Smells Like Wife Spirit: Broadway Goes for the Kill March 26 | Playbill

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News Smells Like Wife Spirit: Broadway Goes for the Kill March 26

What's that smell? It's revenge — for three women whose husbands become accidentally trapped in a meat locker in Michele Lowe's black comedy, Smell of the Kill, which officially opens at the Helen Hayes Theatre March 26. Following successful runs at Seattle's Intiman Theatre and the Berkshire Festival, the play began its Broadway previews on March 7.

Claudia Shear, who starred in the Berkshire mounting, repeats her role on Broadway, opposite two new co-stars, Lisa Emery (Dinner with Friends) and Jessica Stone (The Country Club). Also appearing in the production are Patrick Garner (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) and Mark Lotito (Betrayal). Initially, the show was announced for an Off-Broadway mounting to open this past Valentine's Day, but the plans then switched to Broadway when the 577 seat Helen Hayes Theatre came available upon the closing of Andrew Lloyd Webber's By Jeeves.

Christopher Ashley, who staged the Berkshire version of Kill, again directs the piece, which has sets by David Gallo (Bunny Bunny), costumes by David C. Woolard (The Rocky Horror Show) and lights by Kenneth Posner (Side Man. Elizabeth Ireland McCann, Nell Nugent, Milton Maltz and Tamara Maltz are producing, with Roy Gabay serving as general manager.

In Kill, the trio think themselves happily married until the meat freezer incident brings new meaning to the words "women's liberation." Smell of the Kill premiered at the Cleveland Playhouse in 1999. Lowe, who is making her Broadway debut with Smell of the Kill, is currently working on String of Pearls, a new play to be directed by Matt Williams for the Cherry Lane Theatre. Her newest play, Map of Heaven, was developed at ACT and Seattle's Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival. Other plays include Backsliding in the Promised Land, Germany Surrenders and the book and lyrics to the musical Hit the Lights!. As a television and screenwriter she penned several episodes of Nickelodeon's "Little Bear," "The Emergence of Emily Stark" and "Let the Bastard Sing" with Eric Simonson.

—By Andrew Gans and Robert Simonson

 
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