Fridays, & Saturdays in July at 7pm
Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street
New York, NY 10002
Tickets: Advance online: $12 GA /
$10 students-seniors / $15 at door
www.hotfestival.org
212-219-0736
Dixon Place & BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange Present
The 2012 HOT! Festival Commission:
THE MATERIAL WORLD
A new musical by Dan Fishback
Directed by Stephen Brackett
Starring: COLE ESCOLA*, ELEANOR REISSA*, MOLLY POPE, MEGAN STERN*, AMY GIRONDA, LISA CLAIR and LEO SCHAFF
Stage Manager: Danielle Thomsen*, Music Director: Dane Terry, Set & Costume Design: Deb O, Choreographer: Sam Pinkleton, Sound Design: Casey Holford, Lighting Design: James Lawlor, Guitar: Lior Hadar, Production Assistant: Curran Russell, Yiddish Translations: Eleanor Reissa
Baby-faced downtown sweetheart Cole Escola (Logo TV’s “Jeffery & Cole Casserole”) joins cabaret sensation Molly Pope (“Our Hit Parade”) and Tony-nominated Yiddish theater legend Eleanor Reissa in acclaimed playwright Dan Fishback’s new musical, The Material World, directed by Fishback’s frequent collaborator Stephen Brackett (Ars Nova’s Be a Good Widow). Set in a boarding house in 1921, The Material World features an anachronistic cast of neurotic Jews, all trying to save the planet. Gittel Fenster (Megan Stern), a 12-year-old radical socialist, studies Marxism to prepare for global anti-capitalist revolt, while gay nerd Ian Fleishman (Escola) tests the revolutionary power of Facebook, and the Queen of Pop herself, Madonna (Amy Gironda) meditates on secret Kabbalistic codes to fix a broken universe. The characters grapple with their lofty ambitions and their capacity for failure, to an eclectic score of bouncy electro dance pop, ramshackle twee-folk and classic Tin Pan Alley. And unlike other pop musicals about Madonna and socialism, this play has scenes in Yiddish. The second installment of “The Ian Fleishman Trilogy,” and a sequel to the 2009 erotic Chanukah comedy You Will Experience Silence, The Material World continues Fishback’s exploration of Jewish political neurosis. This soulful musical brings surprising tenderness, humor, and ferocious diva realness to the most depressing political realities.
The Material World was developed through the BAX / Brooklyn Arts Exchange Artist in Residence Program, which is supported by The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), The New York State Council on the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York Community Trust, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Material World is commissioned and first presented by Dixon Place with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and with private funds from the Jerome Foundation and The Peg Santvoord Foundation.
*These Actors and Stage Managers are appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association. The Material World is an Equity Approved Showcase.