The main stage season at the Linda Gross Theater on West 20th Street will see world premieres from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Coen (whose Almost an Evening was an ATC hit, and whose films "No Country for Old Men," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Fargo" are beloved) and young playwright and screenwriter Beau Willimon.
Martin McDonagh — whose The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lieutenant of Inishmore bowed at ATC before moving to Broadway — will be represented by a new production of The Cripple of Inishmaan, directed by Garry Hynes.
The Atlantic season will begin at Atlantic Stage 2 on West 16th Street with the Sept. 3-28 world premiere limited engagement of What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling, written and performed by Tony Award nominee and Atlantic Company Member David Pittu (LoveMusik, Is He Dead?) with additional casting to be announced. Music is by Randy Redd. It's billed as "an absurd musical satire that charts the career of eternally up-and-coming (and fictitious) musical theatre composer Jacob Sterling. A rare, up close and personal visit with an artist of questionable gifts who performs from his songbook and shares his human struggle to keep musical theater alive and well in the 21st century."
A second new play will also be announced for Atlantic Stage 2.
On the Linda Gross main stage, the world premiere of Willimon's Farragut North (Oct. 22-Nov. 29) will be directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes (Doubt). In it, according to ATC, "Stephen is a wunderkind press secretary who has built a career that men twice his age would envy. During a tight presidential primary race, however, Stephen's meteoric rise falls prey to the backroom politics of more seasoned operatives, and his one night stand with a teenage staffer proves to be more complicated than casual." It's billed as "a classic tale of hubris set against a contemporary landscape — about the lust for power and the costs one will endure to achieve it."
A co-production with Druid, Galway, The Cripple of Inishmaan (Dec. 9, 2008-March 1, 2009) reunites Academy Award winner and Tony Award nominee McDonagh and Tony Award-winning director Hynes, who collaborated on Beauty Queen at ATC is 1998. "Set in 1934 on an island off the west coast of Ireland, Hollywood filmmaker Robert Flaherty arrives on the neighboring island of Inishmore to film his movie 'The Man of Aran' and excitement ripples through the sleepy community of Inishmaan," according to ATC. "For orphaned Billy Craven, who has been relentlessly scorned by the island's inhabitants, the film represents an escape from the poverty of his existence. He vies for a part in the film, and to everyone's surprise, it is the cripple who gets his chance."
The world premiere of Academy Award winner Coen's Offices, a collection of three one-acts, will be directed by ATC artistic director Neil Pepe. Spring 2009 dates will be announced. "Hiring and firing are antisocial acts," according to ATC. "Workplace pressures make for nasty competition. And the work itself can be meaningless and alienating. Accordingly, the three short plays that make up Offices are comedies."
In addition to the 2008-2009 Atlantic main stage Linda Gross Theater and Stage 2 productions, Atlantic subscribers will have exclusive access to the 20th Anniversary Broadway revival of Atlantic co-founder David Mamet's play Speed-the-Plow, which marks Atlantic artistic director Pepe's Broadway directing debut. Golden Globe Award winner Jeremy Piven (HBO's "Entourage") stars.
For membership information call (212) 691-5919, ext. 1092 or visit www.atlantictheater.org.
