WHAT’S THAT SMELL:THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING PLAYS FINAL PERFORMANCE 12/28/08

     FINAL THREE WEEKS OF LAUGHTER!

 

“WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING”

 

OFF- BROADWAY COMEDY HIT PLAYS FINAL PERFORMANCE

 SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28

 

“For connoisseurs of atrocious musical theater – and/or whip-smart satire – the fictional Jacob Sterling is a godsend to be eternally grateful for. He is the brainchild of David Pittu, one of the city’s most talent character actors and a Tony nominee.” – Charles Isherwood, New York Times

 

“Hilarious!  – Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press

 

“A bull’s-eye parody.” – David Rooney, Variety

 

“Deliciously over the top.”  – Joe Dziemianowicz, Daily News

 

“Affectionately bitchy and seriously funny.” – Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg News

 

 

Tony Award^® nominee David Pittu‘s critically acclaimed world premiere comedy WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING will play its final performance Sunday evening, December 28^th, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. at New World Stages (340 West 50^th Street). Performances of the Off-Broadway transfer engagement began November 1, 2008.

 

The new comedy, written and performed by David Pittu (Is He Dead?, LoveMusik), co-starring Peter Bartlett (The New Century), is co-directed by Pittu and Atlantic Artistic Director Neil Pepe (Speed-the-Plow) with original music by Randy Redd and lyrics by Pittu. The cast also features Chandra Lee Schwartz, Max Kumangai, and Matt Schock.

 

WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING is produced by Daryl Roth and Atlantic Theater Company.

 

The world premiere comedy completed a sold-out, extended engagement at Atlantic Theater Company’s Stage 2 on October 5, 2008.

 

WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING plays Monday evening, and Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00pm, with Saturday matinees at 2:00pm and Sunday performances at 3:00pm and 7:00pm. Tuesdays are dark. There will be no performance on Monday, December 15.

 

CHRISTMAS WEEK SCHEDULE: Monday, 12/22: 8pm; Tuesday, 12/23: DARK; Wednesday, 12/24: DARK; Thursday, 12/25: 8pm; Friday, 12/26: 2p & 8p; Saturday, 12/27: 2p & 8p; Sunday, 12/28: 2p & 8p.

 

Tickets are $55.00 and $65.00, and are available by calling Telecharge at 212-239-6200, online at www.telecharge.com, or in person at the box office.

Student tickets are available for $25.00 on the day of performance at the box office only with a valid student identification.

 

NEW WORLD STAGES is located at 340 West 50 Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT:

www.whatsthatsmelloffbroadway.com

 

 

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ATLANTIC’S WHAT’S THAT SMELL TRANSFERS UPTOWN

DARYL ROTH IN ASSOCIATION WITH ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY

 

DAVID PITTU’S COMEDY HIT

“WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING”

 

TRANSFERS TO NEW WORLD STAGES

 

FOLLOWING ACCLAIMED ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY RUN

 

PREVIEWS BEGIN SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1^st, 2008

 

“Jacob Sterling is a master of the maladroit lyric, the ludicrous image and all-encompassing bad taste. By rapturously awful songs I should make it clear that I really mean indescribably wonderful songs. For connoisseurs of atrocious musical theater – and/or whip-smart satire – the fictional Jacob Sterling is a godsend to be eternally grateful for.” – Charles Isherwood, New York Times

 

“Hilarious!  – Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press

 

“A bull’s-eye parody.” – David Rooney, Variety

 

“Deliciously over the top.”  – Joe Dziemianowicz, Daily News

 

“Affectionately bitchy and seriously funny.” – Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg News

 

 

Following it’s sold out engagement, Atlantic Theater Company‘s critically acclaimed world premiere of David Pittu‘s comedy WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING will transfer to an Off-Broadway run at New World Stages (340 West 50^th Street). Performances will begin Saturday, November 1, 2008.

 

The new comedy, written and performed by Tony Award^® nominee David Pittu (Is He Dead?, LoveMusik), co-starring Peter Bartlett (The New Century), is co-directed by Pittu and Atlantic Artistic Director Neil Pepe (Speed-the-Plow) with original music by Randy Redd.

 

The Off-Broadway transfer will be produced by Daryl Roth in association with Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director).

 

WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING is a hilarious musical parody that charts the career of eternally up-and-coming (and fictitious) musical theater composer Jacob Sterling (Pittu). A rare, up close and personal visit with an artist of questionable gifts who performs from his songbook and shares his human struggle to keep musical theater alive and well into the 21^st century. 

 

WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING features scenic design by Takeshi Kata, costume design by Martin Pakledinaz, lighting design by Matthew Richards, sound design by Jill DuBoff, projection design by Dustin O’Neill, and production stage management by Alison DeSantis.

 

WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING concluded a sold-out, extended engagement at Atlantic Stage 2 on October 5, 2008.

 

WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING will play Monday evening, and Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00pm, with Saturday matinees at 2:00pm and Sunday performances at 3:00pm and 7:00pm. Tuesdays are dark.

 

Tickets are $55.00 and $65.00, and are available by calling Telecharge at 212-239-6200, online at  www.telecharge.com, or in person at the box office.

 

Student tickets will be available for $25.00 on the day of performance at the box office only with a valid student identification.

 

NEW WORLD STAGES is located at 340 West 50 Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT:

www.whatsthatsmelloffbway.com

 

 

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ATLANTIC’S WHAT’S THAT SMELL – THE CRITICS SMELL A HIT!

ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY

 

 “WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING” –

THE CRITICS SMELL A HIT!

 

NOW WITH LONGER LASTING SCENT

 

FINAL WEEK THROUGH SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5^th ONLY

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The sweet smell of critical acclaim has wafted upon Atlantic Theater Company‘s hit world premiere comedy WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING, conceived and performed by Tony Award^® nominee David Pittu (Is He Dead?, LoveMusik), co-directed by Pittu and Atlantic Artistic Director Neil Pepe with music by Randy Redd, and co-starring Peter Bartlett (The New Century, The Drowsy Chaperone).

 

Now there are only twelve more chances to take a whiff before the scent of hilarity fades on Sunday, October 5^th, 2008 Off-Broadway at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16^th Street)

 

HERES WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SMELLING:

 

“I’m pretty sure the jackals who cherish a big Broadway bomb will find nothing to match the rapturously awful songs of the composer-lyricist who serenades us with throbbing intensity in the ingenious new show. As Jacob launches earnestly into the signature aria from his unproduced musical adaptation of the Goldie Hawn movie “Private Benjamin,” it becomes blazingly clear that we are witnessing a master at work.

 

A master of the maladroit lyric, the ludicrous image and all-encompassing bad taste, that is. By rapturously awful songs I should make it clear that I really mean indescribably wonderful songs. For connoisseurs of atrocious musical theater – and/or whip-smart satire – the fictional Jacob Sterling is a godsend to be eternally grateful for.” – Charles Isherwood, New York Times

 

“Hilarious! What Pittu and his real-life composer, Randy Redd, have accomplished is something quite difficult: deliberately writing really bad songs that are deliciously entertaining in their awfulness.” – Michael Kuchwara, Associated Press

 

“A bull’s-eye parody of third-rate Broadway-style musical theater as practiced by an untalented fictitious composer impervious to the repeated sting of failure, this affectionate homage to bad art and its purveyors is very funny stuff. Pittu’s impressive work over the past three seasons…has confirmed him as one of the most versatile and witty character actors on the New York stage.”

– David Rooney, Variety

 

“One-of-a-kind star David Pittu is deliciously over-the-top. If Rosie O’Donnell ever launches her rumored variety show, Pittu should be on the top of her must-cast list.”

– Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News

 

“Pittu has a surprisingly agile voice and dryly perfect comic timing, while the tunes, composed by Randy Redd, are the right combination of generic kitsch and clever allusions to other, better, composers.” – David Cote, NY-1 News

 

“Bless You, Pittu! The Tony-nominated David Pittu is one of our leading character actors – and this is the surprising thing about his performance. He doesn’t play Jacob as camp in any way. While you don’t have to be gay to be a show queen, Mr. Pittu is suggesting that it helps, and drolly plays his clueless gay composer straight. As lyricist, he does well by doing deliberately, excruciatingly, badly. To borrow a timely phrase, Jacob’s show tunes dressed up with flourishes at the piano are the lipstick on the pig.  – John Heilpern, The New York Observer

 

“Pittu’s foray into musical satire…will keep the needle on your giggle-o-meter in pretty constant vibration. By dint of hard work and harder thinking, he’s become a consummate comic artist, getting his laughs, both as actor and as writer, seemingly without effort, from inside his characters and the absurd world they inhabit.” – Michael Feingold, The Village Voice

 

“Affectionately bitchy and seriously funny, “What’s That Smell” tunnels deep into Paul Rudnick territory: It deftly balances satire and poignancy. It’s sketch comedy of the highest order, a paean to wannabes and Broadway babies everywhere.” – Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg News

 

“Though not overtly political, the show shares something with the methods of Jon Stewart and Bill Maher, whose exposure of falsehoods has been vital at capturing the absurdity of the current presidential season. Like those comedians, Pittu gives us satire as a kind of slashing celebration. He excoriates the vulgarity of American culture while implicitly exalting it.”

– Brendan Lemon, Financial Times

 

“Pittu’s Renaissance Man abilities; his performances in straight plays, musicals, and comedies as diverse as The Coast of Utopia, LoveMusik, and Is He Dead? have identified him as an indispensable star rapidly on the rise. Jacob, as written, acted and sung, and staged, proves a fabulous showcase for his talents for uniting urbane sophistication with down-in-the-mud grit gulping.” – Matthew Murray, Talkin’ Broadway

 

■ ■ ■

 

WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING began previews September 2^nd, and opened September 10^th Off-Broadway at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16^th Street). Due to high ticket demand following strong reviews, the limited engagement originally scheduled through September 28^th, was extended through Sunday, October 5^th, 2008.

 

The world premiere comedy is an absurd musical satire that charts the career of eternally up-and-coming (and fictitious) musical theater composer Jacob Sterling (Pittu). A rare, up close and personal visit with an artist of questionable gifts who performs from his songbook and shares his human struggle to keep musical theater alive and well in the 21st century. 

 

The new comedy also features Atlantic Acting School alumni Brandon Goodman and Matt Schock, and Jen Temen.

 

The design team for WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING features scenic design by Takeshi Kata, costume design by Martin Pakledinaz, lighting design by Matthew Richards, sound design by Jill DuBoff, projection design by Dustin O’Neill, and production stage management by Alison DeSantis.

 

The Off-Broadway staging of WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING is a testament to Atlantic Stage 2’s mission to develop new works. It began as a short piece as part of the one-act festival 10 X 20, the inaugural production of the second stage theatre in 2006. This past June, an expanded developmental reading with David Pittu and Peter Bartlett was featured in the 11^th annual Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

 

WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING plays Tuesday through Saturday at 8:00pm, with Saturday matinees at 2:00pm and Sunday performances at 3:00pm and 7:00pm/.

All tickets are $50.00 Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, $55.00 Friday and Saturday, and are available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 (www.ticketcentral.com).

 

ATLANTIC STAGE 2 is located at 330 West 16^th Street (between 8^th & 9^th Avenues).  For membership information, wheelchair seating, and/or group sales call Ticketcentral at 212-279-4200 or visit www.ticketcentral.com.

 

www.atlantictheater.org

 

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WHAT’S THAT SMELL NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW AND SLIDE SHOW

Atlantic Theater Company‘s world premiere production of WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING, conceived, performed and co-directed by two-time Tony Award^® nominee David Pittu, co-directed with Atlantic Artistic Director Neil Pepe, and featuring music by Randy Redd, plays a limited engagement through Sunday, September 28^th at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16^th Street).

 

THE NEW YORK TIMES – September 11, 2008

 

CLICK TO READ THE REVIEW:

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/theater/reviews/11smel.html?ref=arts

 

CLICK “MULTIMEDIA” TO VIEW PHOTO/AUDIO SLIDESHOW with creator David Pittu and listen to title song.

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LET ‘EM SCOFF, BABY; YOU KEEP SINGING

 

By Charles Isherwood

 

A season of new musicals looms before us, rich in promise and – let’s admit it – perhaps just a little menace. Soon men and women will be swanning across stages on Broadway and off, bursting into new song as emotion overflows their hearts. There will be good news and bad, songfests to celebrate and to regret, unexpected triumphs and bitter disappointments.

 

But I’m pretty sure the jackals who cherish a big Broadway bomb will find nothing to match the rapturously awful songs of the composer-lyricist who serenades us with throbbing intensity in the ingenious new show “What’s That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling,” which opened Wednesday night at the Atlantic Stage 2 theater. As Jacob launches earnestly into the signature aria from his unproduced musical adaptation of the Goldie Hawn movie “Private Benjamin,” it becomes blazingly clear that we are witnessing a master at work.

 

A master of the maladroit lyric, the ludicrous image and all-encompassing bad taste, that is. By rapturously awful songs I should make it clear that I really mean indescribably wonderful songs. For connoisseurs of atrocious musical theater – and/or whip-smart satire – the fictional Jacob Sterling is a godsend to be eternally grateful for.

 

He is the brainchild of David Pittu, one of the city’s most talented character actors and a Tony nominee this year for his dexterous turn in several different roles in the Mark Twain comedy “Is He Dead?”

 

Mr. Pittu portrays Jacob, a luckless but unbowed Broadway baby, with flawless panache. But he also wrote the book and lyrics for this affectionate, subversive comedy about the cocoon of self-absorption that many a chronically aspiring artist of limited gifts calls home. (Mr. Pittu also shares the directing chores with Neil Pepe, the Atlantic Theater artistic director.) A man with a thimbleful of talent to accompany his measureless self-belief, Jacob seeks to convince the audience at a cheapo cable television show to share his conviction that were it not for a few bad breaks, Jacob Sterling would today be a musical-theater luminary second only to Stephen Sondheim. And might be yet, if fortune favors him at last and his latest project makes it to the promised land of a Broadway opening night.

 

He is the guest of Leonard Swagg, played with a comic precision to match Mr. Pittu’s own by Peter Bartlett, possibly best known as Mr. Charles of Palm Beach, the flamboyant gay cable host from the short play of the same name by Paul Rudnick (seen at Lincoln Center Theater earlier in the year as part of the Rudnick omnibus “The New Century”).

 

A close spiritual cousin of Mr. Charles, the fawning Leonard presides over a show called “Composers and Lyricists of Tomorrow” – CLOT for short (the first in a series of grotesquely funny acronyms). He is a one-man fan club and support group for the brave souls battling to keep the ever-beleaguered musical theater alive, clueless to the idea that some of their ministrations – Jacob’s for example – might prove more fatal than restorative.

 

“I feel very welcome here, and very supported and safe,” Jacob says as he snuggles into a white vinyl chair as if it were a throne equivalent to Oprah’s couch. “And that’s a wonderful feeling for a living American musical theater composer working in an age of terror.”

 

That savory note – complacent self-importance mixed with schmaltzy sincerity – is Jacob’s signature, and Mr. Pittu delivers it with infinite nuance but nary a wink, as Leonard coaxes Jacob through the highlights of his career. Selections from the Sterling songbook are interspersed with anecdotes from Jacob’s checkered history.

 

The sound bites have clearly been rehearsed before the mirror for eons, so perfectly timed are the humble smiles and pauses for applause as Jacob recalls life-changing encounters with theater legends like Barbara Eden (she urged him to change his name from Jacob Silverstein when they worked together on a “benefit for chronic yeast syndrome”) and Loni Anderson (she dropped Jacob when rights issues precluded her making her Broadway debut in “Private Benjamin”).

 

Mr. Pittu is possibly even more hilarious when Jacob sits down at a glossy white baby grand to perform his songs, his voice caressing each clunky phrase and bald cliché with the tenderness of a mother stroking a newborn’s pink belly. The chest heaves with barely suppressed emotion.

 

Click to Read the rest of the review:

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/theater/reviews/11smel.html?ref=arts

 

WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING plays Tuesday through Saturday at 8:00pm, Saturday matinees at 2:00pm and Sundays at 3:00pm. All tickets are $35.00 and available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 (www.ticketcentral.com).

 

ATLANTIC STAGE 2 is located at 330 West 16^th Street (between 8^th & 9^th Avenues).  For membership information, wheelchair seating, and/or group sales call Ticketcentral at 212-279-4200 or visit www.ticketcentral.com.

 

www.atlantictheater.org

 

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WHAT’S THAT SMELL TIME OUT NY FEATURE

ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY

 

“WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING”

 

STAR AND WRITER

 

DAVID PITTU

 

TIME OUT NEW YORK FEATURE

 

Click to read the feature: 

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/theater/55431/aroma-therapist

 

OPENS THIS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10^th AT ATLANTIC STAGE 2

 

 

Atlantic Theater Company ensemble member and two-time Tony Award^® nominee David Pittu (Is He Dead?, LoveMusik) brings the world premiere of WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING to Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16^th Street) when the new “comedy with vocal selections” officially opens this Wednesday, September 10^th, 2008. He is featured in the current issue of Time Out New York Magazine, on stands now.

 

TIME OUT NEW YORK – September 4^th – 10^th, 2008

 

Aroma therapist – The delightfully droll David Pittu gets the satirical spotlight in What’s That Smell.

 

By Diane Snyder

 

You don’t always know what to expect from a David Pittu performance, but you can bet it will be unforgettable. In the past two years, he earned consecutive Best Featured Actor Tony nominations: for donning an array of broadly comic characters and accents in Mark Twain’s Is He Dead? and for playing Bertolt Brecht, part charismatic, part repellent, in the Kurt Weill tuner LoveMusik.

 

The slim, darkly handsome performer was an integral part of the accomplished ensembles of The Coast of Utopia and Stuff Happens, and received a Drama Desk nod for Celebration and The Room, two Pinter one-acters staged at the Atlantic Theater Company, an outfit with which he has been affiliated since his college days at NYU.

 

At the Atlantic, Pittu, 41, has been honing his writing and directing skills, too, and he uses all three in the world premiere of his comedy-with-songs showbiz satire, What’s That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling, about a fictitious composer-lyricist who’s been toiling for years, waiting for a big break that’s always just out of reach.

 

Pittu stars as the hapless Sterling, and Peter Bartlett plays the talk-show host who questions him about his dubious career (à la James Lipton); Sterling and three of his students also perform highlights from his oeuvre, including the titular tune.

 

“The idea was supposed to be that it’s a blessing for everyone else that his shows never get done,” says Pittu, who penned the script and lyrics (with composer Randy Redd) and codirects with Atlantic artistic director Neil Pepe. “But I always like to see the dramatic possibility in characters people want to write off immediately. Without judging Sterling, I thought he would be a great filter to get across how I feel as an actor who loves musical theater but doesn’t necessarily like what it’s become.”

 

Thanks to his cousin Gene, a musical-theater fanatic, Pittu was listening to sophisticated shows like Follies when he was ten. “I knew this was good, smart stuff,” he recalls during a lunch break from rehearsals. “This was not No, No, Nanette-this was edgy and now. People don’t talk about quality anymore; they talk about grosses. Something succeeds because of the amount of money it makes.”

 

But Pittu skewers with a smile instead of a snarl, citing Mad magazine and Maude as cultural influences. “My point is not to condemn anyone,” he explains. “My interest is always to make people laugh. Yes, I can look at the world and say, ‘Yuck,’ but I don’t want to bring an audience in and punish them. I think theater that tries to be about something always makes you feel so guilty when you leave.”

 

Longtime friend and colleague Pepe sees a kindred sensibility in Pittu. “I think one of the reasons David is such a great entertainer is that he has a sense of the absurd,” notes the director, who became involved with the project when a short version was presented at the one-act festival 10 X 20 in 2006. “But what makes it all the more compelling is his great compassion for the characters he writes about and plays.”

 

To read the rest of the feature, click: http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/theater/55431/aroma-therapist

 

Conceived, performed and co-directed by David Pittu, WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING, features original music by Randy Redd and co-direction by Atlantic Artistic Director Neil Pepe.

 

Co-starring Peter Bartlett (The New Century, The Drowsy Chaperone), the new comedy also features Atlantic Acting School alumni Brandon Goodman and Matt Schock, and Heléne Yorke.

 

WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING, plays Tuesday through Saturday at 8:00pm, Saturday matinees at 2:00pm and Sundays at 3:00pm. All tickets are $35.00 and available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 (www.ticketcentral.com).

 

ATLANTIC STAGE 2 is located at 330 West 16^th Street (between 8^th & 9^th Avenues).  For membership information, wheelchair seating, and/or group sales call Ticketcentral at 212-279-4200 or visit www.ticketcentral.com.

 

www.atlantictheater.org

 

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WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING ANNOUNCES PETER BARTLETT

ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY

 

PETER BARTLETT JOINS DAVID PITTU

 

IN THE WORLD PREMIERE OF

 

WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING

a comedy with vocal selections

 

By David Pittu

Music by Randy Redd

Co-Directed by Neil Pepe and David Pittu

 

Previews begin Tuesday, September 2^nd, 2008

Opening Wednesday, September 10^th, 2008

 

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Managing Director) is proud to announce that Peter Bartlett (The New Century, The Drowsy Chaperone) will star opposite two-time Tony Award^® nominee David Pittu (Is He Dead?, LoveMusik), in the world premiere production of  WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING, featuring original music by Randy Redd.

 

The new comedy, conceived by Pittu and co-directed with Atlantic Artistic Director Neil Pepe, will begin previews Tuesday, September 2^nd, open Wednesday, September 10^th, and play a limited engagement through Sunday, September 28^th, 2008 Off-Broadway at Atlantic Stage 2 (330 West 16^th Street). A three character ensemble will be announced shortly.

 

WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING is an absurd musical satire that charts the career of eternally up-and-coming (and fictitious) musical theater composer Jacob Sterling (Pittu). A rare, up close and personal visit with an artist of questionable gifts who performs from his songbook and shares his human struggle to keep musical theater alive and well in the 21st century. 

 

The “comedy with vocal selections” marks the first production of Atlantic Stage 2’s 2008-2009 season at its second stage theater, where two new works are staged each year. Last season, the hit world premiere of Academy Award^® winning film maker Ethan Coen’s Almost an Evening, directed by Neil Pepe, played a sold out engagement at Stage 2 prior to a commercial Off-Broadway transfer. Playwright Annie Baker also made her acclaimed Off-Broadway debut with the world premiere of Body Awareness, directed by Karen Kohlhaas.

 

A second new play will be announced for the 2008-2009 Stage 2 season.

 

Veteran character actor Peter Bartlett makes his Atlantic debut in the new comedy that he developed with Pittu during the Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival this summer. Bartlett was most recently seen on the New York stage in Paul Rudnick’s collection of short comedies The New Century at Lincoln Center Theater, and on Broadway in the hit musical The Drowsy Chaperone. Other Broadway credits include The Frogs, Never Gonna Dance and Beauty and the Beast, and Off-Broadway in the Rudnick comedies The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told; Mr. Charles, Currently of Palm Beach; Rude Entertainment and Jeffrey. On television, he has played “Nigel” on “One Life to Live” for the past fifteen years.

 

Atlantic Company Member David Pittu most recently appeared at Atlantic in Harold Pinter’s Celebration and The Room, for which he received Drama Desk and Lortel Award nominations. Last season, his acclaimed performance in the Mark Twain comedy Is he Dead? earned him his second Tony Award^® nomination, after being nominated the previous year for the Kurt Weill musical LoveMusik. He has appeared on Broadway in The Coast of Utopia and Never Gonna Dance, for City Center Encores! in Of Thee I Sing, and Off-Broadway in Stuff Happens, The Fourth Wall and The Lights. As a director, Pittu staged Atlantic’s hit production of the George S. Kaufman comedy The Butter and Egg Man.

 

Atlantic Artistic Director Neil Pepe most recently directed a double-bill of Atlantic founder David Mamet’s plays – The Duck Variations and the world-premiere of Keep Your Pantheon at the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles. Last season, he staged the world premiere of Jez Butterworth’s Parlour Song at Atlantic and the world premiere of Ethan Coen’s Almost an Evening at Stage 2, followed by its commercial transfer. He will direct the upcoming Broadway revival of Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow at the Belasco Theatre this season.

 

Composer Randy Redd‘s most recent performance credits include the Broadway musical Ring of Fire and Terrence McNally’s play Some Men Off Broadway. He made his Broadway debut in the musical Parade and also appeared in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s By Jeeves. Original compositions include writing music and lyrics for the musicals The Deep End, Touche with Blair Ross and Dream Big!; music for the plays Composition and The Neon Bible, and the original score for the film Hold. His credits as a playwright include Mississippi Sugar and Quick Mud.

 

The design team for WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING will feature scenic design by Takeshi Kata, costume design by Martin Pakledinaz, lighting design by Matthew Richards, sound design by Jill DuBoff, projection design by Dustin O’Neill, and production stage management by Alison DeSantis

 

The world premiere Off-Broadway staging of WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING is a testament to Atlantic Stage 2’s mission to develop new works. It began as a short piece as part of the one-act festival 10 X 20, the inaugural production of the second stage theatre in 2006. This past June, an expanded developmental reading with David Pittu and Peter Bartlett was featured in the 11^th annual Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

 

BIOGRAPHIES

DAVID PITTU (Writer/performer/Co-Director).  As an Atlantic Company Member David Pittu has written, directed, and acted in countless Atlantic productions, most recently Pinter’s Celebration and The Room (Drama Desk and Lortel nominations). Last season, he received his second Tony Award^® nomination for his performance in the Mark Twain comedy Is He Dead? as well as an Outer Critics Circle nomination. Broadway:  LoveMusik (Tony Award^® and Drama Desk nomination; Outer Critics Circle Award), The Coast of Utopia, Never Gonna Dance. Off-Broadway: Stuff Happens (Drama Desk Award: Outstanding Ensemble), Of Thee I Sing (Encores!), The Fourth Wall, Sympathetic Magic, The Lights, Hot Keys, The Butter and Egg Man (as director), and, as co-author, The Audience (Drama Desk nom.: Outstanding Musical). Regional/National tour: Parade (National Broadway Award: Best Actor in a Musical), Titanic, Company (Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration).  Recent film:  This Side of the Truth (Ricky Gervais), King Kong (Peter Jackson).  TV:  “Rescue Me,” “Sex and the City,” “Third Watch,” “The Sopranos,” all of the “Law & Order” series.

 

NEIL PEPE (Co–Director) most recently staged the world premiere of Jez Butterworth’s Parlour Song at Atlantic and the world premiere of Ethan Coen’s Almost an Evening at Atlantic Stage 2, followed by its commercial transfer to The Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street. In May, he directed a double-bill of Atlantic founder David Mamet’s plays – the world-premiere of Keep Your Pantheon and The Duck Variations at the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles.  Recent credits include Harold Pinter’s first and most recent plays, The Room and Celebration at Atlantic, the world premiere of David Mamet’s comedy Romance at Atlantic as well as the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the world premiere of  Howard Korder’s Sea of Tranquility, Jez Butterworth’s Mojo and The Night Heron and Joe Penhall‘s Blue/Orange all at Atlantic, Further Than the Furthest Thing by Zinnie Harris (Manhattan Theater Club), Eric Bogosian’s Red Angel (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Mamet’s American Buffalo starring William H. Macy (Donmar Warehouse in London and Atlantic), Tom Donaghy’s The Beginning of August starring Mary Steenburgen (South Coast Rep. and Atlantic) and Jessica Goldberg’s Refuge (Playwrights Horizons); Hilary Bell’s Wolf Lullaby, Clean by Edwin Sanchez, Shaker Heights by Quincy Long, Five Very Live by David Van Matre and Call of the Wile E. by Patrick Breen, all at Atlantic.  In February, Neil will be directing the world premiere of Parlour Song by Jez Butterworth at Atlantic. Neil has been the Artistic Director of Atlantic Theater Company since 1992. He will direct the upcoming Broadway revival of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow at the Belasco Theatre this season.

 

PETER BARTLETT. Broadway: The Drowsy Chaperone, The Frogs, Never Gonna Dance, Voices in the Dark, Beauty and the Beast, Boom Boom Room, A Patriot for Me. Off-Broadway: The New Century, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told (Drama Desk nomination); Mr. Charles, Currently of Palm Beach; Jeffrey; Rude Entertainment; The Lady in Question. City Center Encores!: Call Me Madam, A Connecticut Yankee. Regional: La Jolla (The Importance of Being Earnest/ Drama-Loque), Williamstown (Light Up the Sky), Theatre-in-the-Square (Jeffrey/ Drama-Loque, Bay Area Critics Circle Award). Film: Disney’s The Princess and the Frog (upcoming), Meet the Parents, Jeffrey, Get Well Soon. TV: 15 years as Nigel on “One Life to Live,” “Ed”, “Law and Order C.I.” Actors Equity member since 1966.

 

RANDY REDD (Composer). Performing credits include Parade directed by Harold Prince (Lincoln Center Theater, national tour), Some Men (Second Stage) directed by Tripp Cullman, Smoke On The Mountain, Pump Boys and Dinettes (20^th  Anniversary), Forever Plaid, Blood Brothers, One Man Band and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s By Jeeves directed by Alan Ayckbourn. Regional: Actor’s Playhouse, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Geffen Playhouse, Kennedy Center, Goodspeed-at-Chester, Cape Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse, Pittsburgh CLO and others. Television: “The Wright Verdicts,” “Tony Awards,” “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.” Film: After the Storm directed by Hilla Medalia, Kinsey. CD: Parade (Original Cast Recording), Ring of Fire (Original Cast Recording), Lucky Stiff (York Theatre Company) and Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes (Jason Robert Brown). Concert: Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Joe’s Pub, Joe’s Pub in The Park with Jake Shears and Justin Bond, Live from the Bluebird Cafe, Alan Light’s Live From Home, Symphony Space, St. John the Divine, The Knitting Factory, Cooper Union. Original works include Mississippi Sugar, Composition by Tim McCracken, Quick Mud, The Deep End with Lance Horne and Touche with Blair Ross.

 

ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Managing Director) is the award winning Off-Broadway theater dedicated to producing great plays simply and truthfully utilizing an artistic ensemble. Atlantic believes that the story of the play and the intent of the playwright are at the core of the creative process. Atlantic’s acclaimed world premiere production of its first musical Spring Awakening, with music by Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven Sater and direction by Michael Mayer, won 8 Tony Awards^®, including Best Musical. In 2006, Atlantic was awarded the Lucille Lortel Prize for Outstanding Body of Work and its lauded production of Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant Of Inishmore, directed by Wilson Milam, transferred to the Lyceum Theatre, where it was nominated for five 2006 Tony Awards^® including Best Play.

 

Atlantic has produced five world premiere productions last season: Academy Award^® winning film maker Ethan Coen’s comedy Almost an Evening, directed by Neil Pepe and featuring Academy Award^® winner F. Murray Abraham and Mark Linn-Baker; Peter Parnell’s Trumpery, directed by David Esbjornson and featuring Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award^® winner Michael Cristofer and Tony Award^® nominee Manoel Felciano; Lucy Thurber’s Scarcity, directed by Jackson Gay and featuring Emmy Award^® winner Kristen Johnston, Jesse Eisenberg and Michael T. Weiss, Jez Butterworth’s Parlour Song, directed by Neil Pepe and featuring Chris Bauer, Jonathan Cake and Emily Mortimer and Annie Baker’s Body Awareness, directed by Karen Kohlhaas and featuring Academy Award^® nominee JoBeth Williams, Peter Friedman and Mary McCann.

 

The critically acclaimed New York premiere production of Oliver Award^® winning and Tony Award^® nominated playwright Conor McPherson’s play Port Authority, directed by Henry Wishcamper and featuring Tony Award^® nominee Brian d’Arcy James (Sweet Smell of Success), Tony Award^® winner John Gallagher, Jr. (Spring Awakening) and Tony Award^® winner Jim Norton (The Seafarer) concluded an extended engagement in June.

 

During he 2006-2007 season , founder David Mamet’s smash hit adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance, directed by David Warren and starring Michael Stuhlbarg and Fritz Weaver, was extended an unprecedented three times, the first time in Atlantic’s history. The world premiere production of Atlantic’s second musical 10 Million Miles, featuring music and lyrics by Grammy Award^® nominated singer/songwriter Patty Griffin, a book by Keith Bunin and direction by Tony Award^® winner Michael Mayer also played an extended limited engagement.

 

Since it’s inception in 1985, Atlantic has produced more than 100 plays including the Tony Award^® winning production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, the world premieres of Woody Allen’s A Second Hand Memory and Writer’s Block, the acclaimed world premiere of David Mamet’s Romance, Jez Butterworth’s Mojo, Tom Donaghy’s Minutes From The Blue Route, Edwin Sanchez’ Trafficking in Broken Hearts and the American premieres of Blue/Orange, Dublin Carol and The Night Heron, the New York premieres of The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow and The Cider House Rules, the revivals of American Buffalo, Edmond, The Hothouse and Hobson’s Choice.  Atlantic maintains an ensemble of acclaimed actors, writers and directors including David Mamet (playwright and director) and William H. Macy (Academy Award^® nominee for Fargo), who founded Atlantic over twenty years ago in 1985. 

 

WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE MUSIC OF JACOB STERLING will play Tuesday through Saturday at 8:00pm, Saturday matinees at 2:00pm and Sundays at 3:00pm. All tickets are $35.00 and available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 (www.ticketcentral.com).

 

ATLANTIC STAGE 2 is located at 330 West 16^th Street (between 8^th & 9^th Avenues).  For membership information, wheelchair seating, and/or group sales call Ticketcentral at 212-279-4200 or visit www.ticketcentral.com.

www.atlantictheater.org