--Brand new musical features Broadway talent--

Four Broadway talents. Two talented authors. One fresh script, hot off the presses. A regional theater with an increasing reputation for developing new work, and an Artistic Director willing to roll the dice.

Tracy McDowell, Mary Gutzi, Dan Petrotta, Drew Taylor star in the WORLD PREMIERE of the new musical, TAKE TWO, by Brett Schrier and Catherine Doherty at Northern Stage, opening April 24, 2009.

Subtitled “Your Second Chance is Waiting,” the show, directed by Founding Artistic Director Brooke Ciardelli, follows two men and two women as they jump back into the dating world after each has lost his or her “true love.”  From tender moments of new self-awareness to internet dating disasters and laugh-out-loud social predicaments, Take Two appeals to anyone who has ever dipped a toe into the swirl of the search for love.

Broadway stars once again flock to this Vermont theater.  TRACY MCDOWELL, with the powerhouse voice, comes from the Broadway production of Rent and the subsequent tour and filmed Broadway rendition.  International star MARY GUTZI appeared on Broadway in Les Misérables and in the American Premiere of Ragtime as Emma Goldman.  Theater, film and television star DREW TAYLOR’s Broadway credits include Sweet Smell of Success with John Lithgow, The Secret Garden and the 20th Anniversary production of Annie, directed by Martin Charnin. DAN PETROTTA shone in Broadway’s A Tale of Two Cities and on the Carnegie Hall stage in “Mother Russia.”

Take Two will be performed from April 22-May 17, 2009, at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction, VT.  Showtimes are Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. (except for Opening Night, Fri., April 24 at 7:00 p.m.); Sundays (April 26, May 10 and May 17 at 5:00 p.m., May 3 at 7:30 p.m.); and 2:00 matinees on Thursday, April 30 and Sat., May 9.  For tickets and information, call 802-296-7000.  Tickets are also available through the Northern Stage Web site, www.northernstage.org.

The World Premiere of Take Two is sponsored by Mascoma Savings Bank, Chippers, and Lang McLaughry Spera Real Estate.

About the Cast

TRACY MCDOWELL (Alice) performed in Rent  on Broadway and on a National Tour, and she appeared in Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway.  She appeared in the MTV series Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for Elle Woods, Off-Off Broadway in Repo: The Genetic Rock Opera and regionally in Grease, Les Misérables (Eponine), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Rosemary) and The Music Man (Marian), among others.

MARY GUTZI (Sam) has performed from coast to coast, as well as Canada and Europe.  Her credits include Les Misérables (Fantine, Broadway; Mme Thénardier, Northern Stage), Ragtime (Emma Goldman, American Premiere, Chicago and Vancouver companies, National Tour); Cats (Grizabella National Tour); Sunset Blvd. (Norma Desmond, Vancouver), and Fiddler on the Roof (Golde, Syracuse Stage).  Gutzi co-founded the “Honolulu Theater League” on the island of Oahu.  She is also a director, vocal coach, and producer.

DREW TAYLOR (Nick) returns to The Northern Stage after appearing as Hector in the Regional Premiere of The History Boys. Broadway credits include Sweet Smell of Success with John Lithgow (directed by Nicholas Hytner), The Secret Garden (directed by Susan Schulman), Annie (20th Anniversary, Directed by Martin Charnin, as an understudy, he appeared as Daddy Warbucks).  National Tours include Annie (20th & 30th Anniversary), Doctor Doolittle, Oliver, Gigi with Louis Jourdan and Can-Can with Chita Rivera & the Rockettes.  His film and TV include Great Expectations, Ransom, One Live To Live, All My Children, The Replacement Child (Sundance Festival), and Guiding Light.  His new musical, One Way Ticket To Hell (book & lyrics opened last summer (“Top Ten pick for Theater in Los Angeles,” LA Magazine).

DAN PETROTTA (Joe), in addition to his Broadway work in A Tale of Two Cities, has performed in regionally throughout the country in shows such as I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; Seussical; Disney’s Beauty and the Beast; Godspell, and Three-Penny Opera.  He has also been featured in the “Mother Russia” concert at Carnegie Hall.

About the Director

BROOKE WETZEL CIARDELLI is the founding artistic director of Northern Stage.  She has directed over 60 productions and is a proud member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

As a director, she has worked on a number of Arthur Miller plays, including Resurrection Blues with the playwright himself in residence and an award-winning production of All My Sons.  She has directed Patrick Stewart and Lisa Harrow in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and worked with playwright Sonja Linden on the American Premiere of The Strange Passenger.  Her experience ranges from regional premieres of Wit, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Pride’s Crossing and No Orchids For Miss Blandish to a large-scale musicals.

Ciardelli’s 1997 adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, The O-Myths—“A most delightful and refreshing original theater piece based on this ancient masterpiece”—was performed at Dartmouth College as the basis of an international exchange between Dartmouth students and actors from New York, Zimbabwe, Mexico and Romania.  Her adaptation The Shrew Tamer (a coupling of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew and John Fletcher’s The Tamer Tamed) was reviewed as “a delicious new comedy,” and Ed Siegel of the Boston Globe wrote, “Ciardelli has fashioned a play of significant historical interest.”  She is currently working on a stage adaptation of Boccaccio’s Decameron for international production and developing a musical based on the life of Anastasia Romanov.

She has been a guest artist at the State University of New York-Albany; Chad’s College, Durham University, England; Harare International Festival of the Arts, Zimbabwe; Elderhostel Program Tour to the Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland;  Dartmouth College, NH; New England Theatre Conference, Boston, MA; Kendal at Hanover, NH; Adventures in Learning, NH; Keene State College, NH; and others.  She received her Bachelor’s of Arts from Sarah Lawrence with a concentration in directing.

About the Authors

BRETT SCHRIER (Music) has an extensive musical theater resume, which includes composing, musical directing, conducting, vocal coaching, acting and directing.  He grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and was inspired by the arts at a young age.  Although no one in his family is “musical” or “theatrical,” he has always known that his life would be dedicated to the artistic world. After spending his childhood years as a performer, Schrier attended The Boston Conservatory, where he pioneered a program and graduated with an individualized degree in Musical Direction for the Musical Theatre. Since graduation, he has worked in venues across the world as an accomplished pianist, music director, and conductor.  Some of his most recent credits include: I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, 42nd Street (National Tour), Hairspray (National Tour), Les Miserables, Cats, Miss Saigon, The Will Rogers Follies, Fiddler On The Roof, Beauty And The Beast, and A Chorus Line.  As a stage director, his work has come to life at some of the most renowned regional theaters throughout the country and includes The Fantasticks, Grease and Forever Plaid.  Schrier’s musical arrangements are frequently heard in public performances and recordings across the world.  He has conceived and arranged numerous cabarets and concerts, and his work is continually performed at distinguished New York City venues including Ars Nova, Joe’s Pub, The Duplex, and The Knitting Factory.  He also serves as Music Director for Broadway In South Africa and spends a great deal of time educating young musicians around the globe.  He currently resides in New York City, where he continues to compose original music, in addition to working as a private vocal coach to some of Broadway’s most gifted stars.  Schrier is a proud member of ASCAP.  He is thrilled to add his original musical compositions for Take Two: Your Second Chance Is Waiting to the musical theatre repertoire.

CATHERINE DOHERTY (Book & Lyrics) has been working professionally for nearly 30 years as an actor, director, stage manager, acting coach and producer.  She grew up just outside of Washington, DC in Silver Spring, MD as the middle child in a family of seven (she is still recovering).  Her parents were—and still are—avid patrons of the arts and instilled in her a passion and drive to invest and participate in the cultural community.  Doherty holds an MFA in Performance from the University of Georgia and an MFA in Film Direction from the American Film Institute.  While at the University of Georgia, she wrote, directed and produced a one-act play, Margaret, to critical success.  And while at the American Film Institute, she wrote and shot three short videos, Still Life, Brute and Shooter.  Her thesis film, Family Portrait, received the prestigious Ida Lupino Award for Outstanding Film Direction from the Director's Guild of America.

Currently, Doherty is the Producing Director at Northern Stage.  There, she has established herself as a critically and publicly acclaimed director, with such works as The Crucible and I Am My Own Wife (both co-directed with Artistic Director Brooke Ciardelli), The Year of Magical Thinking, The Elephant Man, Doubt, A Chorus Line, Lend Me A Tenor, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!, Of Mice and Men and Private Lives.  She previously directed Spitfire Grill and Stones In His Pockets among others, at St. Michael's Playhouse.  Doherty’s New York credits include co-producing several Off-Broadway productions with Padua Playwrights and random.acts theatre co.  She was the Assistant Director and Production Stage Manager of the Lincoln Center production of Normal Heart.  Doherty has worked with numerous theater companies, including Paper Mill Playhouse (Milburn, NJ) and The John F. Kennedy Center.

About the Play

“Can you find love twice in a lifetime?”  Take Two explores the possibility of finding romance a second time around.  Four engaging and funny characters have all “lost” the love of their lives and take the terrifying step of posting personal profiles on the same internet dating service.  It doesn't take long for each of them to discover that the challenge of the online dating game goes beyond technology and trying to find a new mate.  The key to a second chance begins with rediscovering themselves, their friends and families, their hearts, and of course, a healthy sense of humor!

The concept of a musical built around second chances that come along later in life came to Northern Stage Producing Director Catherine Doherty in the winter of 2006-07, while musical director Brett Schrier was in residence working on CATS.  Encouraged and advised by Artistic Director Brooke Ciardelli, Catherine and Brett began “messing around” at the keyboard during breaks in auditions and rehearsals later that season.  Their first song, the gorgeous “Second Soul,” was debuted in May 2007 by Broadway’s Mara Davi during her performance in New York at the Public Theater’s Cabaret Series.

Originally conceived as a series of musical sketches, Take Two has matured into a full-blown book musical that follows the story of four people who turn to online dating after they feel they have lost their "one true love."  Can they find happiness again?  The sometimes surprising answers come through scenes and songs that are romantic, touching, and laugh-out-loud funny.

With an outstanding original score by Brett Schrier, the show includes such memorable hits as the hilarious 60's The New 40, Death Of A Date, Starting All Over Again, You Can't Judge A Profile By The Picture, I've Got A Match?, and Second Soul.  The music from Take Two has been performed at various venues throughout the country to great success and popularity.

Doherty and Schrier have joined forces on Northern Stage productions of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!; A Chorus Line; and Mid-Life! The Crisis Musical.  Over the years, they have developed the kind of dynamic, collaborative relationship that many artists only dream about, and that has resulted in some of America’s most legendary partnerships – Rodgers & Hammerstein, Kander & Ebb, Comden & Green.  “It’s a very specific way of working together – it’s like artistic shorthand, a private language,” Catherine says.

After almost a year of intermittent creative bursts squeezed in between rehearsals and productions, Catherine and Brett began to seriously focus on the show in the spring of 2008.  A series of intensive creative retreats resulted in a first draft that was workshopped at Northern Stage in August of 2008.  After many, many hours of revision and reworking, the show is ready for its World Premiere.

About Northern Stage

Since opening at the Briggs Opera House in 1997, Northern Stage, which operates under a LORT-D Equity contract, has offered over 80 productions.  Founding Artistic Director Brooke Ciardelli has made the development and production of new works a priority since the first season, when she directed the U.S. Premiere of The Strange Passenger, which included a residency by playwright and musician Sonja Linden.  Her theater also produced the World Premiere of A Christmas Carol: The Musical by Robert Jay Cronin (Lincoln Center’s “Songbook Series”) and Angie Fullarton.  Ciardelli’s adaptation The Shrew Tamer (combining Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew with John Fletcher’s contemporaneous The Tamer Tamed, added an important new work to the canon (an event of “significant historical interest,” according to the Boston Globe).  Regional premiere have included Wit, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Stones In His Pockets.

More recently, Ciardelli directed a reading of Arthur Miller’s Resurrection Blues, with the author in residence while he was still reworking the play for full production.  Her original adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses began life as a World Premiere production at Northern Stage’s theater and was later reworked as an outdoor spectacle with an international cast as The “O” Myths.  The theater has also produced plays at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe.  The company was instrumental in bringing the hit Irish show Tom Crean, Antarctic Explorer to the U.S., to theaters in New York, Boston, Florida and elsewhere.

The company has twice been honored with Moss Hart Awards for Excellence in Theater from the New England Theatre Conference, for productions of To Kill A Mockingbird (1999) and All My Sons (2004), as well as an Addison Award for The Shrew Tamer (2004).

Community support has enabled the company to sell over 35,000 tickets in downtown White River Junction each year to enjoy entertaining and thought-provoking professional theater and theater education at the crossroads of northern New England.  They have also reached out to offer residencies and workshops at over a dozen area schools.  The company initiated “Project Playwright,” a literacy program for fifth and sixth graders, which has resulted in over 750 original plays written by that age group.

For information or tickets, call 802-296-7000, or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  The Box Office at the Briggs Opera House is open from 5:30-9 p.m. Tuesdays through Friday, 1:00-9:00 p.m. on Saturday and 3:00-7:00 p.m. on Sunday during show weeks; tickets for all shows are available by phone or at the Northern Stage administrative office at 28 Gates Street, White River Junction, Monday-Friday from 10 am.-6 p.m.  or via the Northern Stage Web site (www.northernstage.org). MasterCard and VISA are accepted.