| A CASE OF MURDER, opening at LaMaMa ETC on May
5th, is a singing detective story by Robert Montgomery, inspired by Crime
and Punishment. Two ax murders in an Avenue D walk-up lead a burned out
NYPD homicide detective to unexpected redemption. From the writer of the
Pulitzer-nominated Subject to Fits (a response to Dostoevski's The Idiot),
this new music thriller will surprise you about whose hands are bloody.
Benno Haenel directs this New York premiere.
Robert Montgomery is the author and composer of theatre works that have
been produced on major stages in New York City (The New York Shakespeare
Festival, LaMaMa, Soho Rep, among others), and regional theaters in America
and abroad. His Subject to Fits (a response to Dostoevski's The Idiot)
was nominated for a Pulitzer prize by Joseph Papp, and also had a Royal
Shakespeare production featuring Ben Kingsley. He has worked with the
directors A.J. Antoon (Subject to Fits; Genesis) and Joseph Chaikin (Electra;
Re-Arrangements) among others. He is also the author of eight young adult
novels and has been teaching Playwriting and Creative Writing at Columbia
University and The New School since the mid-eighties.
Benno Haenel is the director of classical, contemporary and musical works
that have been performed in theaters in New York City, across the United
States and in London. He served as the Producing Artistic Director of
the award-winning Spectrum Theatre. He was a producer of the Off-Broadway
production of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine. Recently he directed
Ibsen's When We Dead Awaken at the Pearl Theatre. Mr. Haenel has written
and directed two short films, one of which was shown in seventy-three
countries. He has written three plays, one film script and done translations
of Euripides’ Orestes and Ibsen’s The Lady From the Sea.
The cast includes BRIAN MCCORMACK (PORFIRY), NIC TYLER (LUCAS), JUDY JEROME
(ANGELINA), RICH HOLLMAN (NIKOLAI), BRIAN W. SEIBERT (ZACK), MAGGIE LOW
(CATHERINE),RACHEL VALDATI (CUTTER), and DEAN GOLDMAN (KOCH). Maggie Low,
Nic Tyler and Judy Jerome are lifetime members of The Actors Studio. Brian
McCormack (DETECTIVE PROFIRY) has co-starred on The SOPRANOS and LAW &
ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT, and appeared on CHAPELLE'S SHOW. His wide NY stage
experience includes appearances at Playwrights Horizons in HALF FULL OF
GIN, Theatre for the New City, IN TWO ROOMS, Samuel Beckett Theatre in
ORPHANS and many others. Look for him in a major feature film coming soon:
MATTIE FRESNO AND THE HOLOFLUX UNIVERSE.
Other members of the creative team include: JEREMY FENN-SMITH (Music
Director), DEBORAH CONSTANTINE (Lighting Designer), and DENNIS LEDER (Sets
and Graphics). Dennis Leder is a painter and sculptor, a Jesuit priest
who has worked extensively in South America and Central America. He has
designed for The Contemporary Dance Company Momentum, and the National
Ballet of Guatemala. He has a long association with Ellen Stewart.
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