TACT to Present BROADWAY Benefit Concert at Scholastic Auditorium, 2/4

TACT-20010101

TACT/The Actors Company Theatre, the critically-acclaimed company "dedicated to presenting neglected or rarely produced plays of literary merit," currently celebrating its 20th Anniversary Season, will present the rarely seen 1926 crime drama Broadway, by Philip Dunning and George Abbott in a one-night only benefit concert performance at the Scholastic Auditorium (557 Broadway, NYC).

Gangsters! Chorus Girls! Bootleg Gin! Set in the seamy New York underworld of illicit and glamorous nightclubs Broadway is a hard-boiled crime drama that pits good against bad, pure against corrupt, and hoofers against gangsters. Slangy chorines and bootleg thugs mix in a killer cocktail of sex, liquor, and revenge.

The 7:00 p.m. performance will feature 15 TACT Company Members including: Mark Alhadeff, Eve Bianco, Chris Burns, Nora Chester, Richard Ferrone, Jack Koenig, Victoria Mack, Ron McClary, Geoffrey Molloy, Margaret Nichols, John Plumpis, Gregory Salata, Scott Schaefer, Margo White, Lynn Wright and guest artist Leighton Bryan (currently understudying Scarlett Johansson in the Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof).

Stephen Arnold will design the lighting, Josh Millican the sound, and Stephen Kunken the projections. TACT Co- Artistic Director Scott Alan Evans will direct the production.

Tickets are $65 (show only) and $100 (show and a killer reception with the artists immediately following the performance) and may be purchased online through the company's web site - www.tactnyc.org - or by phone 24/7 at 1-800-838-3006. For more information, call the TACT offices at (212) 645-8228.

First mounted by the renowned producer JEd Harris, Broadway was George Abbott's first big hit on his way to becoming the most famous play doctor of all time after he "rejiggered" Philip Dunning's play. The crime drama used contemporary street slang and a hard-boiled, realistic atmosphere to depict the New York underworld during Prohibition. It opened on September 16, 1926 at the Broadhurst Theatre and was one of the venue's greatest hits, running for 603 performances. This concert reading will be the first time the play has been seen in New York since its original run.

TACT/The Actors Company Theatre (Scott Alan Evans, Cynthia Harris, & Jenn Thompson, Co-Artistic Directors) is dedicated to presenting neglected or rarely produced plays of literary merit, with a focus on creating theatre from its essence: the text and the actor's ability to bring it to life.

TACT's celebrated company of actors was drawn together in 1992 by a love of the literature of the theatre. Since that time, they have grown to become a true ensemble: a group that has developed a common vocabulary and a technique based on their specific artistic vision and collective body of work. TACT company members, whose cumulative experience includes scores of significant roles on and off Broadway, in the country's finest regional theatres and in many films and television shows, have received Emmy, Obie, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards, in addition to several Tony nominations.

After presenting thirteen seasons of "in-concert" performances, the company took a leap with its 2006-07 season by presenting fully staged productions of David Storey's Home and The Sea by Edward Bond at The Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row. TACT became a resident company on Theatre Row with its 2007-08 season when they presented critically acclaimed productions of The Runner Stumbles by Milan Stitt and The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, by Tennessee Williams, which The New York Times included in its "Top 10 Theatre Picks for 2008." The company's productions of Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce, Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy, Sidney Howard's The Late Christopher Bean, John Cecil Holm and George Abbott's Three Men on a Horse and last season's Drama Desk nominated production of Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers became instant hits and enjoyed extended runs. The company will end its 2012-13 season with Happy Birthday, by Anita Loos. Previews begin on Tuesday, March 12th.