For Show Info Contact: Kevin Kennedy The Peccadillo Theater Company thepeccadillo@aol.com | Phone: 646-279-3091
For Bookings Contact: Brad Simon Organization brad@bsoinc.com | Phone: 212-730-2132

Ginny Redington and Tom Dawes (Book, Lyrics and Music) Ginny and Tom come from successful careers in the music business as singers, songwriters, musicians, arrangers and producers. Ms. Redington wrote songs for artists such as Sarah Vaughan. Eddy Arnold and Gladys Knight, as well as performing her own material. Mr. Dawes was a member of the rock group The Cyrkle, best known for their hits "Red Rubber Ball" and "Turn Down Day". He also produced a number of records for other artists, including two gold albums for the British blues group Foghat. Together, Ginny and Tom wrote the music and lyrics for some of the most well-known worldwide advertising campaigns of the last few decades, including "We're American Airlines", "Plop Plop, Fizz Fizz" for Alka Seltzer, "You, You're the One" for Mcdonald's, and "Coke is It". They have since written and photographed two popular books on antiques: "The Bakelite Jewelry Book", and "The Victorian Jewelry Book", that have had multiple printings in many languages. Both in their late 50s, Ginny and Tom and are currently working on "The Georgian Jewelry Book" for a Christmas '06 release, as well as another project for the musical theater.

Ginny Redington and Tom Dawes's well-crafted period-style songs are genuinely clever, and the classic quips briskly deployed throughout, still crackle. The New Yorker Frothy! "The Talk of the Town" draws from a sizable reservoir of snappy remarks. A singing and dancing anthology. The New York Times A merry musical, wonderfully well cast! Backstage

(Review. John Simon is the New York theater critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.) August 26 (Bloomberg) - What a pleasure for a critic to be able to like a show not only from top to bottom, but also from side to side. The famous wits of the Algonquin Round Table, who met for lunch in that hotel's Rose Room, made life in the 20s and 30s less square for those who heard or read them. And now there is a little musical about them. Where? At the Algonquin, natch, although at the Oak Room. (A Rose by any other name may be an Oak.) It's called "The Talk of the Town," and that's what it should be. How witty they were! The seven who appear in the show are Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, Robert Sherwood, Edna Ferber, Mark Connelly, and George S. Kaufman. You'd swear it is them you see and hear, so very much like their prototypes are the splendid singing actors who impersonate-no, embody them. The only slight difference is that they are a bit better looking than the originals, and probably also sing better. But who's complaining? The magicians who summoned them up are, in the first place, Ginny Redington and Tom Dawes, who wrote book, music and lyrics. The lyrics are cunning-the hard-living Parker sings about one of her lovers, "The man was so goddamn laconic/ I tripled the gin in my tonic." But they are not merely funny; they are also touching. In a song of self-rebuke, the clownish Benchley sings, "When I look into the mirror,/ The truth is all the clearer,/ That I see." And the music matches the words. It manages to be clever, melancholy, sentimental, biting, and heart-wrenching (Parker's lament at the fond but married Benchley not becoming her lover)-as called for. And it is in period for a time when Tin Pan Alley set the tone, but it is more gold than tin, and you'll find it up your alley, especially when played and sung this deliciously. And the book? Well, a lot of the jokes are a canny gleaning of these funny folks' best witticisms-vitriolic, satirical, punning, nose-thumbing-and you may have read or heard them before, but never delivered so pungently, by those who spoke or wrote them, and in their proper setting and context. But you'll be surprised how many of the less-known epigrams you have never encountered are just as hilarious. Or how often the humor is lined with seriousness, even poignance. Don't think, however, that the authors have merely bedizened themselves with borrowed plumage. The feathers in their caps are often their madcap own, and no less tickling. And this not only in the smart lyrics, but also in the spoken dialogue, which sparkles or skewers, amuses or touches. And the way Dan Wackerman has directed , and Mercedes Ellington moved around, the actors brings out every scintilla of their talent at its most scintillating. I name them with awe: Kristin Maloney (Parker), Chris Weikel (Benchley), Rob Seitelman (Woollcott), Adam MacDonald (Sherwood), Donna Coney Island (Ferber), Stephen Wilde (Connelly) and, as Kaufman, Jeffrey Biering who also did the snazzy arrangements and orchestrations. That's from top to bottom; the side by side refers to the contiguous piano of music director Mark Janas and keyboard of Justin Depuydt that merge into a single harmonious, almost orchestral sound. You may also pleasantly dine in the Oak Room's gracious, oak-paneled space. But I suppose that not even ambrosia could be as tasty as this "Talk of the Town." Bear in mind that these Round Table wits became the cutting diamonds of Harold Ross's original "New Yorker," whose wit in somewhat etiolated form you may still find in that magazine. Will it be as mordant as this from a Parker book review: "The author is a writer for the ages. The ages of four to eight"? Or as this, from a Kaufman theater review: "I liked the play, but then I saw it under adverse conditions. The curtain was up. The musical is on a brief hiatus till September 11, after which it will play on Sunday and Monday evenings. It is a production of the Peccadillo Theater Company, but missing it would be more than a peccadillo-a sin.

What Fresh Musical is This? Sure to become a favorite among connoisseurs of scathing Manhattan wit. It's hard to imagine another musical within a thousand mile radius of the Algonquin's Rose Room which can match The Talk of the Town for cleverness, sophistication and period tunefulness. We need stuff like this on Broadway. Broadwayworld.com Delightful! A lovely little musical, as bright as a cheery cocktail party with friends. Offoffonline.com A tuneful score that captures the group's buoyant highs as well as the inevitable lows with lyrics that honor the characters' spirit and wit. (Selected as one of the Best of 2004) Curtain Up! Bright fast-moving fun. Clever lyrics, a tuneful score and an attractive, talented cast, a good match for the fashionable froth of this vicious, but never boring circle. Culturevulture.net What fun! How can contemporary writers dare to rival the wit of the Algonquin Round Table? Ginny Redington and Tom Dawes pull it off with dash and aplomb, and the lyrics, newly coined, are in the same league. TALK OF THE TOWN is a Broadway show. Long may it wave! (Voted one of ten best plays of 2004). Performing Arts INSIDER Redington and Dawes have created a gloriously diverse score. What they have achieved with "Talk of the Town" is no small feat. American Theater.Web A hearty, entertaining, clever, nostalgic new musical which celebrates the 1920's Round Table in song, dance and repartee, but humanizes the notables by delving into the unhappiness behind their intellectually sparkling façades. The Talk of the Town is a refreshing reminder about what's long been special and elite about living in New York. New York Calling Theater Delightfully entertaining. Whimsical! Naughty! Crisply directed. A captivating cast. The music captures the spirit of the Round Table as deftly as do the spoken words. This playfully glowing gem deserves a long and healthy life of its own after this run. nytheatre.com

For Show Information
Please call or click:

Kevin Kennedy
The Peccadillo Theater Company
thepeccadillo@aol.com
Phone: 646-279-3091

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