Featuring music, lyrics and book by 2008 Frederick Loewe Award winner Erin Kamler (Runway 69 at New Dramatists), the musical comedy concerns "one couple's hellish journey to untie the knot."
Rick Culbertson, in association with Lynn Marks, produces the show at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood, CA. Opening is Feb. 14 — Valentine's Day.
Award-winning director Rick Sparks (They Shoot Horses, Don't They?) will direct. Musical direction and arrangements are by Ovation Award-winner David O (Ubu Roi and Jason Robert Brown's 13).
The cast includes Rick Segall (Anthony Newley's Chaplin at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion) as Rich Hughes, Lowe Taylor (The Marvelous Wonderettes at the El Portal) as Penny Bailey-Hughes, Miki Yamashita (national tour of A Chorus Line) as Laureen Grub/Therapist/Minister, Leslie Stevens (Broadway's La Cage Aux Folles) as Lisa Groper/Annie Hughes and Gregory Franklin (Chicago's The Hunchback of Notre Dame) as Mediator/Don Hughes.
According to production notes, "Set in present-day Los Angeles, Divorce! The Musical takes us on Penny and Rich's journey, as their fairy-tale marriage unravels. Denial, deception, and raw outrage collide with greedy lawyers, dramatically inclined family members, mountains of paperwork and out-to-lunch therapists. Divorce! The Musical reminds us that laughing in the face of tragedy can sometimes be the best way to move on." Musical numbers include "Till Death Do Us Part," "I'm Living In My Parents' Basement And My Friends Forgot My Name" and "Half."
The creative team includes set designer Danny Cistone, costume designer Denitsa Bliznakova, lighting designer Jeremy Pivnick, sound designer Cricket S. Myers and casting director Michael Donovan.
Performances continue to March 29, 2009.
Kamler (music, lyrics, book) has a specific interest in writing musicals based on memoir. A native of Ann Arbor, MI, she began performing in musical theatre at age nine, created a production company at age ten and went on to write, compose and produce 15 full-length musicals by eighteen. A three-time winner of Stephen Sondheim's Young Playwright's Festival, her plays have been staged at The Public Theater and Playwrights Horizons, and she won the 1994 University of Michigan Hopwood Award for playwriting. Her musical Runway 69, about a strip club on the eve of the Times Square clean-up, is in development at New Dramatists where it won the 2008 Frederick Loewe Award. Other projects include The Jews of Calabasas, a musical about Jewish women in the suburbs of Los Angeles and Khmer, a musical about the aftermath of the Cambodian genocide.
A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she is currently pursuing a graduate degree in International Public Diplomacy at USC's Annenberg School for Communication.
Performance schedule is Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday matinees at 2 PM. Tickets range from $25-$35. Tickets are available by calling (323) 960-1056 or online at www.DivorceMusical.com.
