'Backstreet Boy' Wins Best Actor in Debut Film Role

New York, NY --- Former “Backstreet Boy” Kevin Scott Richardson won the Independent Vision Award for Best Actor over the weekend, for his feature film debut in Steve Balderson’s THE CASSEROLE CLUB. As the centerpiece film of Visionfest`11, the film was nominated for 9 Independent Vision Awards and ended up winning 5: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress for Susan Traylor, and Best Production Design.

The film, a drama set in 1969, co-stars Daniela Sea (“The L Word”) with Balderson regulars Susan Traylor, Jane Wiedlin (“The Go-Go’s”), Pleasant Gehman, and Starina Johnson.“The Casserole Club” may be Richardson’s first major film role, but he is no stranger to acting.  He appeared on Broadway, and in London’s West End, in the musical “Chicago” as shady lawyer Billy Flynn.“I’ve worked with famous musicians as actors before,” says director Steve Balderson.  “They bring a freshness and natural quality to their roles. But, I’ve never been so excited as I was to be working with Kevin.  He is spectacular in this film.”

“The Casserole Club” focuses on a group of mod 1960’s era suburban housewives.  Close-knit and neighborly, they are all bent on one-upping each other, trying to prove that each is “the

hostess with the mostess.”  They begin a recipe club, and hold dinner parties, testing out their new casseroles.  But when the gatherings become increasingly focused on boozy flirtation, and more than recipes start getting swapped, the story moves swiftly from stylized and campy to a drama about irresponsibility, selfishness, and damaged people.“The Casserole Club” is an intricate landscape of desolation, unspoken desires, and empty lives laid bare.  Raw and uncompromising, it is evocative of classics like “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and the more contemporary “American Beauty.”  Set in America during the NASA moonwalk, the moon, is a metaphor for the film's tragic heroines, who are filled with mystery, secrets and the untapped potential of people who exist without really living.

Critic MJ Simpson in England writes the film is “Magnificent, another tour-de-force by the best kept secret in American cinema.”