NEW YORK TIMES WRITE-UP: A New Theater Company Starts Big

The new Republic Theater Company has no intention of easing slowly onto the New York scene: it is announcing its presence with a "4-Play Festival," running Dec. 1 to 23 at the Cherry Lane Theater's Studio space in the West Village. An ensemble of 41 actors will present four productions, in rotating repertory. The company's inaugural production has some notable supporters. The writer Thomas Meehan ("Hairspray") is credited with the concept for a musical adaptation of "The Tempest," composed by Daniel Neiden with arrangements by Charles Czarnecki. The illustrator Dan Yaccarino has contributed scenic elements and original artwork, and Robert Mankoff, the cartoon editor of The New Yorker, advised on an adaptation of James Thurber's children's fantasy "The 13 Clocks." Also in the lineup are "Elsinore County," based on "Hamlet" and billed as "a new comedy that was once a tragedy," and a new translation of Strindberg's "Miss Julie," by Akiva Daube. Information is at republictheater.org.