It’s a good week to be a fan of plays. It’s also a good week to be a fan of musicals. And then there’s a telenovela play with music. That’s what you’ll find in Best Bets: September 7th – September 13th:
JEKYLL & HYDE – Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place – Chicago, IL – September 8th – November 8th
This Frank Wildhorn, Leslie Bricusse and Steve Cuden musical has never been one of my favorites. However, the Kokandy Productions approach to it earned fans from the toughest critics to the most particular theatergoers.
So impressed were the powers that be at Broadway in Chicago, they’ve given the production a two-motnh run. Call it an in-town major transfer!
David Moreland plays the dual roles of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Ava Lane Stovall plays Lucy Harris and Emily McCormick plays Emma Crew.
This production is directed by Derek Van Barham with music direction by Nick Sula and choreography by Brenda Didier.
I’ll be going on opening night and am hoping to be blown away.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
BLOODSPORT: AFTER HELEN OF TROY – Stratford East – London, England – Now – October 10th
OPENING NIGHT: September 10th
This is quite the year for Helen of Troy. Not only did Lupita Nyong’o play her in Christopher Nolan’s massively successful The Odyssey, she gets her story told in this world premiere play by Ava Pickett (1536 – an award-winning first play).
In the play Helen has returned home after the war.
Her husband is very happy to have her home. But her old friend Cee isn’t quite so thrilled. On the night of her arrival, their friendship is tested as old festering wounds rear their ugly heads.
Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey) plays Helen and Laura Aikman (Gavin & Stacey) plays Cee. The rest of the cast is Maimuna Memon, Gerard Monaco, Emma Monnickendam, Ethan Moorhouse, Jay Taylor, Ellie Turner and Joshua-Alexander Williams.
Lisa Spirling directs.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
THE VISIT – Pasadena Playhouse – Pasadena, CA – September 9th – October 4th
OPENING NIGHT: September 13th
Earlier this year director Darko Tresnjak and actor Jefferson Mays (both Tony Award winners) collaborated on a production of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus. Mays played Salieri.
They are back with a new production of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s challenging play, The Visit.
It tells the story of Claire Zachanassian (Melinda Page Hamilton) who returns to her hometown of Güllen. It is deeply impoverished and she’s wildly wealthy.
As the town prepares for her arrival, her old friend Anton Schill (Mays) helps put together the right celebration of the appropriate celebration for their hometown success story.
But his history with Claire turns what’s meant to be a celebration into a nightmare for him.
There’s a large supporting cast of 15, many of whom had appeared in Amadeus.
This is a brilliant play that, I believe, speaks to our time today in ways both challenging and humorous.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
Check back next week for my interviews with Mays and Tresnjak.
DESTINY OF DESIRE – Denver Center for the Performing Arts – September 11th – October 4th
Karen Zacarias’ “Telenovela Play with Music” had its world premiere in 2015. This new production, co-produced with Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, appears to be just the kind of joyful theater we could use right now.
An ex-beauty queen switches two baby girls who are born the same night in Bellarica, Mexico.
One was born in a very wealthy family, the other into an impoverished one. But that’s not how they grow up! Could the beauty queen’s actions turn out well for both girls?
When told in the style of a telenovela, anything is possible – as long as it’s kind of outrageous and campy.
The production is directed by Marcela Lorca with choreography by William Carlos Angulo and Music Direction by Deborah Wicks La Puma.
For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
The production will play at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles from November 11th – December 20th. For tickets and more information, please go HERE.
MAYBE HAPPY ENDING – Multiple Venues (US Tour) – September 13th – August 29, 2027
Last year’s 6-time Tony Award winning musical (including Best Musical) Maybe Happy Ending is going on the road.
The musical tells the story of Oliver and Claire – both robots – whose lives are monotonous. When they meet, everything changes. Perhaps they know what it’s like be human – with all the good and bad that offers.
The musical was written by Will Aronson and Hue Park. The production is directed by Michael Arden.
The cast for the tour is Steven Huynh as Oliver, Claire Kwon as Claire, James Seol in multiple roles, Francisco Javier González as Gil Brentley and HwaBoon as, of course, HwaBoon.
The tour kicks off on September 13th at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre where it will run through September 19th. Next stop is the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts in Greensboro, NC from September 22nd – September 27th. That is followed by performances September 29th – October 4th at the Peace Center Concert Hall in Greenville, SC. Next up, The National Theatre in Washington, DC.
For tickets and more information on the tour, please go HERE.
That’s all for Best Bets: September 7th – September 13th.
Enjoy your week!
Go see a play!
Go see a musical!
Go see a show!
Main Photo: Jefferson Mays and Melinda Page Hamilton for The Visit (Photo by Jeff Lorch/Courtesy Pasadena Playhouse)