| Joy Behar's "My First Ex-Husband" AT THE NEW MMAC THEATER | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 12:39 pm EST 11/21/24 | |
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| MY FIRST EX-HUSBAND A HILARIOUS NEW COMEDY BY JOY BEHAR JOY BEHAR, SUSIE ESSMAN, TOVAH FELDSHUH, ADRIENNE C. MOORE TO LAUNCH OFF-BROADWAY RUN AT THE NEW MMAC THEATER FIRST POWERHOUSE CAST RUNS JANUARY 29 TO FEBRUARY 23 (November 21, 2024 – New York, NY)— Tony winning Producer Rose Caiola together with veteran Talent Manager and Producer Cyrena Esposito announce the world premiere of MY FIRST EX-HUSBAND, a new show by comedy maven Joy Behar. Directed by Randal Myler, the 75-minute Off-Broadway play will kick off on Wednesday, January 29, 2025 with an opening night scheduled for Thursday, February 6 at the newly-renovated MMAC Theater, 248 West 60th Street on the Upper West Side. If half of all marriages end in divorce, then in MY FIRST EX-HUSBAND, women live to laugh about it! Your favorite actors from film, stage and TV will reveal riveting true stories, which will shock, thrill, titillate, and ultimately tug at your heart strings. Audiences will cheer their courage, as they gather the strength to close the door on who they were and open the door to new and exciting adventures that lie ahead. In the world of the play, you'll meet women married to the mob, to their jobs, to their faith, to money and ultimately to the wrong man. Their stories are your stories…only funnier. Behar herself will lead the first powerhouse cast of comedic legends, including Susie Essman (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Tovah Feldshuh (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), and Adrienne C. Moore (Orange is the New Black). Each month, a rotating lineup of luminaries from theater, television, and film will bring fresh voices and perspectives to these stories, making every performance a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience. "I'm so excited to be doing my new play Off-Broadway at the MMAC Theater," said Joy Behar. "I'll be appearing in the first cycle for four weeks beginning January 29, and after that, a rotating cast of amazing women will keep telling these stories with laughter, grace, compassion and hilarious honesty." Behar, Essman, Feldshuh and Moore will be the first rotating cast running January 29 to February 23, 2025. Future casts to be announced at a later date. The show is produced by Rose Caiola (Caiola Productions) and Cyrena Esposito (Red Letter Entertainment) with Associate Producers Mark Rubinsky and Tony Castrigno. "We are proud to help develop this engaging, provocative, and hilarious work by a woman who's always unafraid to share her ‘View'," said Producer Rose Caiola. "Joy Behar is a tremendous comedic voice like no other, and we're thrilled to be working with her on My First Ex-Husband," said Producer Cyrena Esposito. "We are looking forward to bringing this show to New York theater audiences!" BIOS: JOY BEHAR (Writer/Performer) is among today's leading comic talents. Whether performing stand-up comedy or interviewing politicians and artists, she is an original voice and leading woman on both stage and screen. She was a member of the original cast of ABC's "The View" for 16 years, returning as co-host in September 2015 for the show's three most recent seasons. Along with winning the 2009 Daytime Emmy® Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host, Behar is also the recipient of three MAC Awards, a CableACE Award and a 2000 GLAAD Award for her enduring friendship with the LGBTQ+ community. On television, she starred in two HBO specials and was a regular on the series "Baby Boom." She also appeared in Woody Allen's Amazon series "Crisis in Six Scenes." In June 2016, Behar was inducted into the Brooklyn Walk of Fame at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, joining an impressive list of Brooklynites honored for their distinguished work in entertainment, sports, media and the arts. Behar has hosted her own shows, including a call-in radio show on WABC, "The Joy Behar Show" on HLN, and "Say Anything" on Current TV. Her film appearances include "This Is My Life," directed by Nora Ephron, and Woody Allen's "Manhattan Murder Mystery." In theater, Behar starred in Nicky Silver's play "The Food Chain," for which she earned rave reviews, and also in the critically acclaimed play The Vagina Monologues. She also wrote and performed in her own solo show, Me, My Mouth and I, at the Cherry Lane Theatre. As a playwright, Behar has written Crisis In Queens, along with her short play Bonkers In The Boroughs, which was featured in the New York Comedy Festival in November 2023. Her new play, My First Ex-Husband, will be produced in New York City beginning in January 2025. Behar has written five books, including two children's books. Her most recent book, "The Great Gasbag: An A-to-Z Study Guide to Surviving Trump World," was released in October 2017. SUSIE ESSMAN is an actress, author, and stand-up comedian based out of New York City. Susie began her career as a working comic, catching the eye of Larry David who cast her in her now iconic role of the strong-willed Susie Green' in HBO's long-running series "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Since becoming a household name on 'Curb', Susie has branched out into numerous other TV projects including recurring roles in "Law and Order: SVU," "Those Who Can't," "Bless This Mess" and most recently the critically acclaimed HBO series "Hacks," Susie also received a Critic's Choice Award nomination for her recurring role as Ilana Glazer's mother on the hit Comedy Central series "Broad City" - which Entertainment Weekly cited as "one of the best choice decisions in TV history." The Los Angeles Times calls Susie, "The most lyrical purveyor of profanity on television. She makes the entire cast of The Sopranos look like rank amateurs. It really is a gift." The New York Times said Susie Greene is "one of the most vivid characters in the show, whose off-color tantrums have become an audience favorite the way Kramer's clumsy entrances once were." TOVAH FELDSHUH, who just celebrated her 50th year on Broadway, is a six-time Emmy and Tony Award nominee, four-time winner of the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards and has been awarded three honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters. She is the creator and founder of The Feldshuh Fund for Women's Health for early detection of ovarian and all reproductive cancers. Entertainmentcommunity.org/Tovah. In addition to Rosie Brice in Funny Girl, her multi-decade career on Broadway has given us indelible performances in the title roles of Yentl, Golda's Balcony, and Irena's Vow, as well as in Cyrano, Rodgers & Hart, Dreyfus in Rehearsal, Saravá, Lend Me a Tenor, and the trapeze-swinging Berthe in Stephen Schwartz's Pippin. Her extensive Off-Broadway and regional credits include portrayals of Dr. Ruth Westheimer under the baton of Scott Schwartz and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the Los Angeles premiere of Sisters in Law, directed by Patricia McGregor. TV audiences know her from the hit Netflix series Nobody Wants This, where she plays the hot Russian mother of ‘Hot Rabbi' Adam Brody. You may also recall Ms. Feldshuh from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The Walking Dead, Law & Order, Salvation, Scenes from a Marriage, and the historic mini-series Holocaust. Her film credits include Armageddon Time opposite Anthony Hopkins, Kissing Jessica Stein where she won the Best Supporting Actress Golden Satellite Award from the Foreign Press, A Walk on the Moon, Brewster's Millions, Just My Luck, Daniel, The Idolmaker, Clifford, Golda's Balcony: The Film, The Upside of Unrequited for the Shakespeare sisters from London and the just-completed Tuner opposite Dustin Hoffman. Tovah has filled venues all over the world with her celebrated concerts. Her award-winning memoir LILYVILLE: Mother, Daughter and Other Roles I've Played was #1 in Parent-Child Relationships on Amazon. It will be available for purchase in the theater lobby, along with other award-winning items from her one-woman shows. ADRIENNE C. MOORE is a critically acclaimed and award-winning stage, TV/film and voice-over actress. Moore's extensive theatre repertoire includes Black Odyssey (Stevie Walker-Webb, Classic Stage Company); the award-winning revival of Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls... (Leah Gardiner, The Public); The Taming of the Shrew (Phyllida Lloyd, Shakespeare in the Park); Milk Like Sugar (Rebecca Taichman, La Jolla Playhouse, Playwrights Horizons) and 365 Plays/365 Days (Suzan-Lori Parks, The Public). Adrienne is most recognized for her NAACP Image Award-nominated role of Black Cindy on Netflix's "Orange Is the New Black," which she earned three SAG awards. Select TV, Film and animation credits include "30 Rock", "Homeland", "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," "Law and Order SVU," "Pretty Hard Cases," "Search Party," "Bupkis," "Poker Face," "Shaft," "Wonder Woman: Bloodlines (DC Comics, Etta Candy), "We Lost Our Human" (Netflix Interactive, Human) and "Curious George: Royal Monkey." Adrienne has most recently been seen in Clint Eastwood's film "Juror #2" as well as on-stage in Katori Hall's The Blood Quilt (Lileana Blain-Cruz, Lincoln Center Theater). RANDAL MYLER (Director) is a Tony Award® nominee for co-conceiving and directing It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues at Lincoln Center. He recently directed Rock & Roll Man at New World Stages (with producer Rose Caiola) which won a 2023 BEST MUSICAL AUDELCO Award for Excellence in Black Theatre. He is also known (both as writer and director) for his critically acclaimed Hank Williams: Lost Highway (Drama Desk, Lortel nom, Outstanding Musical; 2 years at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville) and his Janis Joplin bio-musical Love, Janis, which surpassed 700 performances at the former Village Gate. Myler's other numerous credits include co-conceiving Nat King Cole and Me with Gregory Porter; directing former Ronette Ronnie Spector's triumphant UK tour of Beyond the Beehive; directing Dream A Little Dream: The Mamas and Papas Musical with "Papa" Denny Doherty; Fire On The Mountain: Music Of The Coal Mines (Best Musical—Bay Area Critics); and, most recently, I'll Take You There: The Music Of Muscle Shoals. His extensive regional credits include The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alley Theatre, Seattle Rep, Denver Center, Dallas Theatre Center, San Diego's Old Globe, and many others. ROSE CAIOLA (Producer). Caiola Productions has won Eight Tony Awards® and numerous Drama Desk Awards. It has produced over 50 Broadway shows. Their award-winning productions include: Company, The Inheritance, Once on this Island, Dear Evan Hansen, The Color Purple, All The Way, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Parade. Current productions include Cabaret, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Glengarry Glen Ross and Left On Tenth. Rose Caiola is a musical book writer and was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Freckleface Strawberry The Musical. She received an AUDELCO Award as book writer of Best New Musical Rock and Roll Man, which is currently on route for a UK run. Rose is the owner of Manhattan Movement and Arts Center as well as the exciting new MMAC Theatre opening this January with its pilot production, My First Ex-Husband. CYRENA ESPOSITO (Producer) is a long-time talent manager, former talent agent, and founder of Red Letter Entertainment, representing some of the industry's finest and award-winning talent. Cyrena is a producer on Broadway's Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, which was nominated for nine Tony Awards® including Best Musical Revival. She also co-produced the Tony Award-winning musical, Memphis as well as Spiderman on Broadway. She got her BFA in Theatre and began her career as an actress. She worked in television development before becoming an agent where she repped Ms. Behar and her childhood idol, a dream come true, Liza Minnelli. She and Rose Caiola will also produce Bonkers in the Boroughs with Joy Behar next year. Follow @redletterent on Instagram. MMAC THEATER is New York City's newest Off-Broadway theater. It is the next step in the evolution of the Manhattan Movement and Arts Center's celebrated studio spaces that have long been used for dance performances, workshops and industry presentations. Many of these projects have gone on to commercial production including Rock & Roll Man, Hamilton , Cinderella, Pretty Woman, Billy Elliot, MJ, and over 100 others. MMAC will be available as a premiere Off-Broadway theater with raked seating for 191 seats, a new entrance, marquee, box office and production spaces. TICKETS: MY FIRST EX-HUSBAND will run eight performances a week beginning January 29, 2025 at MMAC Theater, 248 West 60th Street, with matinees on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 2:00 PM, and Sundays at 3:00 PM. Evening performances will be Thursdays and Sundays at 7:00 PM and Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 PM. (Running time: 75 minutes, no intermission.). Tickets, priced from $49 - $149, are available at www.MyFirstExHusband.com. |
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