The New York Times is reporting that Michael Urie will star in "The Tempermentals," a play by Jon Marans ("Old Wicked Songs"), set to begin April 30 at the Barrow Group Studio Theater.
MAN underdog presents "The Temperamentals" by Jon Marans, Off Broadway at The Barrow Group Studio Theater, 312 West 36 Street 3rd Floor. Previews begin Thursday, April 30, 2009 and the opening is Monday, May 4 at 8:00 pm for the limited engagement. It is directed by Jonathan Silverstein. Set & /Costume design is by Clint Ramos, lighting by Josh Bradford and Daniel Kluger is the sound designer. Classical composer and vocal coach Aaron Dai is the Musical Consultant. The cast will soon be announced. "Temperamental" was a code word for "homosexual" in the early 1950s, part of a created language of secret words that gay men used to communicate. In this underground world, danger was always an underlying presence. But with it, a heady, intoxicating secrecy also hung in the air.
"The Temperamentals" tells the story of two men - the communist Harry Hay and the young Viennese refugee and designer Rudi Gernreich, weaving together the personal and the political to tell a relatively unknown chapter in gay history. It explores the deepening love between two complex men, while they build the first gay rights organization in the United States pre Stonewall. This is the perilous, unpredictable world these men inhabit as their impossible dream of forming such an unheard of organization becomes a reality. They must navigate their relationship in new and surprising ways. "The Temperamentals" is an intimate portrayal of the men who created history and the epic struggles they overcame. The characters consist of the actual men who founded the Mattachine Society, as well as prominent figures of the time such as Frank Tavener of the House Un-American Committee and the director Vincente Minnelli.
Jon Marans' "Old Wicked Songs" was a 1996 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama, winner of New York Drama League, L.A. Drama Logue Award, and included in Otis Guernsey's Best Plays of 1996-97. It premiered at the Barrow Group, and then transferred to the Promenade Theater. Produced in over a dozen countries including in London's West End with Bob Hoskins and James Callis. A Paris production is slated. Some other shows are: "A Strange and Separate People," Penguin Rep.; "Jumping For Joy," Laguna Playhouse and Independent Theater at the International Adelaide Theater Festival; "Legacy of the Dragonslayers", based on Studs Terkel's "Coming of Age" (book by Jon Marans, lyrics by Ronnie Gilbert - part of the original blacklisted folk group "The Weavers") San Jose Repertory Theatre and "Irrationals" (book & lyrics Jon Marans, music by Edward Thomas), ATA NYC and the Village Theater. Jon and Yuri Sivo were hired by Universal Pictures and Tribeca Films to write a political/war screenplay based on the acclaimed book CHASING THE DRAGON. It takes place in 1947 in the middle of the China's Civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists. Robert DeNiro is slated to play the role of Henry Luce. Mr. Marans is a graduate of Duke University in mathematics and a minor in music.
Performances of the limited Off Broadway engagement of "The Temperamentals" are: Friday - Monday at 8 pm and matinees on Sunday at 4 pm; with special performances on Thursday, April 30 at 8 pm and Saturday, May 2 at 2 pm through May 18. There is no performance Saturday evening 5/2.
Tickets are only $18.00. They will be available through Smarttix: online at www.smarttix.com or by phone at (212) 868-4444.
Photo Credit: Linda Lenzi
