Playwrights Horizons Announces 'Saved' Cast

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced additional casting for the sixth and final production of its 2007/2008 Season, the World Premiere of the new musical Saved.

In addition to previously-announced Tony Award nominee Celia Keenan-Bolger (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Les Misérables), the cast of Saved will include Tony Award nominee John Dossett (Gypsy, Mamma Mia!), Drama Desk Award nominee Julia Murney (The Wild Party, Elphaba in Wicked on Broadway and national tour), Mary Faber (Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky at Playwrights Horizons, Avenue Q), Josh Breckenridge (The Ritz), Juliana Ashley Hansen (national tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie), Curtis Holbrook (Xanadu), Van Hughes (Hairpsray), Jason Michael Snow (Fredric in Pirates of Penzance at Goodspeed), Aaron Tveit (Next to Normal), Emily Walton (national tour of A Christmas Carol) and Daniel Zaitchik (Kimberly Akimbo, 365/365)  One final addition to the cast will be announced in the coming weeks.

Saved has music & lyrics by Obie Award winner Michael Friedman (The Civilians' Gone Missing) and book & lyrics by 2-time Olivier Award nominee John Dempsey (The Witches of Eastwick) & Obie Award winner Rinne Groff (The Ruby Sunrise, writer on Showtime's "Weeds"), based on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture written by Brian Dannelly & Michael Urban. 

Directed by Gary Griffin (The Color Purple) and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys), the production will begin previews on Friday, May 9 with an official opening on Tuesday, June 3.  The limited engagement will continue through Sunday, June 22 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street). 

The Saved design team boasts three Tony Award winners: scenic designer Scott Pask (The Coast of Utopia, The Pillowman), costume designer Jess Goldstein (The Rivals) and lighting designer Donald Holder (The Lion King), as well as sound design by three-time Drama Desk Award nominee Brian Ronan (Grey Gardens, Spring Awakening).  Orchestrations are by Curtis Moore (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin), Music Director is Jesse Vargas and Music Coordinator is John Miller.

Saved is being produced by special arrangement with Elephant Eye Theatrical.

With Saved, Playwrights Horizons continues its commitment to developing unique and ground-breaking new musicals such as Grey Gardens, James Joyce's The Dead, Floyd Collins, Assassins and Sunday in the Park with George.

 In Saved, good girl Mary (Celia Keenan-Bolger) and her domineering best friend Hilary Faye (Mary Faber) are starting their senior year at the top of the social food chain at American Eagle Christian High School – that is, until Mary's boyfriend (Aaron Tveit) tells her he thinks he's gay.  When Jesus appears in a vision, and Mary heeds his message "to do everything she can to help him," her good deeds are met with dire consequences, and Mary is forced to question everything she's ever believed.  Through it all, she finds faith in unexpected places and learns what it truly means to be saved.

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American Playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work.  In its 37 years, Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 375 writers and has received numerous awards and honors. Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play), Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George, as well as Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (three 2007 Tony Awards), Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch, Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting), Craig Lucas's Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead, William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere and Franny's Way, Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire, Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room, A.R. Gurney's Later Life, Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's Floyd Collins and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet. 

Playwrights Horizons is supported in part by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.  In addition, Playwrights Horizons receives major support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Charina Endowment Fund, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, and Time Warner Inc.

The performance schedule for SAVED will be Tuesdays through Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 2:30 & 8PM and Sundays at 2:30 & 7:30 PM.  Tickets to SAVED are currently available to Playwrights Horizons subscribers only.  Single tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, April 11.For more information please visist www.playwrightshorizons.org

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