Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) will present private readings of MRS. SHARP, a new musical (Winner of the Richard Rodgers Award for Staged Readings, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters) with Book by Kirsten Guenther and Music & Lyrics by Jonathan Larson Grant recipient Ryan Scott Oliver. Directed by three-time Tony Award nominee and Playwrights Horizons alumnus Michael Greif (Grey Gardens, Next to Normal, Rent), the invitation-only readings will take place on Thursday, July 30 and Friday, July 31 at Playwrights Horizons (416 West 42nd Street).
Playwrights Horizons is presenting the readings with support from The Richard Rodgers Foundation.
Lead by Tony Award winner and 2009 Emmy Award nominee Jane Krakowski (Nine, "30 Rock," additional Tony nomination for Grand Hotel) in the title role and Tony Award nominee Christian Borle (Legally Blonde, Spamalot, Thoroughly Modern Millie), the twelve-member cast will also feature Curt Hansen, Kyle Harris, Jeff Hiller, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Marla Mindelle, Amina Robinson, Preston Sadleir, Ali Stroker, Sam Tedaldi and Alex Wyse. Dominick Amendum will serve as Music Director.
Based on the 1991 teacher-student sex scandal and murder trial surrounding Pamela Smart, MRS. SHARP tells the story of a woman who "wants you to become more." Having written an unsuccessful self-help series entitled Invent Yourself: Five Words to Live By, 31-year old Kimberly Sharp (Jane Krakowski) is encouraged by her husband (Christian Borle) to take a job teaching at the local high school. Kimberly sets out to change the lives of her students, absorbing them into her web of fantastical delusions and private affairs. But when her husband discovers she's gone just a bit too far, Kimberly realizes there's only one thing that can be done about him. Someone goes to jail, someone becomes a beloved self-help guru and someone gets shot in the head - but everyone learns a lesson from Mrs. Sharp.
MRS. SHARP was originally conceived at the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at New York University in 2007 as Alive at Ten, where it was presented as a staged reading and selected to participate in the ASCAP/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop in Manhattan. Later that year, Stephen Schwartz, who leads the panel of musical theater writers, chose the musical to receive a workshop at Carnegie Mellon University in association with ASCAP and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. In February 2008, the show was awarded the Richard Rodgers Award for Staged Readings, administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, selected by a jury lead by Stephen Sondheim, Lynn Ahrens, John Guare, Sheldon Harnick, Richard Maltby Jr. and John Weidman, and in March of that year was granted a complete cast recording by the Clive Davis Dept. of Recorded Music.
