Stage Door, the colorful Edna Ferber-George S. Kaufman comedy about women showfolk yearning for success in the theatre, will close at HERE on Feb. 17. The Salt Theatre production was one of the odder selections — odd because of its conventionality — of last summer's New York International Fringe Festival. However, the production captured the imagination of enough people to merit an encore run. The began on Jan. 25 and quickly earned several favorable reviews. No extension has been announced, but a 2:30 PM matinee has been added on Feb. 17.
The large-cast play, set in a theatrical boarding house, is better known as a 1937 movie starring Katharine Hepburn, Eve Arden, Ginger Rogers, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller and Andrea Leeds, who snipe and compete, but ultimately care deeply about each other and their work.
Emma Griffin directs a cast that includes Tonya Canada, Billie James, Yuri Skujins, Maria Striar, Linda Donald, Christina Kirk and 20 others. The Fringe cast featured Canada, James, Skujins, Striar, as well as Renee Allen, Judith Annozine, Eleni Beja, Maggie Bofill, Aundre Chin, Bill Coelius, Jenny Penny Curry, Danielle Delgado, Laura Flanagan, Cindy Fulcino, Nicole Halmos, Lily Koster, Sheila Mitchell, Megan Morrison, Whitney Pastorek, Julia Prudhomme, Ryan Shogren, Darius Stone, Rob Sutton, Suzi Takahashi, Emily Vail and Mercedes Vasquez.
Griffin has piloted a wide variety of productions Off-Off-Broadway, including Rinne Groff's Inky and the Kirk Wood Bromley verse plays The Death of Griffin Hunter and The American Revolution. Her mounting of Stage Door highlights the darker edges of the comedy and draws parallels between the characters and the struggling Off-Off Broadway actors who play them.
Tickets are $12. HERE is located at 145 Sixth Avenue. Call (212) 647-0202 for information. *
Stage Door will be the fourth NYC Fringe 2000 production to enjoy a life beyond the festival, following Tiny Ninja Theatre Presents Macbeth, the Angela Goethals As You Like It, and the Neo Futurists' The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett. Plans for an Off-Broadway commercial run of 1999 hit Urinetown! were announced a few weeks ago.
— By Robert Simonson
and Kenneth Jones
