Cooper, Edelman, Lenox, Redford, Sills, Shenkman, et al. Set for New York Stage and Film Season

Chuck Cooper, Gregg Edelman, Adriane Lenox, Amy Redford, Douglas Sills, and Ben Shenkman are just some of the stars who appear this season at
New York Stage and Film, June 23-July 30 on the Vassar College campus in Poughkeepsie, New York.

The season’s two mainstage productions will be Daisy Foote’s Bhutan, directed by Evan Yionoulis and starring Tasha Lawrence, Sarah Lord, Amy Redford, and Jedidiah Schultz; and Keith Huff’s A Steady Rain, directed by Trip Cullman, with a cast yet to be announced.

The Martel Musicals series of concert readings will kick off with Prairie, featuring music by Oscar winner Rachel Portman, lyrics by Donna DiNovelli, a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Beth Henley, and direction by Francesca Zambello. The cast will include Heidi Blickenstaff, Sara Chase, Gregg Edelman, Sally Murphy, and Sean Palmer.

Next up in the Martel series will be Mixed Company, a performance piece conceived and co-directed by Billy Porter — who will also co-star — that utilizes songs by Stephen Sondheim and text by William Shakespeare to tell the story of man’s seven ages. Also in the cast are Tony Award winner Cooper, Terry Burrell, and Nathan Lee Graham.

Sills and Lenox will headline Andrew Lippa’s musical Jerry Christmas, about a Jewish movie star who’s trying to save his career. The show has a book by Daniel Goldfarb; David Warren will direct a cast that includes David Costabile, Leslie Kritzer, David Reiser, Lee Wilkof, and married couple Jessica Stone and Christopher Fitzgerald.

Other fare include presentations of Anton Dudley’s Bob, directed by Leigh Silverman and starring Shannon Burkett; Erin Courtney’s Quiver and Twitch, directed by Sarah Benson and starring Matt Maher and Peter Maloney;
and the free Reading Festival of four works: Kia Corthron’s Sam’s Coming, Cindy Lou Johnson’s Emeralds, Jennifer Silverman’s Lizardskin, and Ken Weitzman’s The As If Body Loop, in which Shenkman will star.