Following the untimely death of director Michael Maggio, Manhattan Theatre Club artistic director Lynne Meadow is supervising the New York premiere of Maggio's staging of Boy Gets Girl, beginning MTC previews Jan. 30.
Maggio, the respected Chicago director, shepherded the Rebecca Gilman work in its March-April 2000 Goodman Theatre world premiere. The play concerns a woman who is stalked (note the ironic title). Maggio died Aug. 19, 2000, of complications from post-transplant lymphoma after surviving a 1991 bilateral lung transplant.
The MTC production is "in association with" the Goodman. The Chicago cast will repeat their duties. The company at MTC's Stage I includes David Adkins, Matt DeCaro, Shayna Ferm, Mary Beth Fisher, Ora Jones, Ian Lithgow and Howard Witt (a Tony Award nominee for Robert Falls' Goodman and later Broadway staging of Death of a Salesman). Official opening for Boy Gets Girl is Feb. 20.
Designers are Michael Philippi (sets), Nan Cibula Jenkins (costumes), John Culbert (lighting), Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen (sound and original music).
* Critics raved about Boy Gets Girl at the Goodman in 2000. MTC calls it "a frightening glimpse into what can lie in wait for those searching for love in the city."
Playwright Gilman penned the provocative race-relations play, Spinning Into Butter, which won a Jeff Award for Best New Work in Chicago and later played Lincoln Center Theatre.
Maggio was associate artistic director at the Goodman Theatre and dean of The Theatre School at DePaul University. He was a frequent collaborator with playwright Keith Reddin and worked at major Chicago resident theatre, winning awards throughout his career. In addition to Boy Gets Girl for MTC, he was set to direct the world premiere of Gilman's The Great Baseball Strike of '94 at the Goodman's new theatre in Chicago in 2001.
Maggio was one of the three men — including director Frank Galati and Goodman artistic director Robert Falls — who brought The Goodman into prominence. He was named associate artistic director there in 1987.
Meadow has been MTC artistic director since 1972, where she has directed and produced over 125 New York and world premieres. Her current hot credit is Broadway's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, by Charles Busch. She also staged Leslie Ayvazian's Nine Armenians, Donald Margulies' The Loman Family Picnic, Alan Ayckbourn's Woman in Mind and the Broadway production of his A Small Family Business.
Boy Gets Girl tickets are $55. MTC operates two spaces at City Center, 131 W. 55th Street, in Manhattan. For information, call (212) 581-1212, or click here.
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The New York premiere of the new musical, Time and Again, based on the popular novel by Jack Finney, began performances Jan. 9 at MTC's Stage II. Official opening is Jan. 30. The 15-actor chamber version of the musical (by composer lyricist Skip Kennon and librettist Jack Viertel) has hopes for a larger Broadway staging. The limited Off-Broadway run is considered the template for an expanded version, if critics and audiences embrace the work. Performances continue there to Feb. 18. The run is sold out.
— By Kenneth Jones
