2024-2025

The Marvelous Wonderettes

by Roger Bean

September 6 - 15, 2024

A joint production between Norwalk's CRYSTAL THEATRE in collaboration with THE TOWN PLAYERS OF NEW CANAAN.

This smash Off-Broadway hit takes you to the 1958 Springfield High School prom, where we meet Betty Jean, Cindy Lou, Missy, and Suzy: four girls with hopes and dreams as big as their crinoline skirts! As we learn about their lives and loves, the girls serenade us with classic ‘50s hits including “Lollipop,” “Dream Lover,” “Stupid Cupid,” and “Lipstick on Your Collar.” In Act II, the Wonderettes reunite to take the stage and perform at their ten-year reunion. We learn about the highs and lows the girls have experienced in the past decade and are charmed to find that no matter what life throws their way, they will conquer it together. Featuring over 30 classic ’50s and ’60s hits, The Marvelous Wonderettes will keep you smiling in this must-take musical trip down memory lane!

"Effervescent and irresistible! An utter charm bomb!"
The New York Times

"You won’t find a more delightful girl group! These irrepressible, bubbly Wonderettes are singing their hearts out in this charming, fast-paced musical. Beautiful singing, well-honed timing, often poignant, and highly entertaining."
The Associated Press

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Kate Hamill's DRACULA

Kate Hamill

October 11 - 27, 2024

Bouncing between horror and humor, Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s seminal novel is a thrilling play that questions who the true monsters are. Fierce, feminist, and frightening, Dracula is a revenge fantasy worth sinking your teeth into!

The Wall Street Journal called this play “a fresh, theatrically potent spin on the novel … Hamill has given us a tremendously entertaining Dracula that has GREAT BIG HIT stamped all over it.”

“This is the kind of horror I could watch all day.” –Vulture

“The world women inhabit in this loose, rollicking adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel is frightening precisely because it’s not so different from our own… It scares us not with monsters, though it certainly has those, but with the sinister prospect of women’s dehumanization at the hands of men empowered by law and intractable custom. Hamill’s “Dracula” is about the expectation that women will bend themselves to the rigid frame of ladylike behavior, no matter how it deforms them.” – NY Times

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The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

by Barbara Robinson

December 6 - 15, 2024

In this hilarious Christmas classic, a couple struggling to put on a church Christmas pageant is faced with casting the Herdman kids – probably the most inventively awful kids in history. You won't believe the mayhem – and the fun – when the Herdmans collide head-on with the story of Christmas! The heartwarming story teaches valuable lessons about compassion, acceptance, and the true meaning of the holiday season.

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Terra Nova by Ted Tally

by Ted Tally

February 21 - March 9, 2025

In the winter of 1911-12, five Englishmen and five Norwegians raced each other to the bottom of the Earth. Only the Norwegians returned. Terra Nova is the story of Captain Scott's expedition to the South Pole. The discovery that Amundsen has preceded him, the bravery and sufferings of his team, the self-sacrifice of Captain Oates and the final tragedy, are recounted in a mixture of fantasy and realism which underlines both the human and the epic qualities of the adventure.

Terra Nova premiered at the Yale Rep in 1977 and its 1984 NYC production earned the writer an OBIE Award. The name is taken from the title of Captain Robert Scott's ill-fated early 20th century, scientific expedition to the South Pole, whose name itself was taken from the whaling ship on which they travelled.

Playwright, Ted Tally is perhaps best known for winning the 1992 OSCAR for Best Adapted Screen play of The Silence of the Lambs.

'Terra Nova' is the story of that fatal expedition, and of Scott's the discovery that the Norwegian explorer Amundsen had beaten him to the Pole. It opens and closes with Scott writing the final entries in the journal from which all the details of his last weeks are known. The bravery and suffering of his team, climaxing in the famous self-sacrifice of Captain Oates and the final tragedy are recounted in a mixture of fantasy and realism. This is achieved by the conjured presence of Scott's wife, Kathleen, and, - in a variety of guises - of Amundsen.
The play is drawn from the journals and letters found on the frozen body of Captain Scott. Refusing the use of sled dogs as unsporting, Scott and his team struggle to drag their heavy gear across a frozen wasteland, only to find that Amundsen has preceded them to their goal. The play is also a study of British pride and upper-class resolve, Scott's aristocratic sense of destiny and command, and his young bride's ability to understand her husband's compulsive drive while failing to accept his motivations. But it is in the tragic trip back, as the members of the expedition die one by one, that the play reaches its dramatic conclusion, capturing with chilling intensity the awesome bravery of men who must accept the bitter knowledge that suffering and death will be the only reward for their heroism.

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The Importance of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde

April 25 - May 11, 2025

The esteemed Oscar Wilde’s most well-known comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest, is rich with love, banter, friendship, and conflict.

The story follows Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, who both assume the false identity of a man named Earnest. While under the false name of Earnest, both men fall in love: Jack with the sophisticated, yet somewhat pretentious, Gwendolyn Fairfax; and Algernon with the spunky Cecily Cardew. As one may assume, two men under one name falling in love with two different women is a perfect catalyst for conflict. Not to mention the interference of the uptight Lady Bracknell, Gwendolyn’s mother, who seems to disapprove of any and all potential partners for her sweet daughter.

This whirlwind of complex relationships and comedic commentary is a show you don’t want to miss!

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The Shawshank Redemption

adapted by Dave Johns and Owen O'Neill

June 13 - 21, 2025

OUR SPECIAL PRODUCTION. RARELY seen on stage!  Based on the novella by Stephen King, The Shawshank Redemption brings the story of resilience made famous by the acclaimed film to the stage.

PLOT: When Andy Dufresne is convicted of murder and sentenced to life in the notorious Shawshank prison, he must find a way to keep himself and his hope alive by using his wits and forging friendships.

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