By Julian Barry
Based on the life and words
of Lenny Bruce
Peter Morris, Bud Samiljan,
Georgie Paul, Arnie Shamblin, and Wayne Liebman
Director
Set by
Costumes by
Lights and Sound by
Fantasy Trial Costumes by
Choreography
Production Coordinator
Assistant Director
Technical Directors
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Michael David Wadler
Gene Mazzanti
Don Woodruff
Michael David Wadler
Kate Lindsay
Todd Nielsen
Barbara Beckley
Sandra Kinder
Robert Budaska and Ron Morhous
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CAST (in order of appearance
without masks):
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Wayne
Liebman
Bud Samiljan
Peter Morris
Arnie Shamblin
Danny Roger
Robert Budaska
Jennifer Susan Lawson
Edward Ansara
Madelyn Cates
Georgie Paul
Theresa Bailey
Craig Christiansen
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Lenny
Bruce
Juan
Radio Announcer
Nod-out
Southern Gent
Plainclothesmen
Cop
Bailiff
Drummer
Artie
Igor
Reporter
Trumpet Player
Ernie
Superintendent
Bishop
Detective
Cop
Hitler
Saxophonist
Best Man
Reporter
Cop
Lenny’s Roommate
Club Owners
Father
Ike
District Attorney
Photographer
Rusty
Sherman Hart
Black Magic Rabbi
Judges
Sally Marr
Maria Ouspenskaya
Organist
Sophie Tucker
Aunt Mema
Nanny
Southern Lady
Matron Juror
Nurse
Chinese Waitress
Operator
Mrs. Sherman Hart
Court Reporter
Girl Without I.D.
Interviewer
Piano Player
Lenny’s Lawyer
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and assorted weird tribesman
Note: the role of Rusty will
be played by Kimberly Alexander on April 23rd, 24th and 25th.
"Seven on Seven" written
and performed by Craig Christiansen
"All Alone" Words
and Music by Lenny Bruce
"Lenny Bruce" written
and performed by Bob Dylan
Lenny Bruce was
. . . an important, seminal, absolutely pervasive influence in American
social commentary. You cannot watch a late-night show these days that has
a comedian on it without finding some of Lenny Bruce in his performance.
His impact on those who practice his craft was as fundamental as that of
Louis Armstrong in his generation or Charlie Parker in his.
— Ralph J. Gleason, Rolling
Stone
There was community pressure
. . . in the sense that the overwhelming percentage of the population wanted
Lenny Bruce prosecuted and they wanted him punished because his words were
offensive and his ideas hurt the Establishment. He said things that the
Establishment didn’t want said. For that reason, I feel, there was a compulsion
to prosecute and punish him. And we did. He didn’t harm anybody, he didn’t
commit an assault, he didn’t steal, he didn’t engage in any conduct that
directly harmed someone else. So, therefore, he was punished, first and
foremost, because of the words that he used . . . At the time, I was given
a job to do, I was wrapped up in the prosecution of it and was oblivious
to some of the things we were doing . . . I wouldn’t have anything to do
with his prosecution now.
— Vincent Cuccia, Assistant
District Attorney, New York City
There are few comedians
to whom I would apply the word genius, but Lenny Bruce is one such... It
requires reading Lenny’s routines to oneself — now, in the 1980's — to
realize that not only was he ahead of his time, he is still ahead of our
time. Richard Pryor gets into some painful areas now and then. George Carlin
calls a spade a spade in some particulars. But none of them ever comes
close to Bruce, who did almost nothing else. Everything he said was deep,
biting, cutting, and usually brilliant.
— Steve Allan, Funny People
I first saw Lenny Bruce
in San Francisco, and was puzzled. I then saw him in Chicago, and was intrigued.
I then saw him in New York City and was slightly scared by the nakedness
with which this performer revealed himself. And then I began to laugh —
to laugh at the wildness of on of the most bizarre imaginations that’s
ever been let loose on a night club audience. I’ve been laughing ever since.
Of course, I’m in a minority there, but I think Lenny’s admirers always
will be. He goes out to do a rush jib of psychoanalysis on the audience,
to root out their deepest inhibitions, their deepest repressions, all the
things that scare them and are never talked about, and holds them up to
the most relentless scrutiny, analyses them, tries to force the audience
to come to terms with reality — actual, unspeakable reality. This is a
hard thing to do anywhere, and it’s even harder to keep it as comic as
he does . . . At his best he rises above mere evangelism and moral fervor
into flights of fantasy, unscalable skyscrapers of sheer wit and baroque
invention that, as far as I know, have never had any rivals on the English-speaking
stage.
— Kenneth Tynan, Lenny Bruce
Without Tears
Read the Drama-Logue
Review

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