For Immediate Release: September 22, 2005
Media Contact: Deborah Fleischman, Philadelphia Theatre Company, 215.735.7356

Philadelphia Theatre Company kicks off its 30th Anniversary Season with the world premiere of a new musical comedy, Adrift in Macao, with book and lyrics by Christopher Durang and music by Peter Melnick October 19-November 20 at 1714 Delancey Street. Directed by Sheryl Kaller, the cast features Bradley Dean, Rachel deBenedet, Jennie Eisenhower, Michael M. Malone, Orville Mendoza, Michele Ragusa, and Michael Rupert.

Previews begin Wednesday, October 19 with opening night on Wednesday, October 26. Performances run Tuesday through Sunday until November 20. Tickets are $31 to $49, with discounts for students, seniors and groups. Tickets are available by calling the PTC Box Office at 215-985-0420 or visiting www.phillytheatreco.com.

Harmelin Media is the production sponsor for Adrift in Macao. The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and Philadelphia Gay News (PGN) are the season print media sponsors, Philly.com is the season online media sponsor and CBS3 is the Media Partner.

"This year our 30th Anniversary Season reflects our ongoing celebration of the genius and diversity of contemporary American playwrights," said Sara Garonzik, Producing Artistic Director of PTC. "In starting our season with this world premiere musical we are not only introducing our audience to the wonderful music of Peter Melnick, but we are also reuniting with Christopher Durang, arguably our country's funniest playwright, whose play, The Vietnamization of New Jersey, we produced in 1982."

Mixing together farce, camp and tongue-in-cheek wit, Adrift in Macao is a funny and irreverent musical parody of film noir. Complete with intrigue, silliness and a playfully melodic score, this new musical spins the tale of five quirky characters stranded in a Casablanca-like locale in the Far East.

Christopher Durang (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright whose work has been produced on and Off-Broadway, in regional theaters around the country and internationally. Author of numerous satires, parodies and absurdist comedies, he received Obie Awards for Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You and The Marriage of Bette and Boo, a Tony nomination for "Best Book of a Musical" for A History of the American Film and a Drama Desk nomination for Betty's Summer Vacation. His film credits include The Secret of My Success, Mr. North, The Butcher's Wife, and The Cowboy Way. The recipient of numerous fellowships and grants, Durang has received a Guggenheim, a Rockefeller, the CBS Playwriting Fellowship, the Lecompte du Nouy Foundation Grant, the Kenyon Festival Theatre Playwriting Prize, and the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Writers Award. He is co-chair of the playwriting program at Juilliard. His new play, Miss Witherspoon is currently playing at McCarter Theater before moving to Playwrights Horizons in New York later this fall.

Peter Melnick (Composer) has written work that straddles the worlds of film scoring and live musical theater. His works for the stage include Ester Play The Palace, a musical based on the Purim story with books and lyrics by Sherman Yellen; Chinese Cabaret, a musical theater piece mounted as part of the 1993 Los Angeles Festival; and Sextet, a dance piece choreographed by Twyla Tharp that premiered at New York's City Center in 1993. His film credits include award-winning independent features Call Waiting and West of Here; L.A. Story, the Steve Martin comedy; The Only Thrill, starring Diane Keaton and Sam Shepard; Horton Foote's Convicts, with Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones; Only You, starring Helen Hunt and Kelly Preston; and Artic Blue, the Peter Masterson film starring Dylan Walsh and Rutger Hauer. His cable and television credits include the Emmy-winning Indictment: The McMartin Trial (HBO), Grand Avenue (HBO), Lily Dale (Showtime), and numerous PBS documentaries including the recent American Masters portrait Robert Rauschenberg and the four-part series The Dinosaurs.

Sheryl Kaller (Director) is the resident director of Circle Repertory Theatre Lab in New York. She directed several productions at New York Stage & Film including Dangerous Beauty, The Hurdy Gurdy Man, and the workshop production of Adrift in Macao. Her production of The Fabulist at The York Theater won a Richard Rodgers Award, and she received the Dramalogue Award for Best New Musical for Next, Please! The Musical.

Bradley Dean (Mitch) comes to Philadelphia having played Che in the national tour of Evita. He has been seen on Broadway in Man of La Mancha and Jane Eyre and Off -Broadway in The Big Time. Regionally he has performed at Barrington Stage, Hartford Theaterworks, Pittsburgh City Theater and St. Louis Rep and has starred in the title roles in Macbeth, The Scarlet Pimpernel and Phantom.

Rachel deBenedet (Lureena) has appeared on Broadway in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Nine, and The Sound of Music. Regionally she has appeared in Kiss Me Kate at North Shore Music Theatre, for which she was nominated for Best Actress by the Independent Reviewers of New England and The Sound of Music at St. Louis MUNY where she won the Judy Award for Supporting Musical Actress. She has also appeared at Houston's Theatre Under the Stars, Sacramento Music Circus and Denver's Arvada Center where she won the Denver Drama Critics Circle Award for Leading Musical Actress in The Secret Garden.

Jenny Eisenhower (Trenchcoat Chorus), the recipient of the Barrymore Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Wild Party, has appeared at The Wilma Theater in Embarrassments, Arden Theatre Company in Baby Case, and People's Light & Theatre Company in Once in a Lifetime, as well as in productions at Bristol Riverside Theatre and Media Theatre. She has appeared Off-Broadway in the original cast of Suburb at The York and in Place Setting at the Worth Street Playhouse.

Michael M. Malone (Trenchcoat Chorus) may be familiar to audiences having played the role of Val on All My Children for the last five years. In New York he has appeared at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, En Garde Arts and Rattlestick Theatre Company. Regionally he has performed at Syracuse Stage, American Repertory Theatre, and St. Louis MUNY.

Orville Medoza (Tempura) was seen on Broadway in the Roundabout Theater's revival of Pacific Overtures and Off-Broadway in the National Asian American Theatre Company's productions of Ivanov and Antigone. He was also seen in the award-winning Ma-Yi Theatre Company's production of The Romance of Magno Rubio, a show in which he also appeared at Long Wharf Theatre and Laguna Playhouse. He has toured with the national productions of Miss Saigon and The King and I, and created the role of the "Genie" for Disney's Aladdin.

Michele Ragusa (Corinna) has appeared on Broadway in Urinetown, Ragtime, A Class Act, Titanic, and Cyrano and in the national tours of Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story, Side By Side By Sondheim, and Nunsense II. She has also performed in several productions at Studio Arena Theatre and at Dallas Theatre Center where she won a Rabin nomination for Phantom and a Rabin Award for Guys & Dolls, as well as at Papermill Playhouse (She Loves Me), Goodspeed Opera House (Me and My Girl) and Portland Stage (Lend Me A Tenor).

Michael Rupert (Rick) returns to PTC where he was last seen in the Barrymore-nominated production of Elegies: A Song Cycle in the role he created for the premiere at Lincoln Center. He received a Tony and Drama Desk Award for Sweet Charity, a Tony nomination for Falsettos, and a Tony nomination and Theatre World Award for The Happy Time. He has also starred on Broadway in Ragtime, City of Angels, Mail, Shakespeare's Cabaret and Pippin. Off-Broadway, he has appeared in Ancient History, Putting it Together, March of the Falsettos, Festival and Fragile-Handle With Care. His regional theater credits include productions at Long Wharf Theatre, Repertory Theater of Los Angeles, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Hartford Stage Company, Goodman Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Paper Mill Playhouse and the Kennedy Center.

Adrift in Macao brings together the creative team of Christopher Gattelli (choreographer); Fred Lassen (music director), Michael Starobin (orchestrator), Thomas Lynch (set designer), Willa Kim (costume designer), Paul Gallo (lighting designer), and Peter Fitzgerald (sound designer). Christopher Gattelli won Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Choreography for Batboy - The Musical and Altar Boyz, for which he also won a Drama Desk Nomination. Fred Lassen has served as conductor on Broadway for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and 42nd Street and music director for Cabaret. Thomas Lynch, who designed sets for Contact and A Raisin in the Sun, received Tony nominations for The Music Man and The Heidi Chronicles and won Obie Awards for Betty's Summer Vacation and Woman Before a Glass. Willa Kim won Tony Awards for The Will Rogers Follies and Sophisticated Ladies and Drama Desk Awards for Jean Genet's The Screens, Maria Irene Fornes' Promenade and Sam Shepard's Operation Sidewinder. Paul Gallo's numerous Broadway credits include: Man of La Mancha, 42nd Street, The Crucible, Dreamgirls, City of Angels, On the Town, Sound of Music, and Titanic, among many others. He has also worked with Christopher Durang on Durang's Off-Broadway comedy, Beyond Therapy. Peter Fitzgerald has been represented on Broadway with Movin' Out, 42nd Street, and The Immigrant.

PTC's subscription season also includes the Philadelphia premieres of After Ashley by Gina Gionfriddo, directed by Pam McKinnon, running February 3 through March 5; Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage, directed by Tim Vasen, running March 17 through April 16; and the world premiere of Some Men by Terrence McNally, directed by Philip Himberg running May 12 through June 11. In addition to the mainstage season, PTC will be producing Josh Kornbluth's Ben Franklin: Unplugged to coincide with the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary. Ben Franklin: Unplugged is a limited engagement and can be seen January 10th through January 21st.

Subscriptions for the 30th Anniversary Season are available for $108-$162 for a four-play season by calling Philadelphia Theatre Company at 215-985-0420 or 866-985-0420, or visiting www.phillytheatreco.com. Special 30 & Younger Flex subscriptions are also available for only $60. Tickets for Josh Kornbluth's Ben Franklin: Unplugged may also be purchased online or by calling Philadelphia Theatre Company. Prices range from $30-$40.

Philadelphia Theatre Company is Philadelphia's only non-profit professional theater dedicated exclusively to producing regional and world premieres of works by contemporary American playwrights. Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director, Sara Garonzik, PTC has had ever-increasing national impact having produced over 30 world premieres of new American plays. Recent world premiere productions include: Bruce Graham's According to Goldman; Jeffrey Hatcher's A Picasso; Daniel Stern's comedy Barbra's Wedding; John Henry Redwood's No Niggers, No Jews, No Dogs; J.T. Roger's White People; David Ives' Lives of the Saints; three-time Tony Award-winning Master Class by Terrence McNally; Bunny Bunny by Alan Zweibel; and the American premiere of Birdy by Naomi Wallace. A Picasso received its New York premiere at the Manhattan Theatre Club in April, 2005. Philadelphia Theatre Company was chosen Best Theatre Company 2003 by Philadelphia magazine. In 2005, Philadelphia Weekly voted Philadelphia Theatre Company as the "Theater Company of the Year." Since 1995, PTC has received 99 nominations and 24 awards from Philadelphia's Barrymore Awards, most recently for The Last Five Years (Overall Outstanding Production of a Musical, 2002-2003) and A Picasso (Outstanding New Play, 2002-2003).

Philadelphia Theatre Company recently embarked on a groundbreaking Capital Campaign in support of building its new home on the Avenue of the Arts located at Broad and Lombard Streets. The Suzanne Roberts Theater is scheduled to open in Fall, 2007. The company has been in residence at the historic Plays & Players Theater since 1982.

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