The musical comedy adaptation of Pedro Almodóvar's Academy Award-nominated film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown will make its Chicagoland debut next month and its West End premiere this winter.
Bartlett Sher directed the original Broadway production, which did not last long, opening in November 2010 and closing after 30 previews and 69 regular performances. This was in spite of a high-octane cast including Tony Award-winners Patti LuPone, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Laura Benanti, as well as Justin Guarini (of first-season "American Idol" fame, making his Broadway debut) and Sherie Rene Scott.
Clearly there's life in the musical yet. Written by David Yazbek and Jeffrey Lane (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), it follows the adventures and misadventures in love of a group of Madrid women in the 1980s. Almodóvar's 1988 film (known as Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios in the original Spanish) put the writer-director on the international map, netting an Academy Award nomination and winning five Goya Awards (Spain's equivalent of the Oscars).
The Chicagoland production at Theatre at the Center begins performances September 11, officially opens September 14 and is scheduled to run through October 12. Directed by William Pullinsi, with choreography by Danny Herman and musical direction and orchestrations by William Underwood, it features a raft of Jeff Award winners and nominees: Cory Goodrich (Ring of Fire, The Music of Johnny Cash, Ragtime), Larry Adams (The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway), Hollis Resnik, Nathan Gardner, Summer Smart and Bernie Yvon.
Soon after, director Barlett Sher will return to the helm of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown for the musical's West End premiere for a 20-week run at London's Playhouse Theatre, starring Oliver Award-winner Tamsin Greig ("Shaun of the Dead," Channel 4's "Green Wing," the BBC's "Episodes" and "Emma") in her West End musical theater debut.
Full casting for the London production has not yet been announced. It begins performances December 20 and opens January 12, 2015 for a scheduled run through May 9, 2015.
