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MCC Theater is Off-Broadway's hottest destination. And our upcoming 08/09 Season proves it, with three electrifying world premiere productions: Fifty Words, Michael Weller's powerful examination of modern marriage; The Break of Noon, a probing look at faith by Playwright-in-Residence Neil LaBute; and Coraline, with music and lyrics by smart-rock iconoclast Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields. Don't miss this opportunity to secure seats for all three productions at 50% off the full ticket price. Click here to subscribe today!

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Eskimos have fifty words for snow,
but there’s only one word for
Jan and Adam’s marriage:
*&?#%!

World Premiere
Sept 10-Nov 8, 2008
Fifty Words
by Michael Weller
with Norbert Leo Butz, Elizabeth Marvel
directed by Austin Pendleton

Something’s gone awry behind the idyllic façade of Jan and Adam’s Brooklyn brownstone.  At 9:10 p.m., they’re reveling in the freedom of having waved off their young son, Greg, to a neighborhood sleepover.  By 9:30 p.m., things have gone, well… way past awry.  Alternately funny and frightening, Fifty Words is an expansive look at modern marriage, as seen through the looking glass of one couple’s long night’s journey into day.

Playwright Michael Weller shot to stardom with his powerful anti-war drama, Moonchildren.  Weller’s unique voice, at once moving and revelatory, has garnered acclaim throughout three decades of productions at distinguished theatres such as Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company and New York’s Circle-in-the-Square.  Elizabeth Marvel (Top Girls, Hedda Gabler), a true virtuoso of the modern stage, will play Jan.  Renowned actor and director Austin Pendleton (Spoils of War, The Little Foxes) will helm this brutal and insightful new work by one of America’s most perceptive playwrights.

 “Michael Weller has shown that his keen vision surveys the personal, not the generic…  What he maps out, after all, is the landscape of his own heart.” – NY Times

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The road to hell may be paved with good intentions
but the road to heaven is littered with
everything else.

World Premiere
Jan 14-Feb 28, 2009
The Break of Noon
by Neil LaBute
directed by TBA

Joe Smith’s just had an epiphany.  In a blinding flash, he’s been gloriously transformed from avowed disbeliever to fervent believer.  But he quickly finds himself at the center of his own rapidly crumbling life, as those nearest to him kick back against his newfound faith.  Suddenly a stranger to those he values most, Joe must find a modern response to the age-old question: at what cost, salvation?

The Break of Noon marks Neil LaBute’s seventh collaboration with MCC Theater as Playwright-in-Residence.  Best known for his blackly-comic morality plays (Fat Pig, Some Girl(s), reasons to be pretty) and edgy hit films (In the Company of Men, Nurse Betty), LaBute now sets his sights on the daunting, sometimes harrowing process of “finding religion,” as his hero struggles toward the light, rather than remain in the relative safety of the dark.

“LaBute’s talents go beyond glibly vicious storytelling and extend into the thoughtful analyses of a world rotten with original sin.” –NY Times

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And by the portal
As if by design
Stands a mortal girl without a friend
Who people tend to ignore.
A girl of (say) nine…

World Premiere
May 6-June 20, 2009
Coraline
Music and Lyrics by      Book by
Stephin Merritt             David Greenspan
Based on the Novel by
Neil Gaiman
Directed by Leigh Silverman                         

Poor bored Coraline.  She’s left to rattle 'round her perpetually distracted parents’ house all by her lonesome. Then one day, her dreams of a better reality are answered as she steps through an old oak doorway and passes into a perfected replica of her own world.  Greeted there by a vastly loving Other Mother and kindly Other Father, she’s thrilled!  But, as the saying goes: Be careful what you wish for…

A musical like no other, Coraline sprang from the minds of three of the most wildly popular cult heroes of our time. Adapted from the truly terrifying children’s book by Neil Gaiman (author of the international sensation Sandman), this tale of menace and mayhem is set to music and lyrics by smart-rock iconoclast Stephin Merritt (of The Magnetic Fields), and boasts a book by celebrated downtown actor-cum-auteur, David Greenspan, who serves double-duty as the villain, Coraline’s suspiciously nurturing Other Mother.

 “Critics sometimes compare Stephin Merritt with Cole Porter because Porter is shorthand for the kind of smart, urbane lyrics Merritt writes.” –NY Times “David Greenspan is probably all-round the most talented theater artist of my generation.” –Tony Kushner

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*Schedule and programming subject to change.