City Life Org - The Public Theater Extends World Premiere Musical The Visitor Through Sunday, December 5

The company of the world premiere production of The Visitor, with music by Tom Kitt, lyrics by Brian Yorkey, book by Kwame Kwei-Armah and Brian Yorkey, choreography by Lorin Latarro, and direction by Daniel Sullivan, running at The Public Theater. Photo credit: Joan Marcus

Music by Tom Kitt
Lyrics by Brian Yorkey
Book by Kwame Kwei-Armah & Brian Yorkey
Choreography by Lorin Latarro
Directed by Daniel Sullivan
Based on the Groundswell Productions and Participant Media Motion
Picture Written by Thomas McCarthy

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) announced a one-week extension of the world premiere musical THE VISITOR, with music by Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Kitt, lyrics by Pulitzer Prize winner Brian Yorkey, book by Kwame Kwei-Armah and Brian Yorkey, choreography by Lorin Latarro, and direction by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan, based on the Groundswell Productions and Participant Media Motion Picture written by Thomas McCarthy. Officially opening today, Thursday, November 4, THE VISITOR began performances in the Newman Theater on Saturday, October 16 and will now run through Sunday, December 5.

The complete cast of THE VISITOR features Jacqueline Antaramian (Mouna), Robert Ariza (Ensemble), Anthony Chan (Ensemble), Alysha Deslorieux (Zainab), Delius Doherty (Ensemble), C.K. Edwards (Ensemble), Will Erat (Ensemble), Brandon Espinoza (Ensemble), Sean Ewing (Swing), Crystal Joy (Swing), Marla Louissaint (Ensemble), Ahmad Maksoud (Ensemble), Sahar Milani (Swing), Dimitri Joseph Moïse (Ensemble), Takafumi Nikaido (Ensemble/Drummer), David Hyde Pierce (Walter), Paul Pontrelli (Ensemble), Ari’el Stachel (Tarek), and Katie Terza (Ensemble).

With heart, humor, and lush new songs, Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning team Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey and Kwame Kwei-Armah bring their soul-stirring new musical based on the acclaimed independent film, THE VISITOR by Thomas McCarthy, to The Public for its World Premiere. Widowed and living alone, Walter is a college professor whose life has lost a sense of purpose. When Tarek, a vivacious drummer, and Zainab, an iron-willed jewelry maker, enter his life in the most unexpected circumstances, Walter is swept up into their struggle to stay in an America that they have made their home, but seeks to cast them out. Tony winner Daniel Sullivan directs this unforgettable new musical about friends and lovers caught between two worlds.

THE VISITOR features scenic design by David Zinn; costume design by Toni-Leslie James; lighting design by Japhy Weideman; sound design by Jessica Paz and Sun Hee Kil; video design by David Bengali and Hana S. Kim; hair, wigs, and make-up design by Matthew Armentrout; prop management by Claire M. Kavanah; fight direction by Thomas Schall; orchestrations by Jamshied Sharifi; music direction by Rick Edinger; and music contracting by Tomoko Akaboshi. James Latus serves as production stage manager.

The Public is excited to welcome our community back to its flagship home at Astor Place. The Public’s audience policy requires complete COVID-19 vaccination by the date of attendance for access into the facility, theaters, and restaurant. For complete health and safety protocols, visit Safe At The Public.

The Library at The Public will reopen on Tuesday, October 12, serving food and drink Tuesday through Sunday beginning at 5:00 p.m. and closing at midnight. The Library will be closed on Mondays. Proof of vaccination will be required for entry. For more information, visit publictheater.org.

BIOS:

TOM KITT (Music) is a Pulitzer Prize, Tony, Emmy, and Grammy Award-winning artist whose credits as composer include Next to Normal; If/Then; Flying Over Sunset (Upcoming, LCT); Almost Famous; Superhero; Bring it On: The Musical; High Fidelity; Dave; Disney’s Freaky Friday, The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park and as Orchestrator/Arranger/Music Supervisor include American Idiot; Jagged Little Pill; The SpongeBob Musical; Head Over Heels; “Grease Live!”; NBC’s “Rise,” and the Pitch Perfect films. He is a founding member of Musicians United for Social Equity (MUSE) and NYCNext, with whom he co-produced the recent “New York State of Mind” music video. His debut album, Reflect, is available now on Sony Masterworks. @TomKittMusic

BRIAN YORKEY (Lyrics and Book) received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as the 2009 Tony Award for Best Score for Next to Normal. The show was also nominated for Best Book and Best Musical, and won the Outer Critics Award for Best Score. Yorkey is currently the Executive Producer and showrunner of the Netflix hit “13 Reasons Why,” which he created for television. Other credits include If/Then (Tony Award nominee for Best Score), The Last Ship (co-bookwriter, Outer Critics nomination, with John Logan), and Freaky Friday (Disney Theatricals, Disney Channel Original Movie).

KWAME KWEI-ARMAH (Book) became Artistic Director of the Young Vic theatre in 2018. He was Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage (2011-18) and Artistic Director of the Festival of Black Arts and Culture, Senegal (2010), where he wrote and directed the opening ceremony at Senghor Stadium. As a playwright, Kwei-Armah was the first African Caribbean to have a play produced in London’s West End (Elmina’s Kitchen). His triptych of plays was produced at the National Theatre, where he later created the online resource The Black Play Archive. Kwei-Armah was Chancellor of the University of the Arts, London (2010-2015), and is Patron of Ballet Black and The Black Cultural Archives, Chair of Warwick Arts Centre Advisory Board, and Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. Kwei-Armah was awarded an OBE for Services to Drama in 2011, and in 2020 listed as one of 100 Great Black Britons. Whilst Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage, Kwei-Armah directed: Jazz, Marley, One Night in Miami, Amadeus, Dance of the Holy Ghosts, The Mountaintop, An Enemy of the People, The Whipping Man, Things of Dry Hours. Other directing includes: Twelfth Night, Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Detroit ‘67 (Public Theater); The Liquid Plain (Signature Theatre/Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Porgy and Bess (Baltimore Symphony Orchestra); the Olivier-nominated One Night in Miami (Donmar Warehouse); One Love (Birmingham Repertory Theatre). His playwriting credits include Tree (MIF, Young Vic); One Love (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Beneatha’s Place (Baltimore Center Stage), Elmina’s Kitchen, Fix Up, Statement of Regret (National Theatre); and Let There Be Love, Seize the Day (Tricycle).

LORIN LATARRO (Choreographer) has previously choreographed the Public Works productions of Twelfth Night and The Odyssey. Her Broadway credits include Waitress, Mrs. Doubtfire, Dangerous Liaisons, and Waiting For Godot. Additional choreography includes La Traviata at The Met Opera, LinManuel Miranda’s 21 Chump Street; Peter and The Wolf (BAM); Assassins (Encores!); and Queen of the Night (Drama Desk Award). Selected regional credits include Almost Famous; Heart of Rock & Roll; Merrily We Roll Along (Roundabout Theatre); Beaches; and Kiss Me, Kate. Select opera includes Rigoletto and Die Zauberflote. Latarro is an Artistic Associate at Bucks County Playhouse. Latarro directed and choreographed #DateMe and A Taste of Things to Come. She has performed in 12 Broadway shows, plus Tharp, Momix, and Graham. Latarro is also a graduate of Juilliard. Her upcoming work on Broadway includes Almost Famous and The Outsiders. Latarro is currently directing Candace Bushnell’s Is There Still Sex in the City at the Daryl Roth Theatre.

DANIEL SULLIVAN (Director). At The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park: Coriolanus, Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline, King Lear, Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Among his Broadway credits are The Nap; Stories By Heart; Saint Joan; Sylvia; The Country House; The Snow Geese; Orphans; Glengarry Glen Ross; The Columnist; Good People; Time Stands Still; Accent on Youth; The Homecoming; Prelude to a Kiss; Rabbit Hole; After the Night and the Music; Julius Caesar; Brooklyn Boy; Sight Unseen; I’m Not Rappaport; Morning’s at Seven; Proof; the 2000 production of A Moon for the Misbegotten; Ah, Wilderness!; The Sisters Rosensweig; Conversations With My Father; and The Heidi Chronicles. Henry IV at the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles. Among his Off-Broadway credits are If I Forget, The Night Watcher, Intimate Apparel, Far East, Spinning Into Butter, Stuff Happens, Dinner With Friends, and The Substance of Fire. From 1981 to 1997, he served as artistic director of Seattle Repertory Theatre. Sullivan is a Swanlund Professor in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Illinois, Urbana.

ABOUT THE PUBLIC THEATER:

THE PUBLIC continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both onstage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today. Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation’s first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public’s wide breadth of programming includes an annual season of new work at its landmark home at Astor Place, Free Shakespeare in the Park at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, the Mobile Unit touring throughout New York City’s five boroughs, Public Forum, Under the Radar, Public Lab, Public Works, Public Shakespeare Initiative, and Joe’s Pub. Since premiering HAIR in 1967, The Public continues to create the canon of American Theater and is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award winning musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Girl From the North Country. Their programs and productions can also be seen regionally across the country and around the world. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 184 Obie Awards, 55 Drama Desk Awards, 58 Lortel Awards, 34 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, 56 AUDELCO Awards, 6 Antonyo Awards, and 6 Pulitzer Prizes. publictheater.org

The Public Theater stands in honor of the first inhabitants and our ancestors. We acknowledge the land on which The Public and its theaters stand—the original homeland of the Lenape people. We acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced removal from this territory. We honor the generations of stewards and we pay our respects to the many diverse indigenous peoples still connected to this land. The Public Theater honors and celebrates the people and legacy of Seneca Village, one of the earliest free Black communities in New York City, which was located in what is now Central Park from 1825–1857.

The LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust provides leadership support for The Public Theater’s year-round activities.

TICKET INFORMATION

THE VISITOR began performances in The Public’s Newman Theater on Saturday, October 16 and officially opens on Thursday, November 4. Originally scheduled to close on Sunday, November 28, the world premiere musical has now been extended one week through Sunday, December 5.

Public Theater Partner, Supporter, and full-price single tickets can be accessed by visiting publictheater.org, calling 212.967.7555, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street.

The Public’s Joseph Papp Free Performance initiative will continue this fall with free tickets to the performance on Tuesday, November 23 available via Goldstar lottery.

The performance schedule is Tuesday through Friday at 7:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. (There is no 7:00 p.m. performance on Wednesday, November 24; Thursday, November 25; and Friday, November 26).

The American Sign Language Interpreted performance will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 6. The Open Captioned performance will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 13. The Audio Described performance will be at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 20.

The full performance calendar and complete ticket distribution details can be found at publictheater.org.

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