Best Bets: February 23rd – March 1st

It’s another week chock full of world premieres. Here are Cultural Attaché’s Best Bets: February 23^rd – March 1st

FIRES, OHIO – Alliance Theatre – Atlanta, GA – February 25^th – March 22^nd

Playwright Beth Hyland, whose play Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia is having its world premiere production at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, has her second world premiere with Fires, Ohio.

The play is inspired by Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Set in, of course, Ohio, the play depicts a professor, his second wife and his grown children as they face threats from wildfires that are closing in on their town. The arrival of a friend of the family intensifies the threats to the family, but from the inside.

Marissa Wolf directs Chisom Awachie, Tiffany Denise Jobbs, Rebecca Robles, Billy Harrigan Tighe and David de Vries.

Later this week we will have our interview with Beth Hyland.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

ANTIGONE (THIS PLAY I READ IN HIGH SCHOOL) – Public Theater – New York, NY – February 26^th – March 29^th

Here’s another world premiere – this time by playwright Anna Ziegler. Amongst her best-known works are Photograph 51, Dov and Ali and The Great Moment. This time she’s focused her attention on Sophocles’ Antigone which looked at the title character who refused to bury her brother in defiance of the king’s command. That contrarian act results in her death.

In Ziegler’s reimagining, the young woman at the center of the play acts out against tyrannical laws that deprive her the ability to make decisions about her own body.

Tyne Rafaeli directs Celia Kennan-Bolger, Susannah Perkins, Tony Shalhoub along with Ethan Dubin, Katie Kreisler, Dave Quay, Calvin Leon Smith and Haley Wong.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

UNCABARET – El Cid – Los Angeles, CA – February 27^th

I’ve long been a fan of Beth Lapides and her Uncabaret series. This week’s line-up features Greg Behrendt, Alec Mapa, James Adomian, Laurie Kilmartin and the addition of Alex Edelman. He’s the Tony Award and Emmy Award winning writer/comedian whose Just for Us was both highly acclaimed and very successful. You can catch it on HBO MAX.

He’s starting a tour in late March of new material, so perhaps those in attendance might get a look at some of that material.

Uncabaret is always fun, timely and thought-provoking. But mostly fun.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

STARDUST: FROM TIN PAN ALLEY TO BROADWAY – 92^nd Street Y – New York, NY – February 28^th – March 2^nd

Three-time Tony Award winning choreographer/director Kathleen Marshall (Anything Goes, The Pajama Game, Wonderful Town) directs this celebration of the music that launched Broadway musicals.

Amongst the songwriters whose work will be performed are Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, George M. Cohan, Dorothy Fields, George Gershwin and Johny Mercer.

Their songs will be performed by Krystal Joy Brown (Merrily We Roll Along), John Cardoza (The Notebook), Zachary Noah Piser (Dear Evan Hansen), T. Oliver Reid (Once on This Island), Sarah Stiles (Tootise) and Ana Villafañe (On Your Feet!).

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

STARSTRUCK – Bucks County Playhouse – New Hope, PA – Now – March 21^st. OPENING NIGHT: February 28^th

Here’s another world premiere, this time a musical from Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls who wrote the music and lyrics and with book writers Beth Malone (Alison Bechdel in Fun Home) and Mary Ann Stratton.

The musical tells the story of Cyd DeBerg who is an astronomer having to do battle with a local bar over its neon sign which precludes her from the darkness she needs to do her work. As her battle becomes more widely known via a podcaster, she finds herself in conflict with her community and falling in love with one of its members.

Lorin Latarro directs and choreographs Elana Cantor, Donald Corren, Sam Gravite, Natalie Joy Johnson, Malone, Sydney Patrick, Krysta Rodriguez, Scott Stangland, Nathan Quay Thomas, Sandra Valls and Aurelia Williams.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

That’s all for Best Bets: February 23^rd – March 1^st.

Enjoy your week Go see a show!

Main Photo: Tony Shalhoub and Celia Kennan-Bolger in rehearsals of Antigone (That Play I Read in High School) (Photo by Joan Marcus/Courtesy The Public Theater)