriage between Cathy, an aspiring actress, and Jamie, a successful writer, over a period of five years.

The George Street Playhouse is located in New Jersey at 9 Livingston Avenue. Tickets are available by calling (732) 246-7717 or by visiting www.georgestplayhouse.org.