Philadelphia Theatre Company rings in the new year with the Philadelphia premiere of David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly, January 18-February 24, at Philadelphia Theatre Company's new home, the Suzanne Roberts Theatre (Broad and Lombard Streets).
PTC's production celebrates the 20th Anniversary of this Tony Award-winning contemporary classic. Directed by Joe Calarco, the production features Telly Leung as Song and Christopher Innvar as Gallimard with a supporting cast featuring Jared Michael Delaney, Doan Ly, Anne Marie Nest, Larry Petersen, and Susan Wilder.
Previews begin Friday, January 18 with opening night on Wednesday, January 23. Performances run Tuesday through Sunday. Due to popular demand, the production has been extended through February 24. Tickets are $46 to $58, with discounts for students, seniors and groups. Tickets are available by calling the PTC Box Office at 215-985-0420 or visiting www.philadelphiatheatrecompany.org.
M. Butterfly's Production Sponsor is Blank Rome LLP. Media Sponsors for the production are the Philadelphia Gay News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly.com, and CBS-3. Philadelphia Theatre Company's Premier Season Sponsor is The Comcast Family, and the Official Airline Sponsor is US Airways.
To celebrate the impact of M. Butterfly, PTC will also conduct a series of special panels throughout the run. Including a discussion with the playwright David Henry Hwang (February 3), a panel discussion about the Asian American theatre (January 26) and a panel discussion about the cultural politics of the opera Madame Butterfly (January 27).
M. Butterfly, a provocative and captivating story of lust, politics and betrayal, is based on the strange, but true story of a French diplomat who carried on a 20-year affair with a Chinese opera singer, not realizing that his "butterfly" was in fact a man masquerading as a woman. Weaving parallels with Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, Hwang explores the stereotypes that underlie and distort relations between Eastern and Western culture, and between men and women.
M. Butterfly premiered on Broadway in 1988 and went on to receive a Tony Award for Best Play, as well as the New York Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award for best Broadway play, the John Glassner Award for the season's outstanding new playwright, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Sara Garonzik, PTC's Producing Artistic Director said, "After seeing M. Butterfly on Broadway in 1988, I felt stunned, as if I had witnessed something so important that I could not readily process its scope. Hwang's wise and mocking views on both gender and East-West relations made it timely and original, yet its unsparing look into the limitless depths of the human heart rendered it timeless and classic. Over time, the play has become, for me, less about sexual deception than about sexual collusion and to what extent the human heart will go to keep from breaking.".
David Henry Hwang (Playwright) has risen to prominence as our nation's pre-eminent Asian-American playwright. His first play FOB (an acronym for Fresh Off the Boat) was produced at New York Shakespeare Festival where it won an OBIE Award for Best New Play of the Season. Other plays include Golden Child (1997 Obie Award and Tony nomination), Dance and the Railroad (1982 Drama Desk Award and Pulitzer Prize nomination), and a reworking of the book for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song (2003 Tony nomination for Best Book for a Musical). He recently opened Yellow Face at the Public Theater. Hwang has written the libretto for Philip Glass' opera 1000 Airplanes on the Roof; The Silver River with music by Bright Sheng; Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida; and the Disney Broadway musical Tarzan. The recipient of numerous grants, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, Hwang sits on the boards of the Dramatists Guild and Young Playwrights, Inc., and served by appointment of President Clinton on the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities.
Joe Calarco (Director) returns to Philadelphia Theatre Company where he directed the Barrymore Award-winning musicals The Last Five Years and Elegies: A Song Cycle. He is an Artistic Associate at Signature Theatre where he has directed productions of Urinetown, Elegies: A Song Cycle (3 Helen Hayes nominations), the world premiere of Nijinsky's Last Dance (4 Helen Hayes Awards), Side Show (4 Helen Hayes Awards), and the world premiere of his own play, In The Absence of Spring, which premiered in New York at Second Stage as the inaugural production of their New Plays Uptown series, under his own direction. He is the adaptor/director of Shakespeare's R&J, which ran for a year in New York and earned him a Lucille Lortel Award. He also directed the play's premiere in Chicago (5 Jefferson Award nominations) and Washington, DC (2 Helen Hayes Award nominations). Other regional credits include productions at The Shakespeare Theatre, The Hangar Theatre, and New York Musical Theatre Festival.
Jared Michael Delaney (Marc, Sharpless) makes his Philadelphia Theatre Company debut. He has appeared locally in The BFG and All My Sons at Arden Theatre Company, several productions at Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, and the Barrymore Award-winning production of The Comedy of Errors at Lantern Theater Company. He has also been featured at Azuka Theatre, Hedgerow Theatre, Act II Playhouse, Bristol Riverside Theatre, Arcadia Shakespeare, and Inis Nua Theatre Company.
Christopher Innvar (Gallimard) has been seen in Roundabout Theatre's production of 110 in the Shade and The Threepenny Opera and in starring roles in the Broadway productions of Les Miserables and Victor/Victoria. Off-Broadway he has performed in Floyd Collins and Gun-Shy at Playwrights Horizons, A New Brain at Lincoln Center and productions at Atlantic Theatre Company and Vineyard Theatre. His regional credits include performances at Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C. where he recently starred as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew (opposite Charlayne Woodard), Barrington Stage, Steppenwolf, Alliance Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse, Guthrie Theater, and Long Wharf Theatre.
Telly Leung (Song) currently appearing in Rent on Broadway will take a leave of absence to appear in PTC's production of M. Butterfly. His other Broadway credits include Pacific Overtures and Flower Drum Song. Regionally he has been seen in Godspell at Paper Mill Playhouse, Jesus Christ Superstar and Footloose at Music Circus, Miss Saigon and Anything Goes at Pittsburgh CLO, and several productions at St. Louis MUNY.
Doan Ly (Suzuki, Chin) has been featured on New York stages in Twelfth Night at New York Shakespeare Festival, Two Noble Kinsmen at The Public Theater, and Richard II at Classic Stage Company. Regionally she has been seen at McCarter Theatre and in several productions at Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Guthrie Lab. She has appeared in recurring roles on Big Love and CSI, and as a guest star on Cold Case and Strong Medicine.
Anne Marie Nest (Renee, Girl in Magazine) makes her Philadelphia debut having appeared in the world premieres of Light Years at Playwrights Horizons and Crazy Love Baby at Ensemble Studio Theatre, as well as in productions at Samuel Beckett Theatre and Lincoln Center Director's Lab. Regionally she has been a frequent guest at Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival.
Larry Petersen (Toulon) has appeared at Syracuse Stage, Intar Theatre, Theatre Row Theatre, and Elizabethan Shakespeare Company. He has performed several times at American Globe Century Center for the Performing Arts and Nebraska Studio Theatre.
Susan Wilder (Helga) returns to Philadelphia Theatre Company, having appeared in last season's Orson's Shadow which earned her a Barrymore nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Play. She has also received a Barrymore nomination for Best Supporting Actress in The Magic Fire at The Wilma Theater and for Best Actress in A Little Night Music at Arden Theatre Company. She has also appeared at Lincoln Center Theatre in King Lear, Ivanov, and Far East as well as productions at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Studio Theatre, Coconut Grove Playhouse, and Marin Shakespeare Festival.
M. Butterfly reunites a production team of PTC favorites: set designer Michael Fagin (The Last Five Years); lighting designer Chris Lee (The Last Five Years and Elegies); and composer Robert Maggio (The Laramie Project, Take Me Out, Intimate Apparel and Orson's Shadow) and introduces PTC audiences to costume designer Helen Huang (Resident Costume Designer at Washington D.C.'s Studio Theatre where she won a Helen Hayes Award). Philadelphia Theatre Company's dramaturg for M. Butterfly is Warren Hoffman. -- www.phillytheatreco.com
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