New podcast adventure comedy series
To launch with an all-star Broadway cast on
Tuesday, August 27
Flash Force! Middle-Aged Women Superheroes Save Democracy, a new podcast adventure comedy series featuring The All-Star Broadway Repertory Company: Lucie Arnaz, Judy Blazer, Donna Lynne Champlin, Jason Graae, Kevin Isola, Kecia Lewis, Nancy Opel, Linda Purl, Emily Skinner and Karen Ziemba, launches on Tuesday, August 27th.
On New York’s Upper West Side, five middle-aged women from the Broadway community in their 12th year of group therapy, and their octogenarian therapist, are suddenly transformed by a mysterious accident in the physics lab next door, and find they possess superpowers. Powers that may…just may…be the only thing to save the world and rescue democracy. Their mission? To battle the evil organization, ORWELL, bent on destroying democracy worldwide.
All while pursuing personal growth.
Written and created by Deborah Grace Winer, Flash Force! is a six-part weekly series that launches with the first two 20-minute episodes on Tuesday, August 27 and an episode every Wednesday following. Directed by Mark Waldrop, with music/sound design by Nathan Scalzone; editor/sound design, April Tucker, the series will be available everywhere you get your podcasts.
“This started as a pandemic project,” says, Winer, “as a theatrical cooperative of friends—luckily for us, really talented, accomplished friends. We got together for zoom readings, two episodes at a time, and laughed ourselves silly. When the pandemic opened up, we recorded all six episodes” She continued: “It’s what creating new theatre is all about—getting together and running with it, especially in today’s artistic climate. We figured if Shakespeare could do it with his gang, so could we.”
Flash Force! explodes with cliffhangers, guest villains, conspiracy theories, personal rivalries, therapy breakthroughs, and hair-raising echoes of real life. Training to learn their new powers (and the ones they’ve always held within), our superheroes deploy as undercover entertainers to crush ORWELL’s democracy-destroying disinformation campaign: to convince the world that the American Revolution was a hoax, and the US has actually belonged to Russia since it was ceded by King George III in 1770, in exchange for wheat. Will they succeed?**
The series will be available to download everywhere you get your podcasts.
For more information and to download episodes please visit: https://deborahgracewiner.podbean.com
The Broadway All-Star Repertory Company (by default of its membership), proudly boasts, two Tony awards, six Tony award nominations, one Emmy award, and enough Drama Desks and Obies to cover a small planet.
Lucie Arnaz (Guest Villain Natasha) began her career with a recurring role on her mother, Lucille Ball’s, TV show, Here’s Lucy. Other TV includes: The Lucie Arnaz Show, Who is the Black Dahlia?, The Wonderful World of Disney, Fantasy Island, Murder She Wrote, Sons and Daughters and Law and Order. Film: The Jazz Singer (Golden Globe nomination). Broadway and beyond: They’re Playing Our Song (Theatre World Award), Annie Get Your Gun, Seesaw, Vanities, My One and Only, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Witches of Eastwick, Lost in Yonkers, and Pippin. She created the concert, Babalu: A Celebration of the music of Desi Arnaz and his Orchestra, honoring her father. She won an Emmy award for Lucie and Desi: A Home Movie. She performs her critically acclaimed nightclub act in top venues across the country.
Judy Blazer (Frieda) has starred on- and off-Broadway in shows including A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, LoveMusik, 45 Seconds from Broadway, Titanic, Me and My Girl, A Change in the Heir, Lucky Stiff; Sweeney Todd and Candide at New York City Opera, Bernarda Alba and Hello Again at Lincoln Center Theatre (Drama Desk nomination), A Connecticut Yankee (Encores!), Twyla Tharpe’s Everlast, with American Ballet Theatre, at the Met. Her regional work includes Thomashefsky, with Michael Tilson Thomas at major symphony orchestras, also featured on PBS Great Performances. Other TV includes Law and Order, As the World Turns, Guiding Light, Bernstein’s New York, and In Performance at the White House.
Donna Lynne Champlin (Elizabeth) starred as Paula Proctor on TV’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Broadway shows include James Joyce’s The Dead, By Jeeves, Hollywood Arms, Sweeney Todd, Billy Elliott, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (Obie Award). Beyond Broadway, she’s appeared in No, No, Nanette, Very Good, Eddie, First Lady Suite, Harold and Maude, My Life with Albertine, Bloomer Girl, and Jolson. Other TV includes Law and Order, The Good Wife, The Good Fight, Netflix’s Feel the Beat and Showtime’s The First Lady.
Jason Graae (Guest Villain Boris, Flavio, Hans) originated the Off Broadway revue, Forever Plaid. Broadway and beyond include Do Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?, Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh(Drama Desk nom), Falsettos, Snoopy, A Grand Night for Singing, Jesus Christ Superstar, Wicked. On TV, he was the voice of the Lucky Charms Leprechaun; recurring roles in Showtime’s Rude Awakening and HBO’s Six Feet Under and numerous TV guest appearances. He’s appeared with the Los Angeles, Houston, San Francisco, and Washington National Operas. He’s an accomplished oboe player.
Kevin Isola (Claude the Cat, Announcer, Man in Black 1 and 2, General, Deputy Secretary of State)has appeared on and off- Broadway in Brooklyn Boy, Life Sucks, Our Lady of 121st Street, Ethel Sings, Almost, Maine, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, The Boys in the Band, Aliens with Extraordinary Skills, The World Over, The Water Children (both Playwrights Horizons), Everett Beekin (Lincoln Center Th), Twelfth Night, Venus, WASPs and Other Plays (all for NYSF/Public Th). TV includes The Equalizer, Billions and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Kecia Lewis (Celia) recently won the 2024 Tony award for her performance in Hell’s Kitchen. Other Broadway includes Dreamgirls, Big River, Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Gospel at Colonus, Once on this Island, Dessa Rose, Chicago, The Drowsy Chaperone, Leap of Faith, Children of a Lesser God. Off-Broadway roles include Mother Courage and Her Children (CSC), The Skin of Our Teeth (Theatre for a New Audience), and Marie and Rosetta as Sister Rosetta Tharpe. TV includes Law and Order and Law and Order SVU, The Blacklist, Madam Secretary, Wu-Tang, and American Saga, And Just Like That, and The Good Fight.
Nancy Opel (Carolyn) was nominated for a Tony award for her performance in Urinetown. Broadway appearances include Evita, Teddy and Alice, Sunday in the Park with George, Anything Goes, Triumph of Love, Fiddler on the Roof, Memphis, Honeymoon in Vegas, Wicked, Into the Woods. She played Kafka in David Ives’s one-acter Words, Words, Words (Primary Stages) and his Polish Joke (Manhattan Th Club). Off-Broadway also includes, The Toxic Avenger, and Miss Mazeppa in Gypsy (Encores!); she starred in the first national tour of The Drowsy Chaperone. TV includes all three Law and Orders.
Linda Purl (The Woman With the Great Boots) played Fonzie’s girlfriend on Happy Days, appeared in Matlock as Andy Griffith’s daughter, and in The Office. Other TV includes Hawaii Five-O, Eleanor and Franklin, Murder She Wrote, Desperate Housewives, Homeland, True Blood, Designated Survivor, and The Bold and the Beautiful. Theatre performances on Broadway and beyond includes Tom Sawyer, The Baby Dance, Road to Mecca (with Rosemary Harris, Long Wharf Th). She has recorded several albums, and appears with her club act in venues across the country.
Emily Skinner (Suzanne) was nominated for a Tony award for her performance in Side Show, and is currently on Broadway in SUFFS (Outer Critics Circle nom). Other Broadway includes Billy Elliot, Jekyll and Hyde, James Joyce’s The Dead, The Full Monty, Prince of Broadway, The Cher Show, Kander and Ebb’s New York, New York and Dinner at Eight (Lincoln Center Th). Off-Broadway includes Picnic (Drama Desk nom), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, No Strings; Merrily We Roll Along, Company, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Mame (all at the Kennedy Center), and Jerry Springer: the Opera (Carnegie Hall). TV: The Blacklist, Madame Secretary.
Karen Ziemba (Pam) received the Tony award for her performance in Contact at Lincoln Center Theatre. She’s also garnered three Tony award nominations. Broadway and beyond includes Prince of Broadway, Curtains, Crazy for You, Bullets Over Broadway, Never Gonna Dance, Steel Pier, Chicago, And the World Goes ‘Round, Do I Hear a Waltz, A Little Night Music, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, Much Ado About Nothing, Other People’s Money, Six Degrees of Separation, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Broadway Bound and Mrs. Warren’s Profession. TV: Madam Secretary, Elementary, The Good Wife, Law and Order C.I & S.V.U., The Kennedy Center Honors, and PBS Great Performances.
Deborah Grace Winer (Writer and Creator) is a dramatist, writer and theatre artist, whose work includes creating theatrical revues and concerts. Her work has appeared Off-Broadway and regionally, as well as in venues such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and New York City Center, in collaboration with top-tier Broadway artists. Her work has been developed by Lincoln Center Theatre, Primary Stages, the Women’s Project, among other theaters. She’s an O’Neill finalist. Special script projects include the USA live events for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, among countless other publications, and she is the author of four books. She’s also a leading expert on the American Songbook, and created, curates and hosts Jazz at Lincoln Center’s sold-out bi-monthly Songbook Sundays at Dizzy’s Club. She’s been featured on PBS American Masters, and NPR’s Fresh Air and Morning Edition.
Mark Waldrop (Director) is director, book writer and lyricist of the legendary revue Howard Crabtree’sWhen Pigs Fly. He is a creator/ lyricist of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. He directed and provided special material for Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends, which earned a Tony award nomination. He directed and wrote material for Bette Midler on her Divine Miss Millennium tour, collaborated with Mary Rodgers on the Off-Broadway revue of her songs, Hey Love, and has directed cabaret and concert performances for Faith Prince, Sutton Foster and Brooke Shields, among many others. He directed the long-running Off-Broadway revue NEWSical the Musical, and Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 for City Center Encores!, with other countless New York and regional directing credits. His latest project is Now Comes the Fun Part, its New York premiere at the York Theatre in August.
Nathan Paul Scalzone (Composer and Sound Design) is a composer and arranger whose music (described by The New York Times as “eclectic with conservative leanings,”) has been performed throughout the United States and internationally. His “Revolution Square” for orchestra was premiered at The Town Hall in New York City and has since been performed in Moscow and Durban, South Africa. His “Cuchallain” for Double Bass was premiered by the late Bang On A Can All-Star Robert Black in Tallinn, Estonia. His choral composition “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” was premiered by the Ghostlight Chorus at the 92nd Street Y in New York City; a setting of Longfellow’s poem, the Portland Press Herald called it, “Breathtaking.” He currently serves as Director of Artistic Operations for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.
April Tucker (Editor and Sound Design) work in post-production sound in Los Angeles for over 20 years has been heard by some ten million listeners on network television, and in movie theaters, streaming, social platforms, radio, podcasts and more. Her work on indie films has been represented at festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca. She’s been nominated for three Motion Pictures Editors (MPSE) Golden Sound Reel Awards. Her commercial film credits include Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous.
Follow Deborah Grace Winer on social media:
And on the web: https://deborahgracewiner.podbean.com
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