Point Park University's Conservatory Theatre Company is premiering the new musical Time After Time at Point Park University's Pittsburgh Playhouse Feb. 26 through Feb. 28 and March 11 through March 14. A preview performance is open to the public on Thursday, Feb. 25. The musical is based on the novel of the same title by Karl Alexander; leading the way is a noteworthy team of artists including director Gabriel Barre, with book and lyrics by Stephen Cole and music by Jeffrey Saver.
Love and murder intersect in Time After Time, an exhilarating musical that explores the origin of good and evil and the dynamic of intensely volatile relationships. John Leslie Stevenson, also known as the serial killer Jack the Ripper, has escaped authorities using a time machine invented by his friend H.G. Wells. In an attempt to return Stevenson to his proper time, Wells follows him to the future only to fall in love with the murderer's next victim. Will Wells be able to save her? Or will he fail to rein in the nineteenth century terror he has released upon modern-day New York? Filled with beautiful ballads, magical time-travel sequences and unforgettable moments, Time After Time promises to stir audiences' hearts and minds.
Barre is relatively new to Pittsburgh but certainly no stranger to the stage. His previous works include directing the off-Broadway production of The Wild Party, which was nominated for numerous awards, and directing the national tours of the recent revival of Pippin. As an actor he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role in Starmites and won a Bistro Award as an original cast member in Forever Plaid.
Cole is an internationally produced, published and recorded writer. He won the 2000 Edward Kleban Award for Most Promising Librettist for his work on The Night of the Hunter. He has written numerous other musicals, including After the Fair, which received an Outer Circle Critics nomination for Best Musical; Casper; Continental Divide, another collaboration with Jeffrey Saver; and most recently The Road to Qatar. He also collaborated on several novels after writing his own That Book About That Girl, including Put on a Happy Face, the memoir of Charles Strouse, and I Could Have Sung All Night: My Story, the memoir of Marni Nixon.
Saver is a teaching artist-in-residence at Point Park University. He has written and arranged special material for Chita Rivera, Christine Baranski, Rosie O'Donnell, Dorothy Loudon, Joel Grey, Bebe Neuwirth and others. As a music director and pianist, his credits include 13 Broadway shows, including Chicago, Kiss Of The Spider Woman, Into The Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, The Secret Garden, The Rink, and A Chorus Line. Off-Broadway: The Fantasticks and Lucky Stiff among several tours, regional productions and cast albums. He also composed the musical Dodsworth (starring Hal Linden & Dee Hoty).
After having spent the last year working on the development of Time After Time with the creative team of Cole and Saver, including directing the reading in New York City, Barre is looking forward to seeing the audience's reception of such a new and unique production.
"It's a good, old-fashioned, contemporary, science-fiction thriller," he said.
The music will be orchestrated by Steve Orich, who was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Orchestrations for Jersey Boys. The soundtrack for Jersey Boys also received a 2006 Grammy Award.
There was a private reading of Time After Time in New York City on Aug. 28, 2009. The reading starred Andy Karl as H. G. Wells, Matt Bogart as John Leslie Stevenson and Lauren Kennedy as Amy Robbins. It was directed by Barre and musically directed by Peter Eldridge.
Alexander's science fiction novel Time After Time was a best-seller when it was published in 1979, and earned the author the honor of being described as a "Knight of Mark Twain." It was also adapted into a film starring Malcolm McDowell, David Warner and Mary Steenburgen.
Time After Time opens Friday, Feb. 26, 2010 and runs from Feb. 26 - 28 and March 11 -14, 2010. Performances will be held Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets range in price from $18 to $20 and can be purchased by calling the Pittsburgh Playhouse box office at 412-621-4445 or online at www.pittsburghplayhouse.com.
