[ back ]
Local theaters warm up winter
(by Herb Hammer - December 23, 2009)
THEATER, BY HERB HAMMER
Local theaters warm up winter
In last week's edition, this corner offered a schedule of the south Florida winter theater season. But most of us are staying here in the frigid northland.
Well, worry not, dear theatergoer, for there will be enough on local stages to whet the appetite of those who need a regular theater fix. What follows is the schedule of local stages during the winter season.
"Peter Pan" continues at Beck Center through Jan. 2. The musical based on J.M. Barrie's classic play started out as a television production starring Mary Martin decades ago. The show at Beck is back for its second holiday season and shouldn't be missed.
The Cleveland Play House will present Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers," opening Jan. 8 and continuing through Jan. 31. In the summer of 1942, two young boys who are raised by a group of eccentric relatives come of age. The play won a Pulitzer Prize for Mr. Simon.
"Blue Door," by Tanya Barfield, will open at the new Dobama Theatre on Jan. 29. The play surrounds the struggles of an African-American math professor as he works on an equation he cannot solve. He also must confront his white wife, who is leaving him because he won't participate in the Million Man March on Washington. The play opened in New York in 2006 to rave reviews.
Also on Jan. 29, the Cleveland Play House will open its Bolton Theatre doors to "Ain't Misbehavin'," by Richard Maltby Jr. and Murray Horwitz. The Tony Award-winning musical tribute to one of the greats of the jazz era, Fats Waller, should be a treat.
"Is He Dead?" is David Ives' adaptation of Mark Twain's classic. The play opens Feb. 5 at the Beck Center in Lakewood. A group of poor artists in France stage the death of a friend to drive up the price of his paintings. The play runs through Feb. 28.
The Play House gets back to work on March 5 with "Jane Austen's Emma," an adaptation by artistic director Michael Bloom. Beautiful, witty and much too mischievous, Emma Woodhouse is one of Jane Austen's most unforgettable characters.
The comedy "Speech and Debate" will play Dobama from March 12 through April 4. The play tells the story of three misfits who team up to expose their teacher's online secrets while forming their high school's first speech and debate club.
Beck Center will stage the hit Broadway show "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," running from March 26 through April 4. This endearing comedy with adult actors playing a group of quirky junior high school spelling bee contestants was a runaway Broadway hit.
"Cloud Nine," by British playwright Carl Churchill, will play the Brooks Theater at the Cleveland Play House from March 23 through April 3. The one-week production is set in British colonial Africa in Victorian times and then moves to London in 1979 in Act 2. The play is highly controversial.
With music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe, "Bat Boy: The Musical" will be presented at the Hanna Theatre by the Great Lakes Theater Festival. The story is about a strange boy with pointy ears and is quite amazing as it creates both miracles and madness.
The Play House will close with "Bill W. and Dr. Bob," the story of the men who created Alcoholics Anonymous.
Our local Chagrin Valley Little Theatre starts January off on the 15th with "The Maltese Bodkin." The world of William Shakespeare and Sam Spade collide in a comic whodunit. The play by David Belke runs through Feb. 5.
The River Street Playhouse will stage "Mr. Death and the Red-Headed Woman," an original musical based on the Helen Eustis story.
On March 12, "The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild" opens on the main Chagrin stage. This is Paul Zindel's play about a middle-aged woman who conjures up fantasies from the movies to escape reality.
This should give us winter and early spring theatergoers enough of an assortment of good things to see until warm weather returns.
[ back ]
