NEWS

Pandora's Bottle — Available Now

A novel by Joanne Sydney Lessner

“Pandora's Bottle is as delicious as a vintage Château Lafite and almost as rare—a novel that is as entertaining as it is smart. Joanne Sydney Lessner serves it with just the right dish of human folly.” —Marc Acito, author of How I Paid for College and Attack of the Theater People

“Lessner has served up a bubbly, big-haired and big-hearted opus magnum, redolent of the vanities of New York, with a whiff of Wodehouse and a dash of Dickens, full of raucous overtones but with a gentle finish. Drinkable immediately!” —Jonathan Levi, author of A Guide for the Perplexed and co-founder of Granta

“Joanne Sydney Lessner has carefully crafted a well-wrought, fun, and fast-paced book detailing the highs and lows of the wine world. A great read.” —Carlo De Vito, author of East Coast Wineries and 10 Secrets My Dog Taught Me

Order now from Barnes and Noble, Amazon,
or direct from Flint Mine Press

What happens when you pin your hopes on a single event … and it all goes terribly wrong?

Lonely, middle-aged financier Sy Hampton is obsessed with a legendary bottle of Bordeaux once owned by Thomas Jefferson, which, through a quirk of preservation, may yet be drinkable. After spending half a million dollars on it at auction, he disappoints the wine community by choosing to uncork it privately with a female companion, rather than share it at a public event. But this decision has drastic consequences—not only for Sy, but also for a determined waiter on the verge of his long-awaited Broadway debut, and an ambitious restaurateur who can't resist an opportunity for much-needed publicity. Their competing agendas are not the only things to collide on that fateful night.

Critical Mass — Onstage Fall 2010

A comedy by Joanne Sydney Lessner

Be careful what you put in writing.

Carrie Greenlea is an opera critic who enjoys skewering singers for everything from bad high notes to bad nose jobs. Her husband and fellow critic, Norman, prefers to equivocate rather than hurt anyone’s feelings. When Stefano Donato, a mediocre Italian tenor whose career they have jointly ruined, moves in with them, he proceeds to exact revenge. Events reach critical mass when their household is further invaded by their Bette Davis-impersonating editor; a marginally talented, but resourceful soprano; and Stefano’s desperate wife.

Heiress Productions