[NEohioPAL]By Popular Demand, CPT and GLT EXTEND run of NICKEL AND DIMED

[Dan Kilbane]

BY POPULAR DEMAND, CPT AND GLTF EXTEND RUN OF NICKEL AND DIMED
nICKEL AND DIMED
Produced by Cleveland Public Theatre, in association with Great Lakes
Theater Festival
Written by Joan Holden
Based on the book Nickel and Dimed:  On (Not) Getting By in America, by
Barbara Ehrenreich
Directed by Melissa Kievman
Added performances June 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6
Gordon Square Theatre

Extension		Wednesday, June 2, 2004			8:00 p.m.
			Thursday, June 3, 2004				8:00 p.m.
			Friday, June 4, 2004				8:00 p.m.
			Saturday, June 5, 2004				1:30 p.m.
			Saturday, June 5, 2004				8:00 p.m.
			Sunday, June 6, 2004				3:00 p.m.

Extension Ticket Prices
Regular Admission Wednesday, Thursdays, Saturday matinee, and Sundays $19;
Fridays and Saturdays $24
Students Admission:  $9

Tickets and information:  216/631-2727

In addition to selling 92% of all tickets before the extension announcement,
Nickel and Dimed is on its way to becoming the highest-grossing non-musical
in CPT’s 20 year history.  Also, this production marks the second time this
season CPT has extended the run of a show:  Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild
Christmas Binge was extended in December 2003.

Positive critical response has been overwhelming:  Cleveland Plain Dealer
theatre critic Tony Brown calls the show “…a remarkable
production….something potentially transformative might be happening
here….fluid, entertaining and often laugh-out-loud funny….it works
beautifully….a true ensemble effort….potent and urgent and essential.”

Denise Grollmus of The Akron Beacon Journal notes the “superb cast of
six….So much amazing material…” She notes that the show’s “greatest
accomplishment is implicating the audience in their own association with the
exploitation of the working class.”

Theatre critic Fran Heller of The Cleveland Jewish News comments that the
show is “…a real eye-opener….It is suffused with humor to make it
entertaining and contains enough polemics to make it enlightening….Director
Melissa Kievman navigates the herculean production challenges with
aplomb….The supporting cast handles their panoply of characters with
 relish.”

Adds Cool Cleveland theatre critic Tom Perrino “Rarely does theater deliver
a performance that makes us laugh as well as provide us with the inspiration
to make a difference.”   He continues, “…with this phenomenal cast and
production they bring a combination of rolling laughter and a special
‘dare-you-to-look-away’ emotion.”

James Damico of The Cleveland Free Times says “…the GLTF-CPT production is
blessed with a trio of heaven-sent angels.  Director Melissa Kievman and
designer Todd Krispinsky have combined to make…a completely fluid and mobile
theatrical occasion….Angel Three is Jill Levin as the narrator….In its
ingenuously engaging way, this is an exceptional performance.”

Lorain County Times critic Roy Berko calls the production “superlative….the
production, the acting, the setting all work perfectly….the cast….is
flawless.”

Christine Howey, theatre critic for Scene, notes “…this production sparkles
like a restaurant’s well-scrubbed kitchen counter, thanks to imaginative
direction by Melissa Kievman and an ever-inventive six-person cast….the
production is a triumph.”

West Side Leader writer David Ritchey comments “this joint effort moves this
show to the top of the ‘MUST SEE’ list….first-rate entertainment.”

“Two words….See it,” comments Westlife reviewer Art Thomas.  “This landmark
collaboration is a feather in the cap of both groups.”

In this frank memoir, Ehrenreich, asked by her editor to do a piece about
the struggles of low-income workers, works for a year, giving up her
comfortable life to go undercover as a newly divorced, unskilled person in a
series of minimum wage jobs:  waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing
home aide, and retail salesperson.  As she struggles with the day-to-day
realities of existence alongside her dispirited co-workers, she learns
exactly how hard it is to maintain two full-time subsistence jobs, find
reasonable housing, eat, maintain her dignity in the face of unfeeling
employers to whom she was easily disposable, and suffer the cruelties of the
general public to which she was useful but invisible. Her observations of
herself are unflinching, and the portraits of those she encounters are heart
rending.



Dan Kilbane
Director of Marketing
Cleveland Public Theatre
6415 Detroit Ave.
Cleveland, OH  44102
tel:  216/631-2727 ext. 203
fax:  216/631-2575
www.cptonline.org
dkilbane at cptonline.org

Nickel and Dimed  EXTENDED through June 6!  All the critics agree--it's a
"must-see!"
Opening May 21:  Dojoji  -- love, betrayal, and uncontrollable passion!