Jack's Holiday
- Book and Lyrics by Mark St. Germain
- Music & Lyrics by Randy Courts
- Directed by Susan H. Schulman
Mark has written the plays CAMPING WITH HENRY AND TOM (Outer Critics Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award), OUT OF GAS ON LOVER’S LEAP and FORGIVING TYPHOID MARY (Time Magazine’s “Year’s Ten Best”) , EARS ON A BEATLE and THE GOD COMMITTEE, all published by Samuel French and Dramatist Play Service. With Randy Courts, he has written the musicals THE GIFTS OF THE MAGI, JOHNNY PYE AND THE FOOLKILLER, winner of an AT&T “New Plays For The Nineties Award” and JACK’S HOLIDAY at Playwrights Horizons. Mark’s musical, STAND BY YOUR MAN, The Tammy Wynette Story was created for Nashville’s Ryman Theater. Television credits include Writer and Creative Consultant for THE COSBY SHOW. He co-wrote the screenplay for Carroll Ballard’s Warner Brothers film, DUMA. Mark directed and co-produced the upcoming documentary, MY DOG An Unconditional Love Story, featuring, Richard Gere, Glenn Close and Edward Albee among many others. Mark has written the children’s book, THREE CUPS. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists, where he was given the Joe A. Callaway Award, a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Writer’s Guild East and a Board Member of the Barrington Stage Company. He was awarded the “New Voices In American Theatre” award at the William Inge Theatre Festival.
Composer/lyricist Randy Courts collaborated with playwright/lyricist Mark St.Germain on the musicals THE GIFTS OF THE MAGI (ten consecutive seasons at the Lambs Theater, two national tours, over 200 productions worldwide); JOHNNY PYE AND THE FOOLKILLER (Lambs Theater, AT&T New Plays Of The Nineties Award); JOSEPH AND MARY (Los Angeles, Dallas, Indianapolis and in concert in New York starring Kris Kristofferson); JACK’S HOLIDAY (Playwrights Horizons, 3 Outer Critics Circle Award nominations, including Best Musical); THE BOOK OF THE DUN COW (10th anniversary of The New Harmony Project); and THE GINGERBREAD HOUSE (Playwrights Horizons, commission from Playwrights Horizons and Dreamworks). Mr. Courts and Mr. St. Germain also contributed songs to the review A… MY NAME IS STILL ALICE and to Cass Morgan’s TRUE HOME. Mr. Courts collaborated with author Walter Wangerin Jr. on the Christmas oratorio ANGELS AND ALL CHILDREN, and they are currently finishing POTTER, an opera based on the book of the same title by Wangerin. This summer, Mr. Courts is set to collaborate with writer Will Osborne on a musical adaptation of THE MAGIC TREE HOUSE, a popular children’s book series by Mary Pope Osborne. Mr. Courts is a member of the Dramatists Guild and a regular participant at the New Harmony Project. His work has been published by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, Fireside Theatre, Augsburg Fortress Publishing and The Dramatic Publishing Company.
Broadway, Off-Broadway credits include Little Women; Sweeney Todd, Circle in the Square (Tony nomination); the Tony-winning Secret Garden (Drama Desk nomination); The Sound of Music; Violet (Drama Desk, Outer Critics nominations; NY Drama Critics, Lucille Lortel Awards); Merrily We Roll Along, York Theatre Co. (Obie Award, Lucille Lortel). City Center Encores!: The Boys From Syracuse, Connecticut Yankee, Allegro. Also, Company (York Theatre); Jack's Holiday, Playwrights Horizons (Outer Critics nom.); Time & Again (MTC);Carnival; A Little Night Music; Arsenic and Old Lace (ELT). Stratford Festival of Canada: Fiddler on the Roof with Brent Carver; Man of La Mancha; The King and I. Nat'l tours: Sunset Boulevard with Petula Clark, Annie Get Your Gun. Regional: Heartland, Follies, The Royal Family, A Little Princess. Future: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T. TV: On Stage, PBS; Smithsonian Salutes Disney. (As of November 2006)
A killer on the loose, a corrupt, politically ambitious police chief sworn to catch him, and a reporter out to make his reputation with the story. Based on the premise that Jack the Ripper made a deadly 1891 visit to New York City — actually chronicled in the newspapers of the day — Jack’s Holiday delves into the nature of evil and holds a mirror up to our own time.
Featuring
Judy Blazer
Nicholas Coster
Allen Fitzpatrick
Herb Foster
Alix Korey
Mark Lotito
Michael X. Martin
Greg Naughton
Dennis Parlato
Anne Runolfsson
Henry Stram
Lauren Ward
Lou Willford
Playwrights Horizons: Black Sea Follies, Jack’s Holiday. Broadway: Inherit the Wind, The Crucible, Titanic. Other Off-Broadway: Antony and Cleopatra, The Illusion, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, See What I Wanna See, Unwrap Your Candy, The Winter’s Tale, Waste, Timon of Athens, Henry V, The Grey Zone, Troilus and Cressida, On the Open Road, A Bright Room Called Day, The Cradle Will Rock, King Lear, Mother Courage and Her Children. 1996 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance.
Creative Team
Jerome Sirlin
Scenic DesignerCatherine Zuber
Costume DesignerRobert Wierzel
Lighting DesignerDan Moses Schreier
Sound DesignerDouglas Besterman
OrchestrationsSteve Tyler
Music Direction/Arrangements/Incidental MusicPenny Cline
Production Stage ManagerMichael Lichtenfeld
Musical StagingPhoto of Judy Blazer and Allen Fitzpatrick by Joan Marcus.