Photo Flash: First Look at NATIONAL PASTIME, Opening Off-Broadway Tonight at Playwrights Horizons!

With baseball season in full swing, NATIONAL PASTIME, a new screwball musical comedy, makes its New York debut, beginning performances Off-Broadway tonight, August 8, 2012 ,at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons in Manhattan (416 West 42nd Street). Get a first look at the production in the photos below!

Presented by August Theater Productions in association with Algonquin Theater Productions, NATIONAL PASTIME has a book by Tony Sportiello and music and lyrics by Al Tapper. Nancy Robillard directs the show, which has musical direction by David Wolfson. NATIONAL PASTIME has set design by Robert Monaco, costume design by Cathy Small, lighting design by John Burkland, and sound design by Wallace Flores. Chip Klose is the choreographer.

The cast of NATIONAL PASTIME features Gil Brady, Ethan Cadoff, L. R. Davidson, Leo Ash Evens (recently seen in the Broadway revival of Jesus Christ Superstar), Mia Gentile, Abe Goldfarb, Janice Landry, Erica Lustig, Kelli Maguire, Dayla Perkins, and Dan Van Why (who received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for the D.C. production of NATIONAL PASTIME in Washington, D.C.).

NATIONAL PASTIME tells the story of WZBQ, a radio station in 1933 Iowa that is on the verge of bankruptcy. To spark ratings, the folks at the station invent a fictional, unbeatable baseball team and begin to broadcast phony baseball games as though real. All works to perfection . . . until the media begins to pay attention.

NATIONAL PASTIME originated in a reading that took place at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in May 2010. NATIONAL PASTIME had its world premiere production in 2011 at the Keegan Theater in Washington, D.C.

The musical will play a limited run in NYC through August 25th, 2012. Tickets for NATIONAL PASTIME are $35.00 and are on sale now via TicketCentral.com (212-279-4200).

Photo credit: Jeremy Daniel