The Explorer’s Club

Written By Nell Benjamin
Directed By Mel Christian

June 9-25, 2016
Thursdays-Saturday Nights at 8pm

Performed at 5th Avenue Antiques

London, 1879. The prestigious Explorers Club is in crisis: their acting president wants to admit a woman, and their bartender is terrible. True, this female candidate is brilliant, beautiful, and has discovered a legendary Lost City, but the decision to let in a woman could shake the very foundation of the British Empire, and how do you make such a decision without a decent drink? Grab your safety goggles for some very mad science involving deadly cobras, irate Irishmen and the occasional airship.

Featuring: Jonathan Sweatt, Carron Clem, Josh Roberts, Chance Novalis, Chuck Evans, Bates Redwine, Rich Mansfield, Ronald Dauphinee, and Scott Nesmith

BROADWAY WORLD REVIEW
“A funny, interesting, and all-around good time. I really can find no flaws in this production.”
— Marietta Lunceford

Nell Benjamin co-wrote the score to LEGALLY BLONDE, THE MUSICAL with composer Laurence O’Keefe, for which they received Tony Award nominations, Drama Desk nominations and the Olivier Award for Best Musical. Her play THE EXPLORERS CLUB was a commercial and critical hit for Manhattan Theatre Club and received an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award, as well as an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant. Nell’s disturbingly free adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, called PIRATES! (OR GILBERT AND SULLIVAN PLUNDER'D) ran at the Goodspeed Opera House, the Paper Mill Playhouse, the Huntington Theater and the St. Louis MUNY. She is currently working on an adaptation of the movie “Dave” with Thomas Meehan and Tom Kitt, “Gotta Dance” with Bob Martin, Chad Beguelin and Matt Sklar, and “Mean Girls” with Jeff Richmond and Tina Fey. Nell’s work for television includes the last and weirdest season of "Unhappily Ever After," Animal Planet’s "Whoa! Sunday with Mo Rocca," and the new "Electric Company." Nell received the 2003 Kleban Foundation Award for lyrics and a 2003 Jonathan Larson Foundation Grant.