Off-Broadway’s New Group has announced four productions for its 2016-17 slate. Kicking off the season will be a revival of Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields’ musical Sweet Charity, starring Sutton Foster in the title role. The line-up will also feature the world premiere of Hamish Linklater’s The Whirligig with Zosia Mamet and Golden Globe winner Maura Tierney and Erica Schmidt’s All The Fine Boys.
In celebration of the show’s 50th anniversary, Sweet Charity will be staged in the fall featuring direction by Leigh Silverman and choreography by Joshua Bergasse. Foster will star as Charity Hope Valentine (the part originated on Broadway by Gwen Verdon), the unlucky-in-love dance-hall hostess, with further casting to be announced at a later date. Previews are set to begin in November. Sweet Charity is presented by The New Group in association with Kevin McCollum.
Foster is no stranger to the show's music. Watch her sing ”If My Friends Could See Me Now” on Bunheads:
Watch Foster singing “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This” from Sweet Charity at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2013 below.
In the new year will be the U.S. premiere of Wallace Shawn’s Evening at the Talk House, about a group of artists grasping to find their place in the world. The production reunites the playwright with artistic director Scott Elliott, who will helm the play, set to begin in January 2017.
The New Group will also present two world premieres in 2017: Linklater’s The Whirligig (May) and Schmidt’s All The Fine Boys (February), which she will also direct. The Whirligig, according to production notes, “spins a tale of a fractured community weaving a circuitous route back to one another.” The play will see Tierney as a woman returning to Berkshire County to care for her estranged, ailing daughter, Julie. Mamet will play Julie’s childhood best friend.
All the Fine Boys is billed as a play that “dives deep into the fascinations and fears of sexual awakening and the first painful gasps of maturity.” Set in suburban South Carolina in the late ‘80’s, it follows two 14-year-old best friends attempting to make their first serious attempts with boys.
Productions in The New Group’s 2016-17 season take place at The Pershing Square Signature Center, located at 480 West 42nd Street. Subscriptions and memberships are available by visiting thenewgroup.org, calling Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200, or in person at 416 West 42nd Street (noon-8 PM daily).
