Mary Astor's Purple Diary

The Musical

New Jersey Repertory Company
By Special Arrangement with
HIGH HARD HEAT / Dominick Balletta

Presents a Salon Reading of

MARY ASTOR’S PURPLE DIARY: THE MUSICAL

Music and Lyrics by Michael Garin
Book by Mardie Millit
Directed by Carl Andress

Based on the illustrated celebrity tale by Ed Sorel

October 26, 2026 7pm

The real "Purple Diary" was the biggest sex scandal of 1936 — a post-divorce custody battle between a sexually liberated female Hollywood star, Mary Astor, and her controlling ex-husband. Our hero, Ed, an illustrator, becomes obsessed with the star and her seemingly glamorous life. Things heat up when Mary herself magically appears to set things straight. It takes a whole gaggle of Old Hollywood names, Broadway playwrights, and half of the Algonquin Round Table to answer the question: "Why did she write it all down?"

Michael Garin is the Drama Desk and Outer Critics circle Award winning composer of SONG OF SINGAPORE and the resident pianist at The Roxy Hotel in Tribeca.

Mardie Millit is the 2024 MAC Award Winner for Outstanding Female Vocalist.

Carl Andress is the Artistic Director of Connecticut’s Sharon Playhouse and the leading director of plays by Charles Busch (16 shows and counting!)

Read more about the creative team below.

Limited Tickets available here:

TICKETS

ED SOREL

The Art That Inspired The Story

All illustrations (c) Edward Sorel

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Michael Garin

Music/Lyrics

The Drama Desk, Outer Critics’ Circle, MAC, and Bistro Award winner, whose résumé includes Elaine’s, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Monkey Bar, the Rainbow Room, and the VIP Room at Limelight, has created a beguiling musical experience at the Roxy Hotel during Sunset Cocktails, blurring the distinction between pianist and DJ.

Michael Garin has been a mainstay in New York City nightlife for decades, and has never failed to entertain and create a fresh new style tailored to venue and circumstance. From hosting the midnight burlesque shows in the mid-’90s that launched the burlesque revival (and landed him in L’Uomo Vogue in an Ellen von Unwerth photo spread), to co-creating and co-starring in Song of Singapore, the groundbreaking environmental musical (for which he received the aforementioned Drama Desk Award), to acting stints with Spike Lee. And now there is a cult following on Facebook for Michael’s Ogden Nash-style daily promotional poems for his gigs at the Roxy Hotel and elsewhere.

Mardie Millit

Book

Mardie Millit is a multi-award-winning singer/actor, as well as a writer whose work Stephen Sondheim praised as “first rate…the feeling for language and rhythm and theatricality reminds me of nobody so much as (gasp!) W.H. Auden.” She studied Creative Writing at The Ohio State University with David Citino. As a performer, she won the 2024 Best Female Vocalist MAC Award for her show “Sorry-Grateful,” about her decades-long correspondence with Sondheim, and shared the 2022 Best Duo MAC Award with Michael Garin, with whom she has performed all over the country, from Provincetown to Austin to San Francisco, and at all the places in Manhattan with a piano. Mardie has also starred regionally in a slew of classic musical theatre roles and in New York premieres of original musicals by the likes of William Peter Blatty, Billy Stritch and Mark Waldrop. Her most recent theatrical endeavors have been with Vanessa Paradis’s Dream Productions at the Triad and Laurie Beechman Theatres, where her favorite roles have included Joanne in Company and the Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods. See more at michaelandmardie.com.

Carl Andress

Director

Carl Andress is an American theater and film director and producer whose credits include the world premieres of Charles Busch’s critically acclaimed comedies, such as: the award-winning The Confession of Lily Dare (Cherry Lane Theater with Primary Stages, Theater for the New City); The Tribute Artist (59E59 with Primary Stages); The Divine Sister (Soho Playhouse, Theater for the New City, Bucks County Playhouse, LA TheaterWorks); The Third Story starring Kathleen Turner (MCC Theater, La Jolla Playhouse); Charles Busch's Cleopatra and Judith of Bethulia (Theater for the New City, GPR Records); Die! Mommie Die! (New World Stages, LA TheaterWorks); Queen Amarantha (WPA Theater); Bunnicula (DR2 Theater, TheaterWorks USA); Shanghai Moon (Drama Dept., Bay Street Theater, Theater for the New City) and Ibsen's Ghost: An Irresponsible Biographical Fantasy (George Street Playhouse & 59E59 with Primary Stages).

High Hard Heat

Producer

Dominick Balletta is a Drama Desk and Off Broadway Alliance Award winning, Tony, Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and GLAAD Media Award nominated theatrical producer. His NYC credits include AMID FALLING WALLS (Drama Desk Award - Outstanding Revue), FIDDLER ON THE ROOF IN YIDDISH, HARMONY (Off Broadway Alliance Award Outstanding New Musical), and 33 VARIATIONS (Tony Award Nomination - Best Play). His touring production of Regan Linton and M. Graham Smith’s FDR'S VERY HAPPY HOUR opens October 14 at The Studio Loft at Ellie Caulkins Opera House, in partnership with Denver Arts & Venues.