The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World
- Book, Lyrics, Story by Joy Gregory
- Lyrics, Music, Story by Gunnar Madsen
- Directed by John Langs
JOY GREGORY is a writer for stage and television. She is a founding member of Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company, where her most recently produced works were The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World and Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession, a co-adaptation with David Schwimmer of the book by Studs Terkel (Jefferson nomination, adaptation). Her television writing credits include “Felicity,” “Swingtown,” “Jericho,” “Joan of Arcadia” and the new series “Switched at Birth” on ABC Family. She is a member of the Los Angeles Dogear Playwrights Collective and once appeared as a corpse in the feature film Blink with Peter Friedman. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband Denis and their daughter Lucie.
Grammy-nominated composer GUNNAR MADSEN has written for the Minnesota Opera, Lincoln Center, NPR and the National Beef Council; he has performed on PBS, the BBC, “The Tonight Show,” the “Smothers Brothers Show” and on every “Good Morning!” show in the US. He co- founded the internationally acclaimed a cappella group The Bobs; provided the singing voice of Sammy Davis Jr. in the HBO film The Rat Pack; licensed his ravishing waltzes to HBO’s hit series “Sex and the City”; released three CDs for families which have won virtually every top children’s music honor; designed sound and music for the hit video game San Francisco Rush; and appeared in and wrote music for the Vince Vaughn/Jennifer Aniston film The Break Up. (As of May 2011)
JOHN LANGS has directed productions at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Lookingglass Theatre Company (Chicago), Circle X Theatre Co. (Los Angeles) Ensemble Studio Theatre (NY), Delaware R.E.P. Co., American Players Theatre (WI) and The Seattle Shakespeare Company, where he is an Associate Artist. Some favorite productions include King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet (Seattle Footlight Award, Best Production of the Year), The Brothers Karamazov (LADCC Award, Best Direction) and The Adding Machine, for which he received the first ever Gregory Falls Award for direction. John is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts. John’s most recent co-production with his wife, Klea Scott, is their son, Captain, who was born in January 2010. (As of May 2011)
Co-produced with New York Theater Workshop.
They defined cult status – and were gone in the blink of an eye. Fremont, NH, the early 70s. A working class dad has a vision of rock n’ roll destiny for his three talentless daughters, convinced they're his family’s one-way ticket out of hardship and obscurity. But the girls have ideas of their own – and as their father’s ambition turns to obsession, the price of familial obligation becomes all too clear. Based on a true story.
Featuring
Kevin Cahoon
Peter Friedman
Annie Golden
Jamey Hood
Steve Routman
Cory Michael Smith
Sarah Sokolovic
Emily Walton
Broadway: The Wedding Singer, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Lion King, The Rocky Horror Show, The Who’s Tommy. Off-Broadway: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (also Boston, San Francisco, Edinburgh Festival), The Foreigner (Lortel nomination), The Wild Party. Encores!: Hair, Babes in Arms. TV: “NCIS,” “Six Degrees,” “Law & Order,” “Canterbury’s Law,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “Hope and Faith,” “Ed,” “The Royale.” Film: Mars Needs Moms, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, The Thing About My Folks, Sudden Manhattan, One Night. Regional:Williamstown, Guthrie,Ahmanson, NY Stage & Film, Berkshire Theatre Festival. Album: Doll (Out Music Award, debut recording). (As of May 2011)
Playwrights Horizons: After the Revolution, The Great God Pan (Amy Herzog); Circle Mirror Transformation (Annie Baker); The Shaggs (Gregory, Lang, Madsen); Fly By Night (Connolly, Mitnick, Rosenstock); The Heidi Chronicles (Wendy Wasserstein). Broadway: Ragtime (Ahrens, Flaherty, McNally), The Heidi Chronicles, Twelve Angry Men, The Tenth Man. Other Off-Broadway: Sundown, Yellow Moon (Bonds); Her Requiem (Pierce); The Nether (Haley); End Days (Laufer); Jacuzzi (The Debate Society); The Open House (Eno); The Hatmaker’s Wife (Yee); Body Awareness (Baker, and her adaptation of) Uncle Vanya; Hamlet (The Public, 2017). Film: The Savages, Safe, Single White Female. TV: “High Maintenance,” “The Muppet Show,” “The Affair,” “The Path.”
(as of 8/24/17)
Was last seen on Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage in Quincy Long’s People Be Heard and before that as Sondheim’s Squeaky in Assassins. Annie is so happy to be back. On Broadway and Off: The Full Monty; On the Town; Xanadu; Leader of the Pack; Ah,Wilderness!; Hair; Mimi le Duck; The Black Suits; Saturn Returns. Big screen and small: I Love You Philip Morris, Hair, Twelve Monkeys, The Pebble and the Penguin, “Law & Order,” “SVU,” “Third Watch,” “Cheers,” “Miami Vice,” “Letterman,” “One Life to Live,” “All My Children.” (As of May 2011)
Is starting to feel like a weave in the Grandma Wiggin prophesy, having been a part of this production since its third reading at Geva, to its full productions in LosAngeles and at Chicago’s Lookingglass, then NAMT, NYMF and nearly all of the workshops in between. This is Jamey’s NY, NY theatre debut. In LosAngeles, credits include They’re Playing Our Song at Reprise starring Jason Alexander, Lucky Duck at South Coast Rep and various roles at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, Circle X and the Hollywood Bowl. This one’s for my Dad. (As of May 2011)
Broadway: La Bête, Broadway. Other NYC: The Fantasticks; Buddy’s Tavern (Premieres); Lingoland (York); The Conscientious Objector and In the Matter of J Robert Oppenheimer (Keen Co.); The Glass Blowers (NYCO); Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado… (The Public). Regional work includes Shakespeare, Chekhov, Feydeau, Odets, Guare, Stoppard, Coward and numerous musicals. TV/film: “The Good Wife,” “L&O,” “SVU,” “CI,” Musical Chairs, The Pill, Forgetting the Girl, Occupant, Every Day, I Don’t Know How She Does It, Arthur 3: The War of the Two Worlds. Steve’s a proud graduate of Northwestern and a lyricist in the BMI workshop with composer Joy Son (Harrington Award). (As of May 2011)
Cory Michael Smith previously appeared at Playwrights Horizons originating the role of Kyle in The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World. He also originated the role of Elder Thomas in the world premiere of The Whale at Denver Center Theatre Company. He recently appeared Off-Broadway in the U.S. premiere of Cock (The Duke on 42nd Street). Regional: Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Tales From Red Vienna, The Huntsmen (Portland Center Stage), The Fantasticks (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Barrington Stage Company). He is a graduate of Otterbein University. (As of October 2012)
SARAH SOKOLOVIC was last seen at Playwrights Horizons in The Shaggs:
Philosophy of the World, for which she earned a Drama Desk nomination as Betty.
Broadway: Relatively Speaking (Standby/Understudy). Off-Broadway and regional
credits include Othello (Milwaukee Shakespeare and American Players Theatre);
Cymbeline (Milwaukee Shakespeare); Under Milk Wood, Homebody/Kabul (Chamber
Theatre); Bash; Danny and the Deep Blue Sea; among others. Television: “Unforgettable,” “The Good Wife” (CBS). Film: Omphalos, Bitches. Training: Yale School of Drama, recipient of the Jerome L Greene Scholarship Award. (As of August 2012)
Is so excited to be back at Playwrights Horizons, where she last appeared in Saved. Broadway: August: Osage County. Off-Broadway: Cactus Flower, Saved. Other credits include The Sound of Music (Pittsburgh CLO), My Favorite Year (Musicals Tonight!), High School Musical 2 (North Shore Music Theatre) and NYC workshops of Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Ever After, Hurricane, A Day in Gloucester and Saved. Emily is also a singersongwriter and a member of the incredible band Blue Bottle Collection, led by Daniel Zaitchik. Love and thanks to SCAW, Steve Himber, everyone involved in this show, her family, her friends and her Drew. (As of May 2011)
Creative Team
Mimi Lien
Scenic DesignerEmily Rebholz
Costume DesignerGeoff Korf
Lighting DesignerDarron L West
Sound DesignerAaron Gandy
Music DirectorKen Roht
ChoreographerLori Lundquist
Production Stage ManagerJohn Miller
Music CoordinatorCostume Designer + Stylist: Lover of sharp tailoring, vintage buttons, matching socks and pocket squares, my roof deck in the summer, clog boots in the winter, Franny’s Pizza, Italian white wine and summer fairs.
First Costume Design: Godspell, 1994. Back when you could still find vintage Mickey Mouse t-shirts at the Goodwill in Memphis.
First Broadway Show: During my college tour weekend of NYC: Phantom of The Opera and Sunset Boulevard. Classic Broadway!
First Show to Design Off-Broadway: Gutenberg the Musical!
First Show to Design on Broadway: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.
Places of Inspiration: The NYC Subway, The Duchess County Fair, Paris, Italy, India, Upstate New York–anyplace I’ve ever traveled, my favorite magazine and tobacco shop at the corner of Spring and Lafayette, The Strand, Street Style Blogs and tourists at museums.
Lifelong Goal: To understand people through the observation of what they wear and to help tell their stories through the language of clothing.
Previously at the Friedman: The American Plan,To Be or Not To Be, The Royal Family, Top Girls, and Time Stands Still. He is a Tony and Obie Award-winning sound designer whose work for theater and dance has been heard in over 500 Productions nationally and internationally, on Broadway and off. His accolades for Sound Design include the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel and AUDELCO Awards. He a two-time Henry Hewes Design Award winner, and a proud recipient of the Princess Grace Award statue.
Photos of (1) Jamey Hood, Emily Walton, and Sarah Sokolovic; (2) Peter Friedman, Annie Golden, Sarah Sokolovic, Emily Walton, and Jamey Hood; (3) Steve Routman and Kevin Cahoon; and (4) Company by Joan Marcus.
FOUR STARS – CRITICS’ PICK! A captivating and bravely weird new musical that elicits sweet harmonies from the world’s worst rock band. There are deep, disturbing joys to be had in this oddball-underdog odyssey. The Shaggs deserves a serious listen.
Remarkably – insistently – memorable. Peter Friedman is astonishing.
Sweetly Shaggs-adelic and genuinely heartbreaking.
