Primary Stages announces 35th Anniversary season, including Billy Porter's Remember To Live

Tony Award winner Billy Porter will star in his own play, Remember To Live, at the Cherry Lane Theatre.

Primary Stages has now announced details of the company's upcoming 35th Anniversary season at off-Broadway's Cherry Lane Theatre, which includes the latest work by Golden Globe nominee and Tony and Grammy Award winner Billy Porter, who is also set to star in the production.

Artistic Director Andrew Leynse commented: "We are thrilled to be celebrating our 35th season by proudly presenting works by three writers who each hold a distinctive place among the type of artists we support—emerging, mid-career, and established playwrights. This type of collaboration celebrates our legacy as a company that is truly dedicated to putting the focus on the playwright."

Here are the three new productions in season order:

From October 29 to December 22, 2019, Primary Stages presents Remember To Live, written by and starring Billy Porter.

Synopsis: "Remember To Live offers a frank look at the lives of five gay men who, having lived through the AIDS crisis, now find themselves balancing a fraught relationship towards sex and intimacy as ever-evolving gay men within the intensely challenging amorality of our current administration. Seen through the eyes of an African-American gay filmmaker with a troubled sexual history, Billy Porter's new play is about finding the courage to navigate a difficult past in search of forgiveness, redemption, and the ultimate human need - love."

Back in 2014, Primary Stages presented the world premiere of Porter's playwriting debut While I Yet Live, diretced by Tony Award nominee Sheryl Kaller, who also returns to Primary Stages to helm this production of Remember To Live.

Primary Stages will continue its 35th Anniversary season with The Confession of Lily Dare, written by and starring Charles Busch and directed by Carl Andress, which is scheduled to run from January 8 through to March 4, 2020.

Synopsis: "The Confession of Lily Dare tells the story of one woman's tumultuous passage from convent girl to glittering cabaret chanteuse to infamous madam of a string of brothels—all while hiding her undying devotion to the child she was forced to abandon. This comic melodrama celebrates the gauzy "confession film" tearjerkers of early 1930s pre-code cinema, such as The Sin of Madelon Claudet, Frisco Jenny, and Madame X."

Busch has previously collaborated with Primary Stages on their productions of The Tribute Artist, Olive and the Bitter Herbs, and You Should Be So Lucky.

Finally, Primary Stages concludes its 2019-2020 off-Broadway season at the Cherry Lane Theatre with Jiehae Park's dark comedy Peerless, directed by Margot Borderlon, running from May 12 through to June 28, 2020.

Synopsis: "Peerless is a darkly comedic twist on Shakespeare's Macbeth, set in the cutthroat world of elite college admissions. This new version of the classic story centers on M and L, twin Asian-American siblings who have given up everything to get into The College. When another classmate (who happens to be one-sixteenth Native American) claims what they feel is rightfully "their spot," the twins find themselves with only one option: murder."

Casting and additional creative team information for all three productions will be announced at a later date.

Currently playing at the Cherry Lane Theatre is the Primary Stages production of God Said This, written by Leah Nanako Winkler and directed by Morgan Gould, which is set for an official opening on January 29 and a limited engagement through to February 15, 2019. And Primary Stages concludes its 2018-2019 season with Kate Hamill's adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel of love and duty, Little Women, running from May 15 through to June 29, 2019.