Off-Broadway's Red Bull Theater has revealed details for its upcoming season, which will include performances of Arden of Faversham and The Knight of the Burning Pestle at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and an all-star benefit performance of the seldom-produced rock musical Your Own Thing.
Adapted from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night by Hal Hester and Danny Apolinar, Your Own Thing premiered at Off-Broadway's Orpheum Theater (current home to Stomp) in 1968, shortly after Hair made its debut down the street at the then-newly built Public Theater. Both musicals would go on to become big hits of the rock musical genre, with Your Own Thing running for 933 performances before touring North America. Red Bull's one-night-only performance, set for December 12 at Peter Norton Symphony Space, will feature a book adaptation by Donald Driver and an all-star cast to be announced.
Described as "the first true-crime story," Arden of Faversham tells the story of the real-life murder of Thomas Arden at the hands of his wife, Alice Arden. The Elizabethan play with an unknown author has been adapted for Red Bull by Jeffrey Hatcher and Kathryn Walat. Opening March 20 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, the production will be directed by Jesse Berger.
Following at the Lortel is Francis Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle, a co-production with Fiasco Theater, opening May 1. The comedy parodies English theatre, following a band of actors readying to perform their production of The London Merchant when an unexpected interruption forces them to invent a new story on the spot.
The Off-Broadway company will continue its Hispanic Golden Age Classics series, which will include an online discussion titled Lope de Vega and Shakespeare September 8 and the streaming reading of De Vega's The Capulets and the Montagues September 12 followed by an interactive discussion about the work September 15. The Capulets and the Montagues will be directed by Melia Bensussen, with a cast including Ro Boddie, Anita Castillo-Halvorssen, Grantham Coleman, Carson Elrod, Topher Embrey, Ryan Garbayo, Paco Lozano, Dakin Matthews, Maria-Christina Oliveras, and Cara Ricketts, with additional casting to be announced in the coming weeks.
The season also includes a series of Revelation Readings, offering rarely produced classic plays and new works. Among this year's slate is John Vanbrugh's The Relapse, or Virtue in Danger, starring Michael Urie and directed by Marc Victor October 24 at Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space.
For a complete listing of Red Bull's upcoming season, visit RedBullTheater.com.
