<div dir="ltr"><p style="text-align:center" align="center"><span style="font-size:22pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Ahrens and
Flaherty Musical Alive on Hudson Stage</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center" align="center"><i><span style="font-size:22pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></i></p>
<p><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span> </span></span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Hudson Players are busy
preparing to open their winter musical, <i>Lucky
Stiff</i>, which opens Friday, February 7, 2014.<span> </span>Written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty,
the foremost theatrical songwriting team of their generation and winners of
Broadway’s triple crown, this musical farce is based off of the 1983 novel <i><span>The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo</span></i><span> by </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Butterworth" title="Mike Butterworth" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">Michael Butterworth</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">. It was created and
performed at </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playwrights_Horizons" title="Playwrights Horizons" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">Playwrights Horizons</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-Broadway" title="Off-Broadway" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">off-Broadway</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> in 1988, and won the Richard Rodgers Award for that year. It also won
the Helen Hayes Award for Best Musical.<span> </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span> </span>The
musical was born from Lynn Ahrens finding Buttersworth’s novel at a New York
Public Library sale.<span> </span>She thought it was
zany and off the wall and showed it to Flaherty, who thought it would make an
incredible farce but never really considered making it into a musical.<span> </span>As the team progressed in their thought
processes, music became a part of the story and after Buttersworth heard a few
of the early demos, he granted the artistic duo the rights to the novel,
although he passed away before the show was completed.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span> </span>During the show's development
process, Ahrens and Flaherty shared parts of it at the Dramatists Guild for
audiences that included other musical theater composers, including </span><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=music&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Stephen+Sondheim%22" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">Stephen Sondheim</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">.<span> </span>"Sondheim told us the show should be fun
and silly, like an Ealing Studios comedy," Ahrens says. "We hadn't
thought of that, and he was right.<span>
</span>This show makes you laugh for the sake of laughing, with a little
romance thrown in," Ahrens says. The original concept for the show was
witty and clever but in reality the pair found that it needed to be crazier and
quirky.<span> </span>Beautiful ballads were swapped
out for comedic ones and the show took on a new life with a constant laugh
track.<span> </span>Ahrens has commented on the show,
"People crave that. I think that's why <i>Lucky
Stiff</i> stuck around and is now being made into a movie starring Jason
Alexander and Dennis Farina. People want to have a good time and enjoy
themselves. <i>Lucky Stiff</i> is that kind
of show."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span> </span>The show is directed by Rich
Jagunic, who has been directing for The Hudson Players for over 20 years with
musical direction by Debra Burkhart.<span>
</span>Jagunic’s other directorial credits with The Hudson Players include <i>Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat, The Drowsy Chaperone </i>and <i>A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum</i>.<span> </span>The talented and hilarious cast includes
Brittany Smile, Wendy Schanz, Gary Maher, Michael Guffey, Kathy Steiner, Holly
Reimer, Brian Keith, Brian Pichola, Sonny Sonnhalter and Mark Moore.<span> </span></span></p>
<span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span> </span><i><span>Lucky </span></i><span>Stiff show dates
are February 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, and March 1 at 8:00pm and February 23 at
2:00pm. Tickets may be purchased either by phone </span></span><a href="tel:%28330-655-8522" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">(330-655-8522</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">) or via the web at </span><a href="http://www.HudsonPlayers.com" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">www.HudsonPlayers.com</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">.<span> </span>Please email any questions to </span><a href="mailto:info@hudsonplayers.com" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">info@hudsonplayers.com</span></a><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">.</span></div>