Dixon Place & BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange Present
The 2012 HOT! Festival Commission:
THE MATERIAL WORLD: a new musical
Music, Lyrics & Book by Dan Fishback
Directed by Stephen Brackett
FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS in JULY at 7pm
Dixon Place (161A Chrystie Street, NYC)
Tickets: www.hotfestival.org / 212-219-0736
Starring: Cole Escola, Molly Pope, Eleanor Reissa, Amy Gironda, Megan Stern, Lisa Clair, Leo Schaff
Stage Managed by Danielle Thomsen, Music Directed and Accompanied by Dane Terry, Choreograph...
Dixon Place & BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange Present
The 2012 HOT! Festival Commission:
THE MATERIAL WORLD: a new musical
Music, Lyrics & Book by Dan Fishback
Directed by Stephen Brackett
FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS in JULY at 7pm
Dixon Place (161A Chrystie Street, NYC)
Tickets: www.hotfestival.org / 212-219-0736
Starring: Cole Escola, Molly Pope, Eleanor Reissa, Amy Gironda, Megan Stern, Lisa Clair, Leo Schaff
Stage Managed by Danielle Thomsen, Music Directed and Accompanied by Dane Terry, Choreographed by Sam Pinkleton, Set & Costume Design by Deb O, Sound Designed by Casey Holford, Yiddish Translations by Eleanor Reissa, Guitar by Lior Hadar
SHORT VERSION:
THE MATERIAL WORLD is a pop musical about a family of socialist Jews in the 1920s who live in a house with Madonna and Britney Spears.
LESS SHORT VERSION:
Set in a boarding house in 1921, THE MATERIAL WORLD features an anachronistic cast of neurotic Jews, all trying to save the planet. Gittel Fenster (Megan Stern), a 12-year-old radical socialist, studies Marxism to prepare for global anti-capitalist revolt, while gay nerd Ian Fleishman (Cole Escola) tests the revolutionary power of Facebook, and the Queen of Pop herself, Madonna (Amy Gironda) mediates on secret Kabbalistic codes to fix a broken universe. The characters grapple with their lofty ambitions and their capacity for failure, to an eclectic score of bouncy electro dance pop, ramshackle twee-folk and classic Tin Pan Alley. And unlike other pop musicals about Madonna and socialism, this play has scenes in Yiddish. The second installment of The Ian Fleishman Trilogy, and a sequel to the 2009 erotic Chanukah comedy "You Will Experience Silence," THE MATERIAL WORLD continues Fishbacks exploration of Jewish political neurosis. This soulful musical brings surprising tenderness, humor, and ferocious diva realness to the most depressing political realities.
THE MATERIAL WORLD was developed through the BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange Artist in Residence Program, which is supported by The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), The New York State Council on the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York Community Trust, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. THE MATERIAL WORLD has also received support and development assistance from the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics at NYU.
(Production photo by Eric Lippe, featuring Cole Escola as Ian Fleishman)