This Beautiful City

About the show

This Beautiful City is a play with music by the investigative theatre company The Civilians. The play engages with "the expansion of the Evangelical movement in Colorado Springs" and the gulf between the Evangelical and secular communities in the region, against the background of the Ted Haggard sex scandal. It was written by Steve Cosson and Jim Lewis from interviews conducted by Associate Artists Emily Ackerman, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Brad Heberlee, Brandon Miller, Stephen Plunkett, and Alison Weller, with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman, and directed by Steve Cosson. The play first opened in March 2008 at the Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival of New American Plays, followed by successful runs at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., and the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, California. The piece premiered in New York City in the winter of 2009 at the Vineyard Theatre. This Beautiful City was nominated for Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel Awards