STAGE: The Angel In The Trees

Now thru 7/31: The Production Company presents
The Angel in the Trees
A new play by Dan O'Brien
Directed by Mark Armstrong

Less than a year after moving to Lowden, a small town below the Mason-Dixon line, native New Yorker Madeline Singer encounters an unexplained phenomenon while walking through the woods. The Angels in the Trees is an evocative one-woman show about ghosts, God, and the American South. (source)

STAGE: Six by Tenn

Thru July 18: Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company kicks off its inaugural season with performances of six rarely produced short plays by Tennessee Williams.

The 6 shorts include The Municipal Abattoir, Mr. Paradise, Hello From Bertha, The Fat Man’s Wife, The Pink Bedroom, and Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen...

Until recently four of these plays (The Municipal Abattoir, Mr. Paradise, The Fat Man’s Wife, and The Pink Bedroom), were never-before-published. Written decades ago, only within the past 10 years have they made their debut in production.

Around 1950 Tennessee Williams wrote to Elia Kazan, “I don’t write with the effervescence that I used to. It comes harder. The peak of my virtuosity was in the one-act plays, some of which are like fire-crackers in a rope. Some of that came from sexual repression and loneliness which don’t exist anymore for very good reasons, and some of it came from plain youth and freshness.”

Where:
The Red Room
85 East 4th Street
Between 2nd & 3rd Avenue (Bowery)
Third Floor, No Wheelchair Access
Tickets: $20

(source)

STAGE: Another Part of the Forest

Now thru July 11 (yes, it's been extended!) at The Theatre at St. Clement's:

ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST

The first New York City revival in decades!

The shocking, rarely-seen “prequel” to The Little Foxes, Another Part of the Forest depicts the early days of the notorious Hubbard family. There’s the father, Marcus, the most-hated man in town; his emotionally crippled wife, Lavinia, who has secrets of her own; their wayward daughter, Regina, and two resentful sons. The eldest son, Benjamin, uncovers a long-buried secret. Threatening to reveal it, he attempts to blackmail his father into signing over the family fortune or face an angry lynch mob. (source)

STAGE: The Glass Menagerie

Two-time Tony Award® winner Judith Ivey stars as Amanda Wingfield in this daring interpretation of Tennessee Williams' classic drama, which comes to Roundabout Theatre Company following a critically-acclaimed run at the Long Wharf Theatre.

THE GLASS MENAGERIE is a gripping portrait of an American family struggling to maintain the fragile balance between a difficult past and an uncertain future. This powerful new version blurs the delicate line between playwright and narrator, infusing Tom Wingfield's (Patch Darragh) flashbacks with fresh meaning and bringing visceral truth to his tangled relationships with Laura (Keira Keeley), Amanda and Jim (Michael Mosley ).

Renowned for its vivid characters, exquisitely written dialogue and absorbing story, THE GLASS MENAGERIE has the capacity to move, to entrance and to dazzle. (source)

Playing now thru May 30 at Laura Pels Theatre.

STAGE: The Orphans' Home Cycle

Part III of The Orphans' Home Cycle, Horton Foote's "nine play rural epic," opens this Thursday, January 7, joining Parts I & II which opened in Nov & Dec of 09. All three parts run thru the end of March. Read the Signature Theatre Company synopsis here.

STAGE: The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter closes Sunday (12/20)

ALERT: The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter closes this Sunday (12/20) at NY Theatre Workshop:

Carson McCullers’ classic novel is adapted for the stage by acclaimed playwright Rebecca Gilman (Spinning Into Butter) and directed by Doug Hughes (The Beard of Avon at NYTW, Doubt). The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is a beautiful and timeless tale about the universal need for human connection. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter follows the story of a deaf man, John Singer, as he navigates the world without his dearest friend who has been committed to an insane asylum. When Singer moves to a small Southern town, the locals flock to him as a newfound confidant, seeking compassion and understanding from the one person who needs it the most. Singer’s isolation in the world is mirrored in a few of the townspeople he meets along the way – a café owner, a rebellious teenager, a black physician, and an idealistic labor organizer whose dreams have been shattered. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter intertwines the lives of these characters in a surprising way that results in a deeply moving story of outcasts in the South during the Great Depression. (source)

STAGE: The Brother/Sister Plays

Photo: Richard Termine/NY Times

Now thru Dec 13 @ The Public Theater:

The Brother/Sister Plays - A trilogy of modern –day stories of kinship, love, heartache and coming of age centered around an extended family and community in the Bayou.


Part 1: In the Red and Brown Water
How far will fast, beautiful Oya go to make a mark in the world? IN THE RED AND BROWN WATER is the intoxicating story that charts a young girl’s thrust into womanhood and her subsequent fall into the murky waters of life.

Part 2: The Brothers Size and Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet
Reconceived since it premiered as part of The Public’s 2007-2008 season, THE BROTHERS SIZE is a taut, rhythmic and playful drama that follows two brothers as they walk the line between law and liberty.
MARCUS; OR THE SECRET OF SWEET is a beautiful and touching tale of a young man’s awakening to his tenuous connections with his history, his friends, his sexuality and himself. (source)

STAGE: 23 Coins

In the world of revivalist preaching, a man on the verge of losing his charisma latches onto a woman and her young daughter. The child he raises up as a child preacher - but what is his hold on them? What is the secret the mother has? This world premiere musical combines live music, DV projections, recorded sound and a cast of 11 to explore the distinction between religion, spirituality, voodoo and true faith. (source)

23 Coins is in production thru 10/25 at Spoon Theater.

STAGE: Blind Lemon Blues

Playing now thru October 4: Blind Lemon Blues celebrates the legacy of Blind Lemon Jefferson and his profound influence upon the development of American popular music. Jefferson was a blind street musician, who played his guitar at the corner of Elm Street and Central Avenue in Dallas, Texas, until a Paramount Records scout discovered him. Between 1926 and 1929, Jefferson made more than 80 records and became the biggest-selling country blues singer in America.

Blind Lemon Blues is set in New York City in 1948 at the last recording session of the legendary Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, and combines elements of traditional blues, gospel, rhythm and blues, soul, doo-wop, and rap to evoke the enduring legacy of Blind Lemon and his contemporaries, Blind Willie Johnson, Lillian Glinn, Hattie Hudson, Bobbie Cadillac, Lillian Miller and Lead Belly himself. (source)

STAGE: The Confidence Man

Playing thru 9/26: Herman Melville’s novel The Confidence Man is a colorful tale of a con man aboard a riverboat (on the Mississippi River en route to New Orleans) in the mid-19th century. The story follows the protagonist as he charms and then cheats his fellow passengers. As disarmingly relevant today as it was in the 19th century, The Confidence Man begs the question: in whom may we safely place our confidence?

The Woodshed Collective’s production of The Confidence Man will be composed of a series of interwoven and simultaneously performed vignettes, and will evoke the whirlwind of both a riverboat journey and the everyday urban chaos of New York City. The audience will choose what to see and which character’s story to follow just as one selects which newspaper stories to read, which YouTube videos to screen, or which online links to click. By allowing audience members to immerse themselves in the experience, the production seeks to blur the line between performer and patron, reclaim confidence in the power of live theater, and leave the lingering impression that the audience members themselves may not be immune to the confidence man’s charms or cons. (source)

STAGE: OOHRAH!

(Set in NC) Ron is back from his third and final tour in Iraq, and his wife Sara is excited to restart their life together in their new home. When a young marine visits the family, life is turned upside down. Sara’s sister is swept off her feet; her daughter Lacey trades her dresses for combat boots, and Ron gets hungry for real military action.

In this disarmingly funny and candid drama, Bekah Brunstetter raises challenging questions about what it means when the military is woven into the fabric of a family, and service is far more than just a job. (source)

OOHRAH! is at Atlantic Stage 2, September 1 - 27, 2009.

STAGE: Sweet Storm

In 1960 Florida, Ruthie and Bo, two young newlyweds, enter their honeymoon suite in the sky, a tree house. A romantic gesture from the young groom to his wife. Yet Bo’s expectations of living happily ever after in the sky are soon grounded by Ruthie’s realization that marriage comes with many unforeseen — and frightening — challenges. The two lovers struggle to fortify themselves against forces both inside and outside the tree house. (source)

Sweet Storm, and its "basketful of Southernisms" (Time Out NY), is playing now thru August 16 @ The Kirk Theatre.

STAGE: Vanities (the musical)

Yeah, I'm pretty much a sucker for anything having to do with Texas cheerleaders...

"Vanities, A New Musical, spans the turbulent ’60s through the late ’80s and explores how important friends are as one faces life’s defining moments: growing up, getting older and getting over it. Vanities is a funny and poignant look at three women who discover that, even in 30 years of rapidly changing times, the one thing they can rely on is each other.

Based on the smash hit that ran for 5 years, Jack Heifner adapts his time-honored play, David Kirshenbaum writes the tunefully evocative score and two time Tony Award winner Judith Ivey directs. Bob Verini of Variety says 'May well outshine the three-decade prominence of Heifner‘s original.'" (source)

Playing thru August 9 @ Second Stage Theatre.

STAGE: Mother @ Wild Project

MOTHER @ Wild Project (closes August 1).

"MOTHER is set at a throwback West Virginia resort over the New Year's holiday, where one family's gathering is anything but traditional. Infidelity, sibling rivalry, and a dash of kidnapping are all in an evening's diversion for this eccentric clan." (source)

STAGE: Things of Dry Hours @ NY Theatre Workshop

(image credit)

"Set in Depression-era Alabama, Things of Dry Hours tells the story of Tice Hogan (Lindo), an African American out-of-work Sunday school teacher and member of the Communist Party, and his daughter Cali (Ruff) whose lives get turned upside down when they take in a mysterious white factory worker (Dillahunt) on the run.

Naomi Wallace's Things of Dry Hours marks the return to the New York stage of famed stage and screen star Delroy Lindo, who received Tony Award and Drama Desk nominations for his last Broadway appearance in the original Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Lindo is joined on stage by OBIE Award-winner Roslyn Ruff, who just earned rave reviews for her performance in Athol Fugard's Coming Home at Long Wharf and Garret Dillahunt (No Country for Old Men). Tony Award-winning actor,writer and producer Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Lackawanna Blues, Seven Guitars) directs." (source)

Previews begin tonight at New York Theatre Workshop. The play runs 6/8 thru 6/28.

STAGE: The High Priestess of Dark Alley

(image credit)

"Set in present-day New Orleans, THE HIGH PRIESTESS OF DARK ALLEY is the story of three creole women, Celeste Thibodaux and her two grown daughters, Claire and Janee Charbonet. Trapped by the conventions of intra-racial divisions within the African-American community, the sisters are pitted against their mother regarding issues of color, class, sexuality and generational differences." (source)

Playing now thru June 28 @ Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn.

STAGE: Vieux Carre @ Pearl Theatre Company

"Vieux Carré thrusts the audience into the deep shadows of a dilapidated New Orleans boarding house. The play is a raw and vulnerable look into a world of outcasts and their mechanisms for survival. Nowhere does Williams more intimately explore his own sexual identity, his own journey from man to artist than in Vieux Carré. He invokes the beauty and fragility of love, and the wounds it inflicts; the terror of death and the necessity of hope, the importance of memory and the longing to bury the past." (source)

Vieux Carré is in previews now at The Pearl Theatre Company in the East Village. The play runs 5/27 thru 6/14.

STAGE: Suddenly Last Summer & The Oath

"Suddenly Last Summer is one of Tennessee William's starkest and most poetic works featuring Catherine Holly, a young woman who seems to go insane after her cousin Sebastian dies on a trip to Europe under mysterious circumstances. The young man's mother tries to cloud the truth about her son's homosexuality and his death, as she wants him to be remembered as a great artist."

Now thru May 9 @ June Havoc Theatre at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex.

"In this Southern Gothic tale, a wandering preacher is embroiled in the passions and politics of a swampy Florida outpost ruled with a macabre sense of justice by two rival sisters. The Oath is a darkly comic look at balancing ambition and ideals in a time of crisis."

Now thru May 10 @ ArcLight Theater

STAGE: Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge

Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge @ 59E59 thru Sunday 5/3:

An adaptation of J.M. Synge's controversial classic The Playboy of the Western World set in the hills of America's Appalachia. This original bluegrass musical is a tale of an unlikely hero, a backwoods romance, and an slapdash murder... a pitch-dark comedy with a kick of moonshine!

“Intelligent harmonic surprises! (Mills’s) wordplay is customarily witty!” Time Out New York

“Joyous! Tuneful! A barrel of fun! Cleverly crafted, sophisticated fare! Millls and Reichel have talent to burn!” Backstage

STAGE: August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone

"It is August in Pittsburgh, 1911.... From the deep and the near South the sons and daughters of newly freed African slaves wander into the city. Isolated, cut off from memory.... They arrive carrying Bibles and guitars, their pockets lined with dust and fresh hope, marked men and women seeking to scrape from the narrow, crooked cobbles and the fiery blasts of the coke furnace a way of bludgeoning and shaping the malleable parts of themselves into a new identity as free men of definite and sincere worth."

Lincoln Center Theater's newest production is the first Broadway revival of August Wilson's JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE, by one of the country's most revered playwrights. Nominated for six Tony Awards in the 1988-89 season, JOE TURNER was named Best Play by the New York Drama Critics Circle.

August Wilson's JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE is set in a Pittsburgh boarding house in 1911. Owners Seth and Bertha Holly play host to a makeshift family of people who come to stay, some for days, some longer, during the Great Migration of the 1910s when descendants of former slaves moved in large numbers from the South toward the industrial cities of the North, seeking new jobs, new lives and new beginnings. (source)

August Wilson's JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE opens today (4/14) and runs thru June 13 at:
Belasco Theatre
111 West 44th Street (Between Broadway and 6th Avenue)
New York NY 10036