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CRITICAL MASS Premieres at Off-Broadway's Lion Theatre, Oct 22nd -NYC

Heiress Productions is pleased to present the world premiere of CRITICAL MASS, by Joanne Sydney Lessner, directed by Donald Brenner (December Fools, A Tale of Two Cities). CRITICAL MASS will play a 3-week limited engagement at The Lion @ Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street). Performances begin Friday, October 22nd through Sunday, November 7th. Proceeds from CRITICAL MASS will benefit The Lustgarten Foundation, dedicated to funding pancreatic cancer research.

Press are cordially invited Friday, October 22nd  at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, October 23rd at 8:00 pm & Sunday, October 24th  at 3:00 p.m.
(Unofficial press dates will be accommodated, upon request.)

In Joanne Sydney Lessner’s new hilarious revenge comedy, a pair of married opera critics are forced to reexamine their priorities when the tenor whose career they ruined moves in with them.

Carrie Greenlea is an opera critic who enjoys skewering singers for everything from bad high notes to bad nose jobs. Her husband and fellow critic, Norman, prefers to equivocate rather than hurt anyone’s feelings. When Stefano Donato, a mediocre Italian tenor whose career they have jointly ruined, moves in with them, he proceeds to exact revenge. Events reach critical mass when their household is further invaded by their Bette Davis-impersonating editor; a marginally talented, but resourceful soprano; and Stefano’s desperate wife. For Critical Mass, playwright Joanne Sydney Lessner drew on her own experience reviewing recordings and performances for Opera News over the past decade.

“Writing Critical Mass was my way of working through what I consider to be a solemn responsibility,” says Lessner. “To find the comedy, I took one of my fears as a critic – finding myself face to face with someone whose performance I didn’t like – and drew it out to the extreme. There are moments when the play borders on farce, and there’s a fair helping of operatic excess, but it does explore, quite seriously, the nature and purpose of arts criticism. I think critics can lose sight of the fact that they have the power not just to derail a single career, but also to squelch a vulnerable art form. But because I’m still also an active performer, I can appreciate both sides of the equation.”

Featuring Aaron Davis*, Laura Faith, Marc Geller*, Zac Hoogendyk*, Shorey Walker*, and Leigh Williams*.

Mary Willis White and Laura Faith are the producing directors. Set design by Chris Minard, costume design by Ashley Rose Horton, lighting design by Melissa Mizell, and sound design by Hidenori Nakajo. The production stage manager is Taylor Crampton.

CRITICAL MASS plays the following schedule through Sunday, November 7th:

Wednesdays through Fridays at 8pm
Saturdays at 2pm & 8pm (there will be no Saturday matinee on 10/23)
Sundays at 3pm

Tickets are $18 and are now available online at www.Telecharge.com or by calling 212-239-6200. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at the Theatre Row Box Office, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Running time: 2 hours including one intermission

For more information visit www.heiressproductions.org
Photos available at http://picasaweb.google.com/kampfirefilms/CriticalMass#


*Appearing Courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association.
Equity Approved Showcase.

QUICKEST WAY TO GET TO HARLEM -- Show Business Weekly

Travlin’ Score by J.C. Johnson and Friends, Book by Gary Holmes and Allan Shapiro

Directed and Choreographed by Paul Stancato

QUICKEST WAY TO GET TO HARLEM

It might still be to take the A train, as the old song goes, but you’ll want to head for midtown — West 36th Street, to be exact — for the new musical Trav’lin, which follows the romantic travails of three couples, in their 50s, 30s and 20s, learning about love in 1930s-era Harlem, which opens October 11 at the TBG Theatre as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival. With a tuneful, jazzy period score, Trav’lin aims to rediscover the music of Harlem Renaissance songwriter J.C. Johnson, a friend and colleague of such musical icons as Fats Waller, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday, and features such New York musical theater vets as Brenda Braxton, Randy Donaldson, Michael Jean Dozier, Doug Eskew, Karla Mosley and Soara-Joye Ross. Paul Stancato directs and choreographs. Visit www.travlinthemusical.com. (INSIDE INK By John Rowell, Show Business Weekly)

Monday, Oct 11th, 2010 at 8:00 pm 
Tuesday, Oct 12th, 2010 at 1:00 pm 
Wednesday, Oct 13th, 2010 at 8:00 pm 
Friday, Oct 15th, 2010 at 4:30 pm 
Saturday, Oct 16th, 2010 at 1:00 pm 
Sunday, Oct 17th, 2010 at 4:30 pm 

TBG Theatre, 312 West 36th Street

Tickets only $20 at http://www.nymf.org/show-1382.html