Eric Schaeffer to Direct Broadway-Bound Production of Ace

Eric Schaeffer will direct a new production of Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker’s musical Ace at Washington D.C.’s National Theatre, March 18-30, with a Broadway production expected to occur shortly thereafter. Casting and creative team will be announced at a later date.

The show, set in 1952, concerns an unhappy young boy named Danny Lucas, who receives a toy airplane from his foster parents. He soon enters a parallel dream world with the aviators of World Wars I and II as his guide. Ace has already been produced at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and the Old Globe Theater in San Diego.

Schaeffer is the artistic director and co-founder of Virginia’s Signature Theatre, where has directed such productions as The Witches of Eastwick — which he also helmed in the West End — The Highest Yellow, Over and Over, and numerous musicals by Stephen Sondheim. He also directed the Broadway production of the Sondheim revue Putting It Together, the City Center Encores! production of Sweet Adeline, and the Off-Broadway musical Under the Bridge. He has won four Helen Hayes Awards for his directing work.

For more information, visit www.nationaltheatre.org.