Huntington Theatre Company Artistic Director Peter Dubois makes his Boston directorial debut with the world premiere of David Grimm's outrageous comedy, "The Miracle at Naples." Tony and Drama Desk Award-winner Dick Latessa ("Hairspray") returns to the Huntington to play Don Bertolino Fortunato, the leader of a troupe of commedia players who are down on their luck. Lucy DeVito, daughter of acclaimed actors/comedians Danny DeVito and Rhea Pearlman, makes her Huntington debut as La Piccola, Don Bertolino's long-suffering daughter and member of the troupe. "The Miracle at Naples" is for mature audiences.
In "The Miracle at Naples," Don Bertolino Fortunato and his motley band of traveling commedia dell'arte players arrive in a Neapolitan town square. It's September 19, 1580, and the locals are awaiting the annual miracle: the liquefaction of blood the of the city's patron saint. But the miracle won't occur, and therefore neither can the feast of San Gennaro nor Don Bertonlino's troupe's performance. As the locals and the travelers anticipate the satisfaction of the miracle's occurrence, their passions ignite and various combinations of lustful lovers romp through the town piazza seeking pleasure and discovering the many forms of love.
Grimm sets his play as the era of traveling troupes is coming to a close and Italy's first playhouses are being built to house written dramas. "The Miracle at Naples" explores and rejoices in the varied forms of both theatre and love -the scripted and the improvised.
"'The Miracle at Naples' is screamingly funny," remarks DuBois. "David's genius is that he matches the play's bawdiness and boisterousness with incredible emotional depth and wit. This play is a gorgeous human exploration of love in its multiple forms, from the improvised and instinctual, to the courtly and classically romantic. David is a real poet of both the beauty of instant pleasure and the search for enduring meaning. He is equally adept at writing a deeply textured scene about love as a good dirty joke, and this play has plenty of both!"
Grimm suggests, "Sex and sexuality are prime motivators of human life. It's what gets us up in the mornings. How are we to love each other and be a better society if we can't be who we are? We're a very Puritan country, titillated by things, but we don't know how to take them seriously. I'm particularly excited to premiere this play in Boston, a city of incongruity, that is Puritan, but also the seat of the American Revolution. I think incongruity is where really exciting things can happen."
Grimm and DuBois have been developing "The Miracle at Naples" for over two years, researching together in Naples and workshopping the script at The New Dramatists Playwright's Center and, last summer, at the Huntington. The two last collaborated at The Public Theater on "Measure for Pleasure," which earned a Drama League Award nomination for Distinguished Production of a New Play and a SSDF Callaway Award for Excellence in Directing for DuBois.
The award-winning, gender-bending, and highly imaginative David Grimm is the author of "Measure for Pleasure" (GLADD Media Award nomination), "Kit Marlowe" (NY Post "10 Best Plays of 2000"), and "The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue." In addition to directing the world premiere of Grimm's "Measure for Pleasure," Peter Dubois' credits include the just-closed Off Broadway hit, Gina Gionfriddo's "Becky Shaw," Bob Glaudini's "Jack Goes Boating" with Philip Seymour Hoffman and "A View from 151st Street," "Richard III" with Peter Drinklage, and the West Coast premiere of Susan-Lori Park's "In the Blood," among others. Prior to becoming the Artistic Director of the Huntington Theatre Company, he served as associate producer and resident director of New York City's Public Theater and artistic director of the Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska.
The cast includes:
Alma Cuervo ("Beauty and the Beast," "Cabaret," and "The Heidi Chronicles" on Broadway) as Francescina, nursemaid and guardian to Flaminia
Lucy DeVito ("Lucy" and "Thicker than Water" at the Ensemble Studio Theatre; "The Diary of Anne Frank" at the Intiman Theatre) as Don Bertolino's long-suffering daughter, La Piccola
Dick Latessa ("She Loves Me," "The Cherry Orchard," and "Don Juan" at the Huntington; Tony, Drama Desk, and OBIE Awards for Wilbur Turnblad in "Hairspray") as commedia dell'arte troupe leader Don Bertolino Fortunato
Alfredo Narciso ("A Streetcar Named Desire" on Broadway; "Drunken City" Off Broadway) as poet and chivalric commedia troupe member Giancarlo
Pedro Pascal ("Old Comedy" and "Some Men" Off Broadway; "Hamlet" at Boston's Commonwealth Shakespeare Company) as Tristano, troupe member and pleasure-seeking pal to Matteo
Christina Pumariega ("Catch 22" Off Broadway; "All Eyes and Ears" at INTAR Theatre) as pleasure and love-seeking merchant's daughter Flaminia
Gregory Wooddell ("Cymbeline" on Broadway; "Some Men" at the Philadelphia Theatre Company) as Matteo, a troupe-member and pleasure-seeking pal to Tristano.
The Ensemble includes Paul Cereghino, Sam Kikes, Rebecca Newman, and Jessica Uher.
