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Audible Inc. has announced full casting for the return engagement of The Public Theater's critically acclaimed Coal Country, written by Drama Desk winners Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen with original music written and performed by three-time Grammy Award winner Steve Earle.
Kym Gomes (Judge) and Carl Palmer (Goose) will join the previously announced original company members Mary Bacon (Patti), Amelia Campbell (Mindi), Ezra Knight (Roosevelt), Thomas Kopache (Gary), Michael Laurence (Tommy), and Deirdre Madigan (Judy). Steve Earle returns to perform his original score, with select performances by Joe Jung.
Directed by Jessica Blank, Coal Country's world premiere run opened as a New York Times Critic's Pick on March 3, 2020. Before an untimely closing in the face of the pandemic, The New York Times called it "devasting and heart-wrenching," The Hollywood Reporter said it is "political theater of the most lucid, urgent, and necessary kind, given soaring emotional heft by Steve Earle's songs," and The New Yorker praised it as "an outstanding, outraged, life-filled documentary play."
In September 2021, Audible recorded and released the play, with the majority of the original cast, as an Audible Original ( available here), giving the riveting documentary play new life and extending its reach to millions of Audible listeners around the world.
Produced by Audible, Coal Country began rehearsals this week and will return to the stage at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street, NYC), beginning previews Friday, March 4, 2022 and opening Thursday, March 10, 2022. Opening night will mark 2 years to the day that the original production shut down as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Audible Theater also continues to operate its home at the Minetta Lane Theatre, where Robert O'Hara's reimagined production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night is currently in previews.
Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, the creative minds behind the award-winning docudrama The Exonerated, bring their signature style to this strikingly innovative New York Times Critic's Pick that delves into the aftermath of the West Virginia mine explosion of 2010, highlighting the indomitable resilience of an American community on a quest for justice.
Featuring the musical talents of three-time Grammy Award winner Steve Earle (the Audible Original (The Moment in) 1965 (When Rock and Roll Becomes Art), Coal Country powerfully combines the country/folk legend's "soaring emotional heft and superbly evocative string-picking" (The Hollywood Reporter) with actual first-person accounts from survivors and family members, immortalizing their stories of survival in this soulful yet resolute tribute.
The show's original creative team will reunite for this production: Richard Hoover (scenic design), Jessica Jahn (costume design), David Lander (lighting design), Darron L West (sound design), and Adesola Osakalumi (movement director), in addition to Janelle Caso (Production Stage Manager) and Andy Jones & Dylan Pager (General Management, Baseline Theatrical). Casting by Jordan Thaler & Kate Murray with additional Casting by X Casting, Victor Vazquez.
Tickets are on sale to the general public at www.coalcountrymusical.com.
Coal Country runs approximately 1 hour 30 minutes with no intermission.
Audible Theater values the health and safety of its theatergoers, employees, and performers. All attendees must show proof of vaccination and wear a mask. For more information on the Cherry Lane Theatre's COVID policy, https://www.cherrylanetheatre.org/covid-19-protocol
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