A schoolteacher in police custody, a young nurse on COVID duty, a successful actor in therapy, a YouTube meditation specialist and a philanthropist friends with the government.
Those are the characters of the latest HBO comedy Coastal Elites inspired by the ongoing pandemic and its social distancing. When the shutdown forces them to cope in isolation, they react with frustration, hilarity, and introspection.
The satirical comedy series will premiere next month, and it will feature five actors playing the five different characters. They are each dealing with the new normal of social distancing in a COVID-19 world. Bette Midler, Kaitlyn Dever, Dan Levy, Sarah Paulson, and Issa Rae will star in the comedy.
Revealing more about the series and characters in a press release HBO stated, the comedy comes from playwright and screenwriter Paul Rudnick and had been directed by Jay Roach.
Fall Premiere
The COVID-special HBO production will premiere in September. Announcing the same, HBO press release stated:
HBO’s socially distanced comedy COASTAL ELITES debuts SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 (8:00-9:30 p.m. ET/PT).
Plot Glimpse
HBO also informed that the comedic satire tells contemporary stories of characters breaking down and breaking through as they grapple with politics, culture, and the pandemic.
Bette Midler (Tony Award winner for Hello, Dolly!), Kaitlyn Dever (“Unbelievable”, “Booksmart”), Dan Levy (Emmy nominee for “Schitt’s Creek”), Sarah Paulson (Emmy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award winner for “American Crime Story”) and Issa Rae (Emmy nominee for HBO’s “Insecure”) star in this special presentation.
The show will explore the current world of deeply divided politics and the universal pursuit of human connection amidst the quarantining and social distancing.
Not Created for Television
It so happens that comedy series was originally conceived for the Public Theater in New York, also titled Coastal Elites. However, the show took the leap from stage to screen at the beginning of the pandemic.
It went on to evolve into a real-time drama as the unprecedented year of 2020 unfolded. Filming took place earlier this summer under quarantine guidelines.
Different Pandemic POVs
Coastal Elites will bring to light five distinct and impassioned points-of-view on the ongoing pandemic from all over the United States. With New York City as the epicentre of the pandemic, the show too is based in the bustling city.
Miriam Nessler (Bette Midler) is a public school teacher in New York City for a long time. She loves her students, the New York Times and the theater, and also finds herself in police custody.
Sharynn Tarrows (Kaitlyn Dever) is a young nurse from Wyoming who flies to New York to volunteer at a hospital at the height of the city’s COVID-19 crisis.
Mark Hesterman (Dan Levy) is a young and successful actor in West Hollywood who is under therapy and is forced to rely on videoconferencing to talk to his therapist.
Clarissa Montgomery (Sarah Paulson) is a YouTube personality whose Mindful Meditations series is a hit among her followers and helps them soothe, inspire, heal and cope with the pandemic.
Callie Josephson (Issa Rae) is a well-connected philanthropist whose network is leading her to the highest levels of government.
From schools, Hollywood, hospitals, online entertainment to the government- there are all kinds of faces of the crisis faced by the US represented in the show.
Coastal Elites has been written by Paul Rudnick; directed by Jay Roach; executive produced by Paul Rudnick, Jay Roach, Jeffrey Seller, Flody Suarez, Scott Chaloff and Michelle Graham.
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