Constellation production starring Marc Summers heading to off-Broadway debut

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the role the Bloomington Playwrights Project had in the original production.

One of Bloomington theatrical company Constellation Stage & Screen's former shows is going to a much bigger stage.

The production, produced and developed at the Bloomington Playwrights Project in 2016, is titled "The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers."

Marc Summers, a television host, producer, and comedian, stars in the show opening Feb. 14 for a scheduled four-month run at the off-Broadway theater New World Stages, according to an announcement by the New York theater.

Summers worked with a writer and a composer with the Bloomington Playwrights Project to bring the original production to the Ted Jones Playhouse in 2016.

According to a write-up in People Magazine, the show is billed as a part "interactive game show and part memoir," taking audiences on a guided tour of Summers' life, "from an early obsession with magic to his notable television career to his appearance on Oprah announcing his ongoing battle with OCD."

TV fans may remember seeing Summers well before his Bloomington debut. One example, according to a story in the Indianapolis Star, was as host of the Nickelodeon game show “Double Dare” in which Summers “gleefully left his contestants dripping with goo.”

In 2016, The Star reported in the stage production, Summers “plunders every corner of his career, from his days slugging it out on the stand-up circuit in 1970s L.A." when he performed at the Comedy Store to his time on Food Network.

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Summers, 72, grew up in Indianapolis, where he graduated from North Central High School, and later Grahm Junior College, in Boston.

According to a biography of Summers on his website, he once sought career advice from his rabbi about “whether to pursue a career as a rabbi or as an entertainer.”

“As a rabbi you can help a small congregation a lot,” his rabbi counseled, “but as a performer you can help a lot of people a little.”

According to an email from Constellation Stage & Screen, the team members who originally worked on the 2016 show at Bloomington Playwrights Project, including artistic director Chad Rabinovitz, are also working on Summers’ off-Broadway production.

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The show is being produced by another big name in entertainment: Guy Fieri, who is known for his many shows on Food Network and chains of restaurants. Summers hosted a Food Network show called "Unwrapped" which aired from 2001 to 2011.