Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director), in association with Marc Platt, is proud to present Tony® & Emmy Award winner and Academy Award nominated Stockard Channing (Vera Simpson), Tony® Award winner Christian Hoff (Joey Evans) and Tony® & Emmy nominated Martha Plimpton (Gladys Bumps) starring in a new Broadway production of PAL JOEY, with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart.

PAL JOEY will feature a new book by Tony® Award winner Richard Greenberg , based on the original book by John O’Hara, with music direction by Tony® Award winner Paul Gemignani, choreography by Graciela Daniele and directed by two-time Tony® Award winner Joe Mantello at Studio 54 on Broadway.

PAL JOEY will begin previews on Friday, November 14th, 2008 and open officially Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at Studio 54 on Broadway (254 West 54th Street). This will be a limited engagement.

Additional cast members will be announced shortly. The design team will include two-time Tony® Award winner Scott Pask (Sets), five-time Tony® Award winner William Ivey Long (Costumes), two-time Tony® Award winner Peggy Eisenhauer and eight-time Tony® Award winner Jules Fisher (Lights), Tony Meola (Sound) and Don Sebesky (Orchestrator).

The production is the first Broadway revival of PAL JOEY in over 30 years.

Set in Chicago in the late 1930s, PAL JOEY is the story of Joey Evans, a brash, scheming song and dance man with dreams of owning his own nightclub. Joey abandons his wholesome girlfriend Linda English, to charm a rich, married older woman, Vera Simpson, in the hope that she’ll set him up in business.

In 1939, author John O’Hara approached Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart to collaborate on a musical adaptation of his popular “Pal Joey” stories that had originally run in The New Yorker. The musical premiered on Broadway on December 25, 1940, in a production directed and produced by George Abbott, and starring Gene Kelly and Vivienne Segal. While considered a success in 1940, a smash hit 1952 Broadway revival revealed the show as a true landmark Broadway musical, breaking new ground in subject matter, and featuring a score by Rodgers & Hart in their penultimate collaboration. The 1952 production of PAL JOEY won 3 Tony Awards including Best Choreography and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical. A film of the musical was made in 1957, starring Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth, and Kim Novak. Bob Fosse received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in the 1963 production and the 1976 production at Circle in the Square starred Dixie Carter. PAL JOEY was featured in the second season of Encores! at New York City Center in a 1995 concert version starring Patti LuPone and Peter Gallagher.

The Rodgers & Hart score for PAL JOEY includes such classic songs as “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “I Could Write a Book,” “You Mustn’t Kick It Around,” and “Zip,” among others. The new production of PAL JOEY will also feature “I’m Talking to My Pal,” a song that had been dropped from the score during its out-of-town tryout.

Stockard Channing won a Tony Award® for her performance in Roundabout Theatre Company’s Joe Egg in 1985, and also received Tony nominations for her acclaimed performances in The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, Four Baboons Adoring the Sun and Roundabout Theatre Company’s The Lion in Winter. In 2002, she won two Emmy Awards, one for her role as First Lady Abbey Bartlet in NBC’s “The West Wing” and the other for her performance as Judy Shepard in “The Matthew Shepard Story.” She was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe when she recreated her role in Six Degrees… Christian Hoff won a 2006 Tony Award® for his charismatic portrayal of “Tommy DeVito” in the musical phenomenon, Jersey Boys. He was also an original cast member of The Who’s Tommy. Martha Plimpton is a two-time Tony Award® nominee for her recent performances in Top Girls & The Coast of Utopia. The leading actors and creative team have a total of 23 Tony Awards® among them.

TICKET INFORMATION:

Tickets will be available in the Fall of 2008, by phone at (212) 719-1300, online at www.roundabouttheatre.org or at the Studio 54 Box Office (254 West 54th Street).

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:

Pal Joey will play Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8:00PM with a Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinee at 2:00PM.