Joy Aims for Off-Broadway Run in Summer 2005

By Andrew Gans
March 15, 2005

Joy, the John Fisher play that recently enjoyed a limited engagement at the Producers Club's Grand Theatre, may reopen Off-Broadway this summer.

Ben Rimalower, who directed and co-produced the romantic comedy at the Producers Club, told Playbill.com, "We're currently raising the money to produce Joy for an open-ended commercial run Off-Broadway. We're hoping to open in July. Today we have a meeting with the manager of the 37 Arts Theatre. They've got a 290-seat theatre that we're looking at, but we're also looking at a bunch of other theatres."

Rimalower said that he and his co-producers feel confident about a summer reopening, adding, "We've done a good job of raising a big chunk of the money already."

Joy — formerly titled The Joy of Gay Sex — is "a satirical celebration of gay life and love in San Francisco in the early nineties. It is the story of Paul, an outspoken young writer, who finds that the joy of his first love affair is disrupted by his uncompromising opinions and passionate politics. Presented as a memoir in flashback form, Joy pays homage to the films "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan," where characters often address the audience, offer personal commentary and express their innermost passions through impromptu musical standards from the Golden Age of Hollywood."

The production at the Producer's Club featured Bare's Natalie Joy Johnson as Kegan, Sarah, Plain and Tall's Becca Ayers as Elsa, Ben Curtis (of "Dude, you're gettin' a Dell" fame) as Christian, Hair's Harris Doran as Paul, Naked Boys Singing's Gavin Esham as Corey, The Donkey Show's Brian Patacca as Matt/Adam, Insomnia's Christopher Sloan as Gabriel and The Producers' Sheridan Wright as Darryl.