Second Stage Theatre has decided to push back the first preview of their next production Ricky Jay: On The Stem to April 13. The run originally scheduled for April 9-June 9 is being delayed owing to "scheduling conflicts" as artistic director Carole Rothman told Playbill On-Line "some of the things we thought might get here in time, didn't get here in time. No big deal."
The schedule shift will not affect the May 2 opening night for the one-man show that reunites long-time collaborators Ricky Jay and director David Mamet. The show had just recently announced a second run at the Off-Broadway venue June 18-July 14. All patrons who had tickets to canceled shows should call the Second Stage box office at (212) 246-4422 to schedule another performance.
The stipulations, as per Jay's requests, still apply: Performances will begin promptly, latecomers will not be seated and no guest under the age of 16 will be admitted in the theatre.
The legendary sleight-of-hand artist whose last solo show, Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, sold out both runs in 1994 and 1998 hopes to pull off the same trick with his latest work. Jay's shows feature his signature card tricks and mentalist feats, as well as his Guinness Book-recorded ability to fling a playing card across the room and make it slice into the rind of a watermelon.
Jay's previous one-man work won the Obie and Lucille Lortel awards. His film work includes Mamet's "Heist," "State and Main," "House of Games," "The Spanish Prisoner" as well as non-Mamet works as "Boogie Nights," "Magnolia" and "Tomorrow Never Dies." Jay's books on the subject of unusual magic include "Cards As Weapons" and "Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women." Mamet, scribe of Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed the-Plow, directed the first two versions of Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants. A writer of both plays and films, Mamet's work includes American Buffalo, The Old Neighborhood, Sexual Perversity in Chicago as well as "The Untouchables," "Wag The Dog" and "Hoffa."
For tickets to Ricky Jay: On The Stem at the Second Stage Theatre, 307 West 43rd Street (just of Eighth Ave.), call (212) 246-4422 or (800) 766-6048. Visit the Second Stage website at www.secondstagetheatre.com.
— by Ernio Hernandez
