SAN DIEGO REPERTORY THEATRE continues its 2006-2007 Season

With RANDAL MYLER’S delightful country-western musical

HANK WILLIAMS: LOST HIGHWAY, starring VAN ZEILER

Performances begin SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11; Opening FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17;

running through DECEMBER 17 in the LYCEUM SPACE in Downtown San Diego

SAN DIEGO , CA -  San Diego REPertory Theatre invites you to take a trip along with HANK WILLIAMS: LOST HIGHWAY, as it continues its 2006-2007 Season with the country–western musical by Randal Myler and Mark Harelik. Directed by award-winning REP favorite Myler (Love, Janis; It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues), and starring acclaimed actor Van Zeiler as Hank, in a musical that tells the legendary songwriter’s heartbreaking story with more than twenty all-time favorites including I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, Your Cheatin’ Heart, and Hey Good Lookin’.  Performances begin Saturday, November 11 at 8PM; with Opening Night on Friday, November 17 at 8PM; running through December 17 on the Lyceum Stage in downtown San Diego . 

The New York Times called it “Great fun... absolutely delightful”; and Elaine Liner of the Dallas Star-Telegram says this “Hits just the right note … great music and a deeply affecting performance … achingly sad … with full-out, foot-stomping performances of Williams' hits.”

"Imagine this: It's 1949. You're cozy in your seat at the Grand Ole Opry, expecting a foot-stomping good time. 
Then a skinny guy moseys on up to the mic, a pedal steel guitar moans, and a voice so full of pain and beauty that it sends chills down your spine fills the theater with poetry and music.   Hear the lonesome whippoorwill/ He sounds too blue to fly/ The midnight train is whining low/ I'm so lonesome I could cry.  
Your breath is snatched away and you are instantly transported as Hank Williams wraps his music around you. You don't want it to stop. Ever." ( Arizona Daily Star)  

The cast features Van Zeiler; Stephen G. Anthony, Charles W. Bevel, Margaret Bowman, Patricia Dalen, H. Drew Perkins, Mike Regan, Regan Southard, Myk Watford and Russ Wever.  The creative staff includes Dan Wheetman (musical director/arrangements), Vicki M. Smith (sets), Don Darnutzer (lights), Robert Blackwell (Costumes), and Eric Stahlhammer (sound).

Randal Myler was nominated for a 2003 Outer Critics Circle Award (Best Director) for Hank Williams: Lost Highway, which he wrote and directed. He also wrote and directed the hit musical Love, Janis and received a Tony® nomination for It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues, which he co-authored and directed at Lincoln Center .   He has examined the lives of The Mamas and the Papas (Dream a Little Dream), frequent co-writer Mark Harelik’s grandfather (The Immigrant); and  John Denver (Almost Heaven and Back Home Again: A John Denver Holiday Concert, upcoming at Ventura's Rubicon Theater Company), Regionally he has directed throughout the United States, including The Kennedy Center, the Mark Taper Forum, the Arena Stage, the Actor's Theatre of Louisville and many others.

Van Zeiler alternated as Hank in the original NYC production of Lost Highway ; and played the title role in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story in London , on UK/US tours (Jefferson Award nominee Best Actor in a Musical). He has extensive NY and regional credits at Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, Looking Glass Theatre, CAP21, Transport Group, HERE; Actors Theatre of Louisville, Dallas Theatre Center, Arizona Rep, Kansas City Rep, New Harmony Theatre, Ordway Center, Princeton Rep, Cortland Rep. Film/TV: “All My Children,” “Guiding Light,” “Tad,” “Families at War” (BBC).

Many in the company originated their roles in New York and played them across the country.  Stephen G. Anthony has been seen in Sanders Family Christmas, Pump Boys & Dinettes, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, and James Joyce’s “The Dead,” One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Real Thing, The Pavilion, and As You Like It. Margaret Bowman’s regional credits include Fire on the Mountain (Denver); Always, Patsy Cline, Hair, The Rocky Horror Show, Box Church ; the film Waiting for Guffman and “A Woman of Independent Means”.  H. Drew Perkins has toured with Always, Patsy Cline, Honky Tonk Angels, It Ain’t Nothin’ But The Blues, and Minnie Pearl; was music director for Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Theatre Virginia production of Fair and Tender Ladies; ASF commissioned him to score the music for Truman Capote’s Holiday Memories.  Regan Southard has been seen in The Cowboy..., A Streetcar Named Desire, Billy Liar, Sally and Marsha, The House of Blue Leaves; with the Upright Citizens Brigade; and in  a recurring role on "As the World Turns."  Myk Watford was in Broadway’s Tony Award®-winner Take Me Out, The Gathering; Off-B’way: MTC’s Five By Tenn, Touch the Names, The Glory of Living, Anardarko, Pastures of Plenty, Robbers, Hamlet, Poor Fellas; has extensive regional, tv and film credits ; and is in the subversive New York rock band Utah Mafia.  Russ Wever appeared in over twenty-five hundred performances of A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline and Patsy! and is a featured performer at the annual International Steel Guitar Convention in St. Louis .  They are joined by Mississippi Charles Bevel, who was in Fire On The Mountain (SD REP, Denver Center); Broadway’s It Ain’t Nothin’ But The Blues (LCT); regionally in Let Me Live (Goodman); The Piano Lesson ; I Am A Man; Thunder Knocking at The Door ; Famous Orpheus; Ma’ Rainey’s Black Bottom; Polk County and Stories About The Old Days; and received 2005 Woodie and Jeff Awards, Helen Hayes and Tony Award® nominations.  Patricia Dalen’s Broadway credits include Indiscretions and Buried Child; Off-B’way’s The Country Wife, The Miser, The Winter’s Tale, Life Is A Dream .  Mike Regan was in Fire On The Mountain (SD REP, Denver , MET-NY, Barter, Cerritos and Florida ); extensive West Coast and regional credits.

Performance schedule, November 11 – December 17: Wednesdays thru Saturday evenings at 8PM and Sundays at 2PM & 7PM (except no matinee November 12; dark on Thanksgiving); add Tuesday, November 14 at 7PM; and Saturday matinee, November 25 at 2PM. 

Sam’s Salon takes place in the lobby on Wednesday, November 22 at 7PM; and post-show forums with the cast take place onstage on Wednesday, November 22 & 29 and Friday, November 24.

Ticket prices: single tickets $28 - $46; student/teacher/military/senior/group discounts available.  Tickets can be purchased at the REP’s box office, 79 Horton Plaza in San Diego or by calling (619) 544-1000 or online at www.sandiegorep.com.  Groups of 10 or more can purchase tickets at a discounted rate.  For more information, please see our website at www.sandiegorep.com.

Mini-subscriptions run $51-$168; and offer an extensive package of benefits, including the lowest prices available; free ticket exchange privileges; discounts on individual tickets; discounts at area restaurants and retailers; and the opportunity to upgrade to a Premier Patron Package.  Premier Patron seating offers an additional voucher for a friend, free drink vouchers for the season and a personal backstage tour.  Subscribers get the best seats at the best price for the best live entertainment in downtown San Diego for one great low price.

San Diego REPertory Theatre’s 2006-2007 Season, consisting of 6 shows and a workshop, began with Jeffrey Hatcher’s musical salute to Ella starring Tina Fabrique, September 9 – October 15; Christopher Durang’s hilarious new comedy Miss Witherspoon, September 30 – October 29; and will continue with a workshop of Rick Najera’s Sweet 15  (Quinceańera) set in National City, November 3 – 12;  Paul Magid & The Flying Karamazov’s meta- and guaranteed to be extremely- physical Don Quixote; January 6 - February 4, 2007; Donald Margulies’ poignant Brooklyn Boy; February 3 – March 4; and Adriana Sevan's compelling celebration of the life force, Taking Flight; March 15 - April 1.  The 15th Annual Kuumba Fest will take place February 23 – 25; and the 14th Annual Lipinsky Family San Diego Jewish Arts Festival will arrive in late spring, dates tbd.