JOHN DOYLE TO RESTAGE HIS MASTERPIECE TO OPEN PAPER MILL PLAYHOUSE’S 80TH SEASON

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Paper Mill Playhouse is proud to announce casting for The Color Purple, directed by Tony Award winner John Doyle. The Color Purple is a Tony Award-winning revival based upon the novel written by Alice Walker and the Warner Bros./Amblin Entertainment motion picture with a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray. Cast members from the 2015 Broadway revival lead the Paper Mill Playhouse company, including Adrianna Hicks (Aladdin, Sister Act – Germany) as Celie, Carla R. Stewart (Ghost – National Tour, Rent – Regional) as Shug Avery and Carrie Compere (Holler If You Hear Me, Shrek the Musical – National Tour) as Sofia.

They will be joined by Gavin Gregory (The Color Purple, The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess) as Mister, N’Jameh Camara (X: Or, Betty Shabazz v. The Nation) as Nettie, Jay Donnell (Miss Saigon) as Harpo, along with Darnell Abraham, Amar Atkins, Kyle E. Baird, Angela Birchett, Erica Durham, Bianca Horn, Jamal James, Mekhai Lee, Gabrielle Reid, C.E. Smith, Will T. Travis, Nyla Watson, J.D. Webster, Brit West and Nikisha Williams. The Color Purple will run at Paper Mill Playhouse from September 26 through October 21, 2018. Major support for The Color Purple is provided by the PSEG Foundation. Paper Mill Playhouse’s 2018–2019 season is proudly sponsored by Investors Bank.

The Color Purple, the Tony Award-winning revival that thrilled Broadway audiences is coming to Paper Mill, where director John Doyle will remount his visionary production. This unforgettable and moving musical based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and Academy Award-nominated film features a soul-raising, Grammy-winning score infused with jazz, gospel, ragtime, and blues. The Color Purple, with a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray, is a stirring family chronicle about the power of love and life. This show contains adult themes.

The Color Purple will be performed at Paper Mill Playhouse eight times a week, Wed– Sun. Performance schedule: Wed at 7:30PM, Thu at 1:30PM and 7:30PM, Fri at 8:00PM, Sat at 1:30PM and 8:00PM and Sun at 1:30pPM and 7:00PM. Tickets are on sale now starting at $34. Tickets may be purchased by calling 973.376.4343, at the Paper Mill Playhouse Box Office at 22 Brookside Drive in Millburn, or by clicking here.  Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express accepted. Groups of 10 or more may receive up to a 40% discount on tickets and should call 973.315.1680. Season subscriptions are on sale now and are available by calling 973.379.3717.  Students may order $23-$28 rush tickets over the phone or in person at the Paper Mill Playhouse Box Office on the day of the performance.

N’JAMEH CAMARA (Nettie). Credits: The Color Purple (first national revival tour), X: or, Betty Shabazz vs. The Nation (world premiere/national tour), Julius Caesar (Off Broadway), Up Here (La Jolla Playhouse), OjO (La Jolla Playhouse), Marguerite to Maya (an original one-woman show), Dance of the Holy Ghosts (Ubuntu Theater Project), The Wiz (Theatre at the Center). MFA Acting from UC San Diego.

CARRIE COMPERE (Sofia) played Sofia in The Color Purple on Broadway as well as on the national tour. Also: The Golden Apple (Lovey Mars/The Siren, Encores!), Holler If Ya Hear Me (Broadway), Shrek: The Musical (national tour). Off Broadway: The Lightning Thief (Sally Jackson), Sistas: The Musical, Lord Tom. Regional: Smokey Joe’s Cafe (TUTS). TV: Seven Seconds, NYC 22, Gurland on Gurland, Show Boat: Live from Lincoln Center.

JAY DONNELL (Harpo). Paper Mill debut! Tours: The Color Purple (Harpo), Miss Saigon (Ensemble, John u/s). Select Regional: Ragtime (Coalhouse); Once on This Island (Agwe); Clybourne Park (Albert/Kevin, Laguna Playhouse); Lythgoe Panto’s Aladdin and His Winter Wish (Genie); Mamma Mia! (Hollywood Bowl); Kiss Me, Kate (Hortensio/Fred); Memphis (Bobby); Frozen—Live at the Hyperion (Grand Pabbie/Bishop); Side Show (Jake); South Pacific (Hollywood Bowl). Commercials: Honda, Allstate, Dodge, Bud Light. TV/Film: Lost Tapes (Discovery Channel), A Portrait of James Dean (Iconoclastic Features).

GAVIN GREGORY (Mister). I’m honored to perform in this musical about love and redemption. Broadway: The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Crown standby), The Color Purple. Tours: The Color Purple (Mister), Kinky Boots (Simon Sr.), The Lion King (first national). Regional: Man of La Mancha (Cervantes/Don Quixote), The Whipping Man (Simon), Ragtime (Coalhouse); Violet (Flick); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Mitch Mahoney).

ADRIANNA HICKS (Celie) is beyond thrilled to be making her Paper Mill Playhouse debut as Celie in The Color Purple! Broadway: The Color Purple (revival, swing), Aladdin (Fortune Teller/Jasmine’s Attendant). National Tour: The Color Purple (Celie). Regional/International: Sister Act (Deloris u/s, Germany), Legally Blonde (Judge/Pilar u/s, Austria), Ragtime (Sarah), Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Marlena), and a backup singer for Michael Bublé’s Call Me Irresponsible Tour in Oklahoma.

CARLA R. STEWART (Shug Avery) is excited to make her Paper Mill debut as Shug Avery after touring the country in the same role and making her Broadway debut in the Tony- and Grammy-winning revival (as Olivia/Church Lady). She is still bubbling with joy telling this great story! Recent/favorite regional credits: first national tour of Ghost: The Musical (Oda Mae Brown), The Wiz (Dorothy), Rent (Joanne), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Nell). AMDA New York graduate.

The creative team for The Color Purple includes Tony Award winner John Doyle (Direction, Scenic Design), Darryl Archibald (Music Direction), Tony Award winner Ann Hould-Ward (Costume Design), Tony Award nominee Jane Cox (Lighting Design), Dan Moses Schreier (Sound Design), Drama Desk winner Charles G. LaPointe (Hair and Wig Design), Melissa Chacón (Production Stage Manager) and Telsey + Company (Casting).

JOHN DOYLE (Direction, Scenic Design). Broadway: Sweeney Todd (Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Director), Company (Tony Award for Best Revival), A Catered Affair (Drama League Award for Distinguished Production of a Musical), The Visit (Tony nomination, best musical), The Color Purple (Tony Award for Best Revival, Drama Desk Award for Best Director). Off Broadway: Wings (Second Stage); Road Show (Public); Where’s Charley?, Irma La Douce (City Center Encores!). Regional: Kiss Me, Kate! (Stratford Festival); The Caucasian Chalk Circle (A.C.T.); Merrily We Roll Along, The Three Sisters (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Ten Cents a Dance (Williamstown Theatre Festival); The Exorcist (Geffen Playhouse). In the U.K., John has been artistic director of four regional theaters; numerous credits include The Gondoliers, Mack and Mabel (West End), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oklahoma!, and Amadeus. Opera includes Lucia di Lammermoor (Sydney), Peter Grimes (Met), The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogany (Los Angeles). He is artistic director of CSC in New York City, where his productions include Passion, Allegro, Peer Gynt, Dead Poets Society, Pacific Overtures, Fire and Air, and most recently Carmen Jones.

DARRYL ARCHIBALD (Music Director). The Color Purple (national tour); Motown: The Musical (Broadway and national tour); Wicked (Pantages Theatre, substitute conductor); Memphis (national tour); Dreamgirls (national tour, associate conductor); Disney’s The Lion King (national tour, vocal coach/assistant conductor); Dear World with Tyne Daly (VPAC); Jonathan Dove’s Innocence (Banff Centre and Manhattan Theatre Club); Two by Two with Jason Alexander, How to Succeed… with John O’Hurley, The Fantasticks with Eric McCormack, Once on This Island with Ledisi, and Li’l Abner with Cathy Rigby and Fred Willard (Reprise); Great Expectations, My Fair Lady, 1776, Camelot, and Forever Plaid (Utah Shakespeare Festival); A Hollywood Holiday Celebration (ABC TV), The Fountain Show, Christmas Trolley Show (The Grove LA).

ANN HOULD-WARD (Costume Design). Select Broadway: The Color Purple, The Visit, The People in the Picture, A Free Man of Color (Drama Desk nomination), A Catered Affair (Drama Desk nomination), Beauty and the Beast (Tony Award), Into the Woods (Tony and Drama Desk nominations), Falsettos, Sunday in the Park with George (Tony and Drama Desk nominations), Saint Joan, Little Me. Off Broadway: Pacific Overtures, Dead Poets Society, Passion (Classic Stage Company); Notes from the Field (Second Stage); Russian Transport; The Blue Flower; Road Show; Lobster Alice; Cymbeline. Ms. Hould-Ward’s work can be seen in over 35 international companies of Beauty and the Beast and in shows all over the world. More than 100 regional credits, including Can-Can at Paper Mill. Inaugural recipient of FIT’s Patricia Zipprodt Award.

JANE COX (Lighting Design). Previous collaborations with John Doyle include Pacific Overtures, Peer Gynt, Allegro, and Passion at Classic Stage Company; The Color Purple on Broadway and in London; Road Show; and Lucia di Lammermoor. Recent theater credits include Jitney, Noises Off, and Amélie on Broadway; Othello at NYTW; and Hamlet in London; and previous Broadway credits also include Machinal, All the Way, Picnic, and others. Jane has been nominated for two Tony Awards and three Drama Desk Awards, and she is a member of the Monica Bill Barnes Company and is the director of the theater program at Princeton University.

DAN MOSES SCHREIER (Sound Design). Broadway: The Iceman Cometh (with Denzel Washington), Falsettos, American Psycho, The Visit, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, Sondheim on Sondheim, A Little Night Music, Gypsy (Patti LuPone), A Catered Affair, Radio Golf, John Doyle’s production of Sweeney Todd, Gem of the Ocean, Pacific Overtures, Assassins, Into the Woods, Topdog/Underdog, Dirty Blonde, Noise/Funk. He has composed scores for the Broadway productions of The Merchant of Venice (Al Pacino), Julius Caesar (Denzel Washington), and The Tempest (Patrick Stewart). He has received five Tony nominations and four Drama Desk Awards. Dan is currently composing a musical with Brian Selznick based on Brian’s book The Houdini Box, commissioned by La Jolla Playhouse.

CHARLES G. LAPOINTE (Hair & Wig Design). Paper Mill: The Sting, Newsies, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Outsider, 1776. Over 90 Broadway shows including Hamilton, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, The Cher Show, Anastasia, The Band’s Visit, SpongeBob SquarePants (Drama Desk Award), Amélie, Motown, Memphis, Allegiance, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, The Color Purple, Doctor Zhivago, Of Mice and Men, Violet, Side Show, The Elephant Man, After Midnight, Clybourne Park, Newsies, Jekyll & Hyde, The Mountaintop, Superior Donuts, Bonnie and Clyde, and In the Heights. Television: “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert” (Emmy nomination), “The Wiz Live!” (Emmy nomination), “Blue Bloods,” “American Crime,” “Madoff,” “Hairspray.”

MELISSA CHACÓN (Production Stage Manager). National Tours: The Color Purple, The Bodyguard, The Bridges of Madison County, We Will Rock You, Billy Elliot, Contact, Rent. Off Broadway: Avenue Q. Regional credits include The Iceman Cometh at BAM with Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy, The Bodyguard at Paper Mill Playhouse, and Les Misérables. She earned her MFA in Stage Management from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts.

TELSEY + COMPANY (Casting). Broadway/Tours: The Cher Show; The Prom; Torch Song; Pretty Woman; My Fair Lady; Carousel; Mean Girls; Frozen; Once on This Island; Anastasia; Come from Away; Waitress; Hamilton; Kinky Boots; Wicked; Hello, Dolly!; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; On Your Feet!. Off Broadway: Be More Chill, Atlantic Theater Company, Classic Stage Company, MCC Theater, Park Avenue Armory, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Second Stage Theater. Regional: Arena Stage, Center Theatre Group, Hartford Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, New York Stage and Film, Pasadena Playhouse, Wallis Annenberg Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival. Film: Mary Poppins Returns, The Greatest Showman, Miss Sloane, Into the Woods, Margin Call, Rachel Getting Married. TV: “This Is Us,” “House of Cards,” “Divorce,” “NCIS: New Orleans,” “One Day at a Time,” “Atypical,” commercials.

Accessibility Performances for The Color Purple

Paper Mill Playhouse, a leader in accessibility, will offer audio-described performances for The Color Purple on Saturday, Oct 20, at 1:30PM and Sunday, Oct 21, at 1:30PM. Prior to these performances at noon, the theater will offer free sensory seminars. Sensory seminars offer an opportunity for patrons with vision loss to hear a live, in-depth description of the production elements of the show and hands-on interaction with key sets, props, and costumes.  There will be a sign-interpreted and open-captioned performance on Sunday, Oct 21, at 7:00PM.

Free Audience Enrichment Activities for The Color Purple

Conversation Club: Join us Thursday evenings, Sep 27, Oct 4, 11, and 18 one hour before curtain for an informal, informative gathering. You’ll learn more about the performance you’re about to see.

The Director’s Viewpoint: One hour before curtain at 6:30PM on Wednesday, Sep 26, we host a pre-show discussion in the Renee Foosaner Art Gallery.

Q&A with the Cast: After the matinee on Saturday, Oct 20, stick around for a lively Q&A with cast members directly following the performance.

Paper Mill Playhouse’s 80th anniversary season also includes Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn (Nov 21–Dec 30), based on the beloved Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire film. This heartwarming, toe-tapping production features more than 20 classic songs from the Berlin catalog, including “Easter Parade,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Steppin’ Out with My Baby,” and “White Christmas.” In the winter, Paper Mill Playhouse presents the world-premiere musical My Very Own British Invasion (Jan 31–Mar 3), directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell. The 1960s British music scene comes to life with songs from Herman’s Hermits, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Petula Clark, The Moody Blues, and other legendary bands of the era. The spring brings the East Coast premiere of Benny & Joon (Apr 4–May 5). Based on the 1993 film which starred Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson, this new musical is a smart, funny, tender-hearted celebration of love: between children and parents; romantic partners; friends; and, most of all, siblings. The final production of the season, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (May 29–June 30), an international sensation that has played to more than 35 million people in 13 countries. Based on the Academy Award-winning animated feature, the stage production includes all of the original songs from the movie by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, plus additional gems by Menken and Tim Rice.

The post Cast Announced For The Color Purple appeared first on Paper Mill Playhouse.

UNMASKED will be a funny and warm musical portrait drawing from Andrew’s extensive body of work, with intimate and sometimes unexpected interpretations of his best-loved songs, rediscovered gems and some new material specially written for this production.

In the year Andrew Lloyd Webber releases his memoir*, also titled Unmasked, and the personally curated Platinum Collection album**, this new stage production will be an exploration of a man and his music, his creative process and the often surprising manner in which his songs, and the musicals in which they feature, came to be. It will include some of Lloyd Webber’s most recognizable characters interacting with one another for the first time, and new takes on his music, including a cappella versions of his songs and an often wry look at the genre he has, for many, come to define.

UNMASKED is co-created with Richard Curtis, the award-winning screenwriter, producer and film director behind Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually, and John Doyle, who won the 2006 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for his Broadway version of Sweeney Todd. His revival of The Color Purple won two Tony Awards in 2016 and he is the Artistic Director of the Classic Stage Company in New York.

“I’m so excited to be involved in Unmasked,”

said Richard Curtis.

“We start from the position of having in the show a huge collection of some of the greatest songs ever written for musical theater—and then learn more about Andrew and his way of working and how the music relates to him and his life. With luck there’ll be some very fun new stuff too. I love Andrew and his work—in real life, he has always made me laugh—and in the theater, a lot of his music has made me cry. I’m thrilled to be part of something that I hope will make the audience do both, laugh and cry.”

John Doyle said,

“I’m thrilled to help create this exciting new theater piece celebrating Andrew’s remarkable body of work. An event that explores the art behind his melodies, whilst reflecting his somewhat irreverent, self-deprecating sensibility. It’s going to be a lot of fun!”

Mark S. Hoebee, Producing Artistic Director of Paper Mill Playhouse, commented,

“Unmasked is another amazing opportunity for our theater to introduce a new title to the musical theater canon. Andrew Lloyd Webber is a legend and we are fortunate to be working with him, along with Richard and John, on this incredible project.”

A limited run of this brand-new production will start September 27, 2018, and run through October 28, 2018. Subscriptions for Paper Mill Playhouse’s new season will be available in March and may be purchased by calling 973.379.3717. Individual show tickets will go on sale Monday, August 20, 2018. Tickets may be purchased by calling 973.376.4343, at the Paper Mill Playhouse Box Office or by going online.  Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express accepted. Groups of 10 or more can receive up to a 40% discount on tickets and should call 973.315.1680. Students may order discounted rush tickets over the phone or in person at the Paper Mill Playhouse box office on the day of the performance. Paper Mill Playhouse’s 2018–2019 season is proudly sponsored by Investors Bank.

*Unmasked A Memoir is released globally on March 6, 2018.
**Unmasked: The Platinum Collection is released globally on March 16, 2018, and available to pre-order now with instant downloads of new tracks by Lana Del Rey and Nicole Scherzinger.

BIOGRAPHIES

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER
Andrew Lloyd Webber is the composer of some of the world’s best known musicals including Cats, Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Phantom of the Opera (which celebrated its 30th anniversary on Broadway this year), and Sunset Boulevard.

When Sunset Boulevard joined School of Rock–The Musical, Cats, and Phantom on Broadway in February 2017, he became the only person to equal the record set in 1953 by Rodgers and Hammerstein with four shows running concurrently.

As well as The Phantom of the Opera and Cats, his productions include the groundbreaking Bombay Dreams, which introduced the double Oscar-winning Bollywood composer AR Rahman to the Western stage.

His awards, both as composer and producer, include seven Tonys, seven Oliviers, a Golden Globe, an Oscar, the Praemium Imperiale, the Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre, a BASCA Fellowship, the Kennedy Center Honor, and a Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Requiem, his setting of the Latin Requiem mass which contains one of his best-known compositions, “Pie Jesu.” He owns seven London theaters including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the London Palladium.

He was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 1992 and created a life peer in 1997.

He is passionate about the importance of music in education and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation has become one of Britain’s leading charities supporting the arts and music. In 2016 the Foundation funded a major new national initiative which endowed the American Theatre Wing with a $1.3 million, three-year grant to support theater education opportunities for underserved young people and public schools across the U.S.

For additional information, please visit: www.andrewlloydwebber.com

RICHARD CURTIS
Richard Curtis is a screenwriter and director, responsible for films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Mr. Bean, Love Actually, The Boat That Rocked, About Time, and most recently Trash and Esio Trot.

In the other half of Richard’s life, he is the Co-Founder and Vice-Chair of Comic Relief, which he started after visiting Ethiopia during the 1985 famine. In 1988, Comic Relief launched its Red Nose Day fundraising initiative, including a live TV broadcast for the BBC, which brought together some of the biggest celebrities of the day. Since then, Richard has produced more than 16 live nights of television and Red Nose Day has raised more than £1 billion for projects in the UK and around the world.

In 2015, Richard launched Red Nose Day in the United States, dedicated to ending child poverty. It included a live telecast on NBC and raised over $23 million and has since gone on to raise almost $100 million.

Richard was a founding member of Make Poverty History and worked both on that campaign and on Live 8 in 2005. As part of his contribution to the campaign Richard wrote The Girl in the Café for HBO and the BBC – a television drama based around the G8 Summit, which won three Emmys. In 2012, Phillip Noyce directed Richard’s TV movie Mary and Martha, a film about two mothers losing their sons to malaria. It has been shown in 50 countries around the world and used as a campaigning tool by many organizations committed to ending malaria.

In 2014 Richard founded Project Everyone. Working alongside the United Nations, Project Everyone helped to launch and promote the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, a series of ambitious targets to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice and combat climate change by 2030. In 2015 as part of this endeavour Richard co-produced the Global Citizen Festival, live from Central Park, which was broadcast in 150 territories worldwide.

In January 2016 Richard was formally appointed as a UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocate alongside 16 others including Shakira, Paul Polman and Graça Machel.

JOHN DOYLE
John Doyle has been Artistic Director of four prestigious regional theaters in the UK. He now has an extensive directing career in theater, film, and opera. His credits in the US include productions of Sweeney Todd (Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical), Company (Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical), The Visit (Tony Nom. Best Musical, Drama Desk Nom. Best Director), The Color Purple (Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical, Grammy Award), Mahagonny (Los Angeles Opera, two Grammy Awards), Passion (Classic Stage Company, Drama Desk Nom. Best Director of a Musical), Road Show (Public Theater), Caucasian Chalk Circle (American Conservatory Theatre), Kiss Me, Kate (Stratford Festival Theatre). As well as numerous credits in London’s West End, John has also directed at Sydney Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, La Fenice in Venice, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Second Stage Theatre, Princeton McCarter Theatre, and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. He recently became Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company.

PAPER MILL PLAYHOUSE
Paper Mill Playhouse, a not-for-profit theater under the direction of Mark S. Hoebee (Producing Artistic Director) and Todd Schmidt (Managing Director) and recipient of the 2016 Regional Theatre Tony Award, is where American musical theater is celebrated, cherished, and pushed in exciting new directions. A beloved New Jersey arts institution since 1938, Paper Mill has been consistently recognized for the high-quality artistry of its reimagined classic musicals as well as its commitment to supporting the development of new works and the careers of Broadway’s best talent and emerging artists both onstage and behind the scenes. Paper Mill Playhouse boasts award-winning access services and outreach initiatives as well as performer training programs that impact more than 35,000 students each year. Paper Mill Playhouse productions have launched national tours and gone on to Broadway-including Disney’s Newsies, 25th Anniversary production of Les Misérables, Honeymoon in Vegas, A Bronx Tale, Bandstand, The Bodyguard-as well as television broadcasts on Showtime and PBS and original cast recordings. Paper Mill Playhouse is a member of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, the Council of Stock Theatres, and the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.

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