2016 - 2017

Getting Away With Murder

By Stephen Sondheim and George Furth

October 28 - November 12, 2016

The esteemed and retired Dr. Conrad Bering has selected, out of countless applicants, several individuals for private as well as Group therapy. It seems this Pulitzer Prize- winning doctor might be writing another book and it further seems these patients might be his subjects. The Group consists of Martin Chisholm, an ambitious political consultant; Dossie Lustig, a sensual restaurant hostess; the snob socialite Pamela Prideaux; Vassili Laimorgos, a sly dealer in antiques and collectibles; the rich and arrogant real estate mogul Gregory Reed; a cop with a grudge, Dan Gerard; and Nam-Jun Vuong, a college instructor and resentful would-be administrator. On this particular evening the members of the Group gather as usual in Dr. Bering’s office only to discover that the doctor has been murdered. Who did it? And what do the appearances of a mysterious young man who killed a girl in Central Park have to do with what’s going on? Does the fact that the doctor is the last and only tenant in this otherwise empty, guarded security building confirm that one of them had to have done it? To call the police will subject them to reckless scandal, relentless investigation and turn them all into fodder for the hungry media, so a collective decision is made to try to solve the murder themselves. The play then is propelled by a series of twists and turns and red herrings, along with some hold-your-breath shocks, all culminating in an explosive surprise ending. Act One is a “whodunit” and by its end the audience knows the murderer. Act Two becomes a suspense play… will the characters figure it out? Will someone actually be “getting away with murder?”

The writers of the revolutionary Broadway musical Company team up again to bring us this new whodunit. “…devilishly delicious doings…That hasn’t happened since Deathtrap.” —NY Daily News.

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Snow White – The Sequel

By Susan Vesey

December 2 - 11, 2016

In this jolly pantomime we discover what has happened to Snow White since we last saw her twenty years ago. She has married her true love the King of Bislania and they are living happily together with their four children. However, their happiness is threatened by the return of the Wicked Queen Elvira who has spent 20 years collecting all the broken pieces of the Magic Mirror. Can Muddles the jester and his mother Dame Neffertiti enlist the help of the dwarves and the fairies to thwart her evil plan? Of course they can, this is a pantomime and all the necessary ingredients of corny jokes, lots of action and audience participation take us on our way to a happy ending.

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Born Yesterday

By Garson Kanin

February 24 - March 11, 2017

The vulgar, egotistic junkman Harry Brock has come to a swanky hotel in Washington to make crooked deals with government big-wigs. He has brought with him the charming but dumb ex-chorus girl Billie, whose lack of social graces embarrasses even Harry. Billie must be taught some of the amenities, and a few basic bits of information. The young, idealistic magazine reporter Paul Verrall, who has been investigating political skullduggery and is interested in Brock’s activities, agrees for a salary, to educate Billie. He finds Billie has a natural honesty and a frank streak in her, and she begins to learn about history, politics, and what Harry really is and what he wants. At a dramatic moment she rebels against being merely a tool in Harry’s crooked schemes and refuses to sign the documents which she has come to learn are part of an ambitious effort to defraud the public. This precipitates a crisis, as Billie readies to leave Harry for a new life of her own. Harry’s reaction takes the only form he knows: physical violence. Billie now knows that she can no longer have anything to do with Brock, and realizes she and Paul have fallen genuinely in love. Just before she leaves Harry, she helps Paul get hold of incriminating documents of Harry’s which will result in scandal and disaster. At the end, Paul and his promising pupil turn their backs on the anti-social and anti-democratic Brock and strike out on their own.

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Time Stands Still

By Donald Margulies

May 5 - 20, 2017

TIME STANDS STILL focuses on Sarah and James, a photojournalist and a foreign correspondent trying to find happiness in a world that seems to have gone crazy. Theirs is a partnership based on telling the toughest stories, and together, making a difference. But when their own story takes a sudden turn, the adventurous couple confronts the prospect of a more conventional life.

“Mr. Margulies is gifted at creating complex characters through wholly natural interaction, allowing the emotional layers, the long histories, the hidden kernels of conflict to emerge organically. Throughout, his dialogue crackles with bright wit and intelligence. Although TIME STANDS STILL is deceptively modest, consisting of a handful of conversations among just four characters, the range of feeling it explores is wide and deep.” —NY Times. “Can you be a dispassionate, uninvolved observer of horrific events, recording them for posterity and still keep a sense of right and wrong, not to mention your sanity? It’s one of several questions getting a workout in TIME STANDS STILL…Insightful writing, the work is smart, stylish, timely and layered with an intriguing seriousness that inspires discussion after the curtain comes down—a rarity these days.” —Associated Press. “Donald Margulies’ TIME STANDS STILL compellingly demonstrates what a master playwright can do with great economy and efficiency…A rare play that encompasses universal issues and personal problems with equal compassionate insight. A splendid theatrical experience culminates in the author’s taking no sides and providing no easy answers. What we get is the assiduously impartial, clarifying confrontation of the existential dilemmas that confront all of us.” —Bloomberg News. “A solid play—taut and well-constructed, with hardly a single detail extraneous.” —Time Out NY.

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John Loves Mary

By Norman Krasna

July 28 - August 12, 2017

John Lawrence, who has been overseas three years, is welcomed home by the charming Mary McKinley. These two are and have been in love with each other. John’s life had been saved while he was overseas by his buddy Fred Taylor. Fred returned home a year before John, and John brings him what should be a pleasant surprise—news that he has married Lily, an English girl Fred had fallen in love with and who could not hope to get to America for years unless as the wife of a G.I. John therefore marries her and plans to deliver her to Fred. John hopes to get a quick divorce from Lily and marry Mary. Mary and her family have, of course, no notion what has happened, and John is up against it when Mary and her family insist upon an immediate wedding. Who knows what is going to happen next!

A great favorite, this delightful comedy is being produced constantly by university and little theatres.

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