A musical comedy/murder mystery written by Eastern Shore playwright Earl Lewin will debut in New York City on Sunday, October 7th. The Burgundy Wine Mob will open off-Broadway at The Tank Theater located on the 8th floor at 151 West 46th Street with two performances: a 3 pm matinee and a second performance at 7 p.m.
Written, produced, and directed by Lewin of Chestertown, Maryland, the The Burgundy Wine Mob hosts a cast of well-known actors and singers from Maryland’s Eastern Shore. A musical score moves the plot along with classic 1930’s show tunes arranged and recorded by Dick Durham. The cast includes Amy Moredock as “Tulip”, Avra Sullivan as “Frankie”, Jane Copple as “Angie”, Chris Rogers as “Jones”, Mark Wiening as “Tony”, and Brian Whitaker as “Max”.
A Bunch of dangerous characters have come together at the Bongo Bongo Club all with the same goal in mind: getting their hands on a pile of money that was illegally obtained by the Burgundy Wine Mob. The Mob consists of Jones, Max, and Johnnie, a group of bumbling ne’er do wells who swipe a priceless wine collection. Johnnie took charge of fencing it for $3 million dollars. Unfortunately for the others he disappeared with the cash. Now Johnnie has been rubbed out and it seems that nobody knows who killed him or where the cash is. Johnnie’s girlfriend shows up with a key he gave her before his untimely death. What’s it for? Even she doesn’t know. Maybe the answer is at the Bongo Bongo Club. When she shows up at the club one night, everyone present knows she has this key. Everybody wants that money. Nobody is safe.
During intermission, audience members get a chance to guess who done it and find out who is the best sleuth in the joint.
A bus trip from Chestertown to New York is being arranged for the matinee. The bus will depart Chestertown at 8 a.m. and return around 8 p.m. that evening. The cost of the trip is $75 and includes bus fare, theatre ticket, and return meal. Bus capacity is limited to 47 people, so please contact Earl Lewin at 410-778-6162 for information on the bus trip before the bus is full.
Lewin, the author and producer of a number of dinner theater musicals, has also directed and acted in countless productions. He is a published playwright whose work was presented in 2003 at the New York Rash Theatre Company’s One Act Play Festival. He wrote and directed film for General Electric for many years and started his own company that produced film and video for major businesses and the government. He holds degrees in theater, radio, film, and communications from Temple University, and has been an adjunct professor of film at Rowan University.
Lewin and Durham are familiar presences in the Eastern Shore theater community. They are also no strangers to NCY where, in 2010 their production of the musical
“Celluloid” opened in New York City after its Church Hill Theatre debut in 2006. The Church Hill production of “Celluloid” drew critical praise, including such comments as, “good pacing, catchy tunes, clever lyrics and extraordinarily disciplined rhyme schemes,” to “a helluva diverting evening,” to ”reaches out to a more reflective level of human feeling.”
The Burgundy Wine Mob will mark Lewin’s second production at The Tank Theatre. Founded in 2003, The Tank is a Manhattan-based, non-profit arts presenter. Curating across all disciplines, The Tank provides an artistic home to both new and established artists who are engaged in the pursuit of new ideas. Combining free performance space, subsidized rehearsal space, discounted ticket prices, and promotional support, The Tank brings quality programming to a new generation of audience for live performance, civic discourse, and the work of emerging artists. The Tank is a volunteer-run organization and a curated space. Visit The Tank at www.thetanknyc.org.
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