Robert Emmet Sherwood’s 1936 Pulitzer Prize winning play

April 15th – May 1st

VITAL THEATRE COMPANY is pleased to announce “IDIOT’S DELIGHT,” written by Robert Emmet Sherwood and directed by Vital Associate Artistic Director Julie Hamberg as the next show if its 2004 spring season. The production begins previews on Thursday, April 15th at 7:00 p.m. and opens Saturday, April 17th at 7:00 p.m. Performances run Thursdays through Sundays at 7:00 p.m. through May 1st with an additional performance Monday, April 19th at 7:00 p.m. All tickets are $15.00. $10.00 with a valid student ID. TDF Accepted. For reservations, please log onto www.vitaltheatre.org or call (212) 592-0129. Vital Theatre Company is located at 432 W. 42nd Street, 3rd Floor, between 9th and 10th Avenues on Theater Row.

“IDIOT’S DELIGHT,” the 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, originally written for Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, was also adapted for a 1939 film starring Clark Gable. It tells the story of a young English couple on their honeymoon, a French socialist, a German scientist, a munitions magnate, the inscrutable but magnetic Russian Irene, and the vulgar but lovable American Harry Van and his blonde-bombshells who are thrown together in a small winter resort in the Italian Alps on the eve of WWII. The play throws into ironic relief the individual human being who, having brought upon himself the obscene idiocy of wholesale destruction by war, wakes up to find that he can do nothing more than make a futile gesture against the forces he has set in action.

Playwright ROBERT EMMET SHERWOOD, known for many plays including “THE PETRIFIED FORREST” has, in addition to IDIOT’S DELIGHT, garnered Pulitzers for his plays “ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS,” “THERE SHALL BE NO NIGHT” and “ROOSEVELT AND HOPKINS, a memoir.” Sherwood began his career in journalism as a critic and editor for both Life magazine and the New York Herald. His story for The Best Years of Our Lives earned Sherwood an Oscar for Best Screenplay and Rebecca was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. Sherwood later became drama editor of Vanity Fair and, with his colleagues Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley, found his way to the Algonquin Round Table. In 1938 Sherwood formed, with Maxwell Anderson, Sidney Howard, Elmer Rice, and S.N. Behrman, the Playwrights' Company, which became a major producing company. Even having written the pacifist IDIOT’S DELIGHT, Sherwood served President Franklin D. Roosevelt as speechwriter and adviser and later became special assistant to the secretary of war and to the secretary of the navy and also served as director of the overseas branch of the Office of War Information.

Director JULIE HAMBERG helmed Vital Theatre's main stage productions of “FUNNY” that was subsequently recognized with an Award for Excellence in 2002 by the Off Off Broadway Review, as well as “DUCKS CROSSING.” Among her long list of credits is the rarely revived “RAIN FROM HEAVEN” by S.N. Behrman for Reckless Theatre Company. As a four-time alumnus of the Lincoln Center Theater’s Directors Lab, she was awarded a fully-staged Workshop Production in 1997 to direct Simon Fill’s “POST PUNK LIFE.” Ms. Hamberg has directed new plays at The ArcLight, the Westbeth Theatre Center, NYC's Fringe Festival, Six Figures, New Georges, The Lab and Circle Rep Lab. She also served as assistant director at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theatre and most recently as a Drama League Fellow as assistant director to Daniel Sullivan on Shaw’s “MAJOR BARBARA” for the Roundabout Theatre on Broadway.

Featured in the cast is RON McCLARY who plays HARRY VAN, a small-time vaudeville performer who, after years of touring vaudeville circuits and sideshows, claims to finally have hit the big time in Europe with his stellar act, Les Blondes. AIMEE HAYES plays IRENE (pronounced “Ear-ray-na”), a glamorous and mysterious Russian, who arrives on the arm of an international arms dealer. Rounding out the cast of eccentric and interesting characters is RICHARD RICE ALAN, ALESSANDRA BONVICINI, KATIE BRACK, MICHAEL CECCHI, JOSHUA COLE, NEAL FENTON, JESSI GOTTA, MICHAEL HUBER, CHRISTIAN JOHNSTONE, MICHAEL LOMBARDI, and ALYSSA SIMON.

The design team includes costumes by VANESSA LEUCK and lighting by CARRIE YACONO, musical direction by KELLY MARTIN. TESSA LaNEVE is the Stage Manager.

Now in its sixth season, VITAL THEATRE COMPANY maintains two intimate spaces on Theatre Row. Vital produces intriguing adult and children’s theatre. For more information, please visit www.vitaltheatre.org.

Scenic Design: Roberto Sanchez-Camus