Open Fist Theater Company Presents MOON OVER BUFFALO, Previews 1/13

The Open Fist Theatre Company has announced the next production in their 2012 season, MOON OVER BUFFALO, written by Ken Ludwig and directed by Bjørn Johnson, featuring fight choreography by B.H. Barry.

MOON OVER BUFFALO will begin previews on Friday, January 13, 2012 at 8pm; and will open on Friday, January 20 at 8pm and run through Saturday, March 10 at the Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood.

In the madcap comedy tradition of Lend Me A Tenor comes the hilarious Moon Over Buffalo which centers on George and Charlotte Hay, fading stars of the 1950's. At the moment, they’re playing Private Lives and Cyrano De Bergerac in rep in Buffalo, New York with 5 actors.

About the show: "On the brink of a disastrous split-up caused by George’s dalliance with a young ingénue, they receive word that they might just have one last shot at stardom: Frank Capra is coming to town to see their matinee, and if likes what he sees, he might cast them in his movie remake of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Unfortunately for George and Charlotte, everything that could go wrong does go wrong, abetted by a visit from their daughter’s clueless fiancé and hilarious uncertainty about which play they’re actually performing, caused by Charlotte’s deaf old stage-manager mother who hates every bone in George’s body. Moon over Buffalo marked Carol Burnett’s triumphant return to Broadway after 30 years (for which she received a Tony Award nomination) and has been universally embraced by critics near and far."

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM AND CAST

Ken Ludwig (Writer) Ken Ludwig is an internationally acclaimed playwright whose many hits on Broadway, in London's West End and throughout the world have made his name synonymous with modern comedy. He has had six shows on Broadway and six in the West End, and he has won the Laurence Olivier Award, England’s highest theatre honor, as well as three Tony Award nominations and two Helen Hayes Awards. His work has been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and has been performed in thirty countries in over twenty languages. His musical Crazy For You ran for over four years on Broadway and in London. After a hit revival at The Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park, it transferred to the West End for an open-ended run. Lend Me A Tenor, originally produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and recently revived on Broadway with an all-star cast, was called “one of the two great farces by a living writer” by The New York Times. Other plays and musicals include Moon Over Buffalo (Broadway & London’s Old Vic, starring Carol Burnett, Lynn Redgrave, Joan Collins & Frank Langella); Twentieth Century (Broadway, starring Alec Baldwin & Anne Heche); The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Broadway); Treasure Island (London, Theatre Royal, Haymarket; 2009 AATE Distinguished Play Award for Best Adaptation); Shakespeare in Hollywood (commissioned by The Royal Shakespeare Company, Helen Hayes Award as Best Play); Leading Ladies; Be My Baby (starring HAl Holbrook and Dixie Carter); The Beaux' Stratagem (adaptation with Thornton Wilder at the request of the Wilder Estate); The Three Musketeers (Bristol Old Vic); An American in Paris; Sullivan & Gilbert; The Fox on the Fairway; The Game’s Afoot, Midsummer/Jersey;The Hound of the Baskervilles; and his first children’s play, ’Twas the Night Before Christmas. His work has appeared in The Yale Review, and he is writing a book for Crown Publishing entitled How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare. He studied music at Harvard with Leonard Bernstein and theatre history at Cambridge University in England. For more information, please visit www.kenludwig.com.