PLAYS AND MUSICALS
FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
SAMUEL FRENCH
CONTENTS
Plays and Musicals for Community Theaters
HOW TO USE THIS CATALOG
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LICENSING A TITLE 3 We're pleased to share this collection of plays and musicals specifically selected for community theaters.
SAMUEL FRENCH RESOURCES
The titles included here are sure to delight and entertain your audiences. With theatre classics, popular Broadway musicals, crowd-pleasing comedies, and family-friendly titles, there is something for theaters of all shapes and sizes.
BREAKING CHARACTER SPOTLIGHT 5
From Samuel French's vast catalog, we've put together a selection of some of our most popular titles, newest acquisitions, and a few hidden gems. Whether you’re looking for a play to complete an upcoming season, or the perfect musical to bring the community together, you'll find a variety of options here. If you find this catalog to be a useful tool, please let us know. You can tell your Licensing Representative, or leave a comment along with your licensing request. We look forward to working with you and helping you make theatre happen.
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PLAY TITLE GUIDES CAST BREAKDOWNS
8
CASTING ATTRIBUTES
15
GENRES 19 AWARDS & RECOGNITION 25
MUSICAL TITLE GUIDES CAST BREAKDOWNS
28
CASTING ATTRIBUTES
32
GENRES 33 VOCAL DEMANDS
36
ORCHESTRA SIZE
37
MUSICAL STYLE
38
AWARDS & RECOGNITION 40
— Samuel French, Inc.
PLAY AND MUSICAL LISTINGS
43
INDEXES 121 PLAYS 122 MUSICALS 124 AUTHORS 125
CONTACT US Cover: The cast of Pump Boys & Dinettes book, lyrics & music by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel, and Jim Wann. Theatre Raleigh, 2015 (Curtis Brown Photography).
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HOW TO USE THIS CATALOG
LICENSING A PLAY OR MUSICAL
TITLE GUIDES
SUBMITTING A LICENSE
If you’re looking for a show that fits a certain genre or need to find roles for a specific number of performers, our Title Guides can help. The Guides include lists of titles organized by common search terms or production information producers consider when looking for the right show. There are separate Play Title Guides beginning on Page 7 and Musical Title Guides on Page 27. Each Title Guide section includes:
Head to the product page of any play or musical on samuelfrench.com and begin the licensing process by clicking the “Request License” button. You can search for titles’ product pages by using the search bar at the top of the homepage.
CASTING ATTRIBUTES Here you’ll find shows with ALL FEMALE and ALL MALE casts, shows with ROLES for a LEADING WOMAN or LEADING MAN, and shows with roles for SENIOR ACTORS or CHILDREN AND TEENS.
We’ll do our best to respond to requests within 24 to 48 hours. Newer and popular titles may take longer as we work directly with authors and their agents to process the request. We recommend applying for rights at least four weeks in advance of your pre-production process or any internal deadlines you have for season planning. We can accept applications as early as 18 months in advance of your proposed production dates (and the sooner you submit, the better). Occasionally a play or musical will be unavailable or restricted due to a current first class production or a national tour. You may also be in a city in which rights are currently withheld.
Plays and musicals with roles specifically for performers of color, and ethnic and cultural minority actors are included in the MULTICULTURAL ROLES list.
Once you submit a license request, your contract and additional paperwork will be available for review via your customer login.
Finally, the FLEXIBLE CASTING list includes plays and musicals which allow for doubling roles, reducing or expanding the cast size, or may include an ensemble or chorus.
DO YOU NEED A LICENSE?
CAST BREAKDOWNS All titles are listed here based on CAST SIZE and GENDER ROLES.
GENRES Titles are listed here based on major genres. You can find more detailed subgenres in the Play and Musical Listings section or on a specific show’s title page on the Samuel French website. AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS A breakdown of TONY and PULITZER winners, plus lists of shows that have appeared on BROADWAY and OFF-BROADWAY.
The Musical Titles Guide includes these additional guides: VOCAL DEMAND Musicals listed based on the difficulty of song vocals.
Legal authorization and payment of author royalties (licensing fees) is required if your performance takes place in front of an audience, regardless of whether or not admission is charged, it is a public or private event, or whether it is for charity or gain. This applies to the performance of any part of any copyrighted work as well as the whole. It applies to “readings” as well as “performances.” Licensing fees are not charged and authorization is not required of copyrighted materials within a classroom setting in which only the instructor of the class and those students regularly enrolled in that class are present during use. If the copyrighted material is performed in front of an audience, which does not meet the strict “classroom” definition, then a licensing fee must be paid and legal authorization for usage must be obtained.
VIDEO RECORDINGS
ORCHESTRA SIZE Musicals listed by the size of orchestra and/or available scores.
Written permission must be obtained for all requests, regardless of the purpose or reason for the proposed recording. Please email us to inquire if recording rights are available. Please be aware that an additional fee may apply and that not all titles are available for video/audio recordings.
MUSICAL STYLE Musicals are listed here by major musical style genres. You can find more detailed information on musical styles in the Play and Musical Listings section or on a specific show’s title page on the Samuel French website.
SCRIPT CHANGES & CUTTINGS
PLAY AND MUSICAL LISTINGS
Here you’ll find all titles listed alphabetically, complete with synopses, cast breakdowns, title information, and specific production elements. You can find additional information on these titles on the Samuel French website.
Written permission must be obtained from Samuel French for all changes to the script. It is a violation of copyright law to make any changes in the play for the purposes of production without obtaining written permission. Otherwise, the play must be presented only as published in the Samuel French Acting Edition, without any changes, additions, alterations, or deletions to the text or title. These restrictions include, without limitation, altering, updating or amending the time, locales, or settings of the play in any way. The gender of the characters shall also not be changed or altered in any way.
MORE QUESTIONS? INDEXES
Need a quick list of everything? The indexes in the back of catalog show titles and authors for all the plays and musicals included in the catalog.
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How To Use This Catalog
For more about licensing a show, making changes to a script, payment information, and answers to other frequently asked questions visit samuelfrench.com/FAQ. You can also contact the Samuel French Licensing Team via phone, email, and live chat. See the contact information on the last page of the catalog.
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Licensing A Play Or Musical
SAMUEL FRENCH RESOURCES
BREAKING CHARACTER SPOTLIGHT
ABBOTT
HOW TO PLAN AN ONSTAGE SEASON
Abbott is Samuel French’s digital platform for play reading. With Abbott, you can explore over 1,200 digital plays and musicals on your mobile device, tablet, or computer. Whether reading for fun, for school, or for the stage, Abbott puts the world’s best scripts at your fingertips. Visit samuelfrench.com/abbott.
BREAKING CHARACTER MAGAZINE
Breaking Character Magazine was created for theatremakers across the nation and provides the latest industry news, access to your favorite playwrights and composers, engaging content, and more. Visit breakingcharactermagazine.com.
PLAYWRIGHTS WELCOME
Developed for the members of the Dramatists Guild of America, Playwrights Welcome is a national ticketing initiative created by Samuel French along with the other major licensing houses. The program provides free access to theatre for playwrights, composers, and lyricists around the country. For more information on how your theater can participate, visit samuelfrench.com/playwrightswelcome.
VOCAL SELECTIONS & SHEET MUSIC
Samuel French is proud to be the first theatrical publishing and licensing company to offer sheet music and vocal selection books for our titles. We love musical theatre and are thrilled to share the incredible work of our writers with you. Find vocal selections and sheet music from great Samuel French titles such as Fun Home, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, and Heathers the Musical. See all the musicals available in hard copies and digital downloads at samuelfrench.com/sheetmusic.
OWNING THEIR WORDS
Samuel French is passionate about protecting the rights of our playwrights and composers. As a licensing customer, we want you to understand the role you have in protecting artists’ rights. Visit samuelfrench.com/ whitepaper to learn about the work Samuel French is doing to educate the community on these important issues. You’ll find information on anti-piracy rules, how artists can legally use intellectual property, royalties, and more. You can also download a copy of our published white paper: Owning Their Words: Understanding the Playwright, Protecting Their Work & How You Can Help. This document serves as an introduction into ownership and how artists are paid for the work they produce.
VISIT OUR BOOKSTORE
If you’re in the Los Angeles area, visit the Samuel French bookstore. The Samuel French Film & Theatre Bookshop (7623 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, CA) has served the industry for over 65 years with a wide range of plays and musicals, vocal selections, theatre books, memorabilia, and gifts.
LOOKING FOR MORE?
The Samuel French website is a great resource for show information and tools to assist you with your next great production. Visit samuelfrench.com to see our entire catalog of plays and musicals.
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Samuel French Resources
by Laura Palotie
Breaking Character Magazine is Samuel French’s online resource for industry news and features about the theatre community. Here, contributing writer Laura Palotie learns some tips from industry experts to find out what goes into choosing a play or musical to produce and creating a theatre season.
T
hat there is no guaranteed formula for success is a much-repeated tenet of show business. When it comes to planning a production lineup for an upcoming theater season, achieving a balance between creatively challenging and crowdpleasing can feel like a daunting task. From high school programs to high-profile off-Broadway theaters, artistic excitement is a key starting point.
in how they respond to our programming, we choose the plays we do because we find particular writers and their work exciting, and we hope our members will too.”
“We want to program from the place of who we are as an organization and what we find to be great theater.”
For the famed Manhattan-based Atlantic Theater Company, founded by David Mamet and William H. Macy in 1985, programming is determined primarily by what Artistic Director Neil Pepe, Director of New Play Development Abigail Katz and Associate Artistic Director Annie MacRae deem both inspiring and aligning with the company’s mission. The Atlantic is known for producing boundary-pushing critical favorites: one of its high-profile success stories was Spring Awakening, which debuted at the Atlantic in 2006 and went on to win eight Tony Awards during its Broadway run.
Planning for the Atlantic’s yearlong season usually begins in earnest in January, and a final schedule of productions is locked down in the late spring. Several factors play into the process of selecting suitable works. In addition to staying on the lookout for outstanding texts, Pepe, MacRae and Katz aim to stage plays and musicals that showcase the Atlantic’s ensemble members. In addition, several of the company’s productions — such as Doug Wright’s Posterity — are commissioned from playwrights specifically for the Atlantic.
“We want to program from the place of who we are as an organization and what we find to be great theatre,” says Katz. “We have a wonderful member base [of about 2700 subscribers], and while we are always interested
“We also look at the season as a whole to make sure there aren’t things that are too similar to one another – we have to make sure we are diversified, not only in terms of our writers’ backgrounds but in terms of having a menu of
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options to appeal to a wide group of theatergoers,” says Katz. While the Atlantic caters to Manhattan’s theater-saturated crowds, the Bristol Valley Theater, located roughly 300 miles north of New York City, has a mission to bring high-quality productions of plays and musicals to rural audiences. Its season runs from June to September. In addition to staying abreast of industry news, artistic director Karin Bowersock says she is often brainstorming next year’s season with her actors while current summer shows are still in production. “We work with a high degree of return with our artists, between 75 and 80 percent of them return from one season to the next, so we talk with them a lot about what shows might be a good fit,” says Bowersock. The best brainstorming, she says, often happens at a bar or restaurant post-performance. “I feel guilty always wanting to talk about what’s next, so I try not to do it when I’m hanging out with the cast, but the actors are happy to bring it up,” she says. About one-third of Bristol Valley’s audience base is made up of subscribers. Karin Bowersock also makes a concentrated effort to involve her audience in the show-selection process as closely
Breaking Character Spotlight
as possible by selecting a focus group of about a dozen patrons each season to provide feedback and react to Bowersock and Associate Artistic Director David Shane’s suggestions for next season’s lineup. “People pick some surprising things – shows that I wouldn’t have guessed are sometimes at the top of their lists,” she says. One offbeat vote cast by the focus group was Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx’s Avenue Q, which will open Bristol Valley’s 2016 season. A final lineup is announced by November 1st of the previous year. The rare negative feedback from audiences generally comes from false presumptions about the tone or theme of a production. “Last year we did Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw, which people falsely presumed was a mystery; I’ve realized that most people don’t really read the marketing materials you send them, even three-sentence paragraphs,” Bowersock says. “We try to make the descriptions shorter each year.” High school theaters, too, can be well advised to prioritize artistic achievement over guaranteed audience approval. After all, the latter can be impossible to predict. “A few years ago we put on Spring Awakening, which went off without a hitch and we had a full house every night. We felt our kids were mentally and emotionally mature enough for it, and parents supported our decision,” says Annie Dragoo, Theatre Director at Austin High School in Texas. “But when we did Legally Blonde, someone sent a letter to the principle saying how inappropriate the musical was because of the song ‘Gay
or European;’ every once and a while we have these wacky things happen, but for the most part, the parents say how wonderful the shows are.”
Karin Bowersock [Artistic Director of Bristol Valley Theater] also makes a concentrated effort to involve her audience in the show-selection process as closely as possible by selecting a focus group of about a dozen patrons each season to provide feedback... Dragoo and her husband Billy Dragoo, Austin High School’s Chair of Fine Arts, usually develop a season around productions that personally inspire them. “We want to be drawn to a show and train the kids up to that level,” says Dragoo. “Neither of us is picking shows because we have certain kids to fit those roles; we pick shows we want to do as directors. Of course we have a very active booster club that supports us, and we always listen to them, but Billy has been here for 20 years and I’ve been here for 12, so in the end we go with what we want.” Sometimes a talented crop of students presents an opportunity for a challenging work. After putting on Nicholas Nickelby earlier this fall, Billy Dragoo saw an opportunity to produce Alan Ayckbourn’s Living Together, part of The Norman Conquests trilogy. Austin High’s theater department, the Red Dragon
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Players, has a solid reputation in the region and has won accolades at the University Interscholastic League’s One-Act Play Contest, the world’s largest high school play festival. Thus the Dragoos often have several seniors auditioning for undergraduate theater programs. “Sometimes this does factor in to our selections, as we try to provide our seniors with as much opportunity as possible,” says Annie Dragoo. “Last year, for example, we had an exceptional bunch of 17-year-old seniors who sang and danced, so we did Gypsy, which gave them great roles they could use in their audition tapes.” Austin High’s season also always includes one show designed for a large cast, which allows as many interested students as possible to audition and become involved.
PLAY TITLE GUIDES
“We always say that the best person for the role gets the role. That’s what real life and real theater is like, and our job is imitate that for the kids,” Dragoo says.
This article originally appeared on Breaking Character Magazine in November, 2015.
Breaking Character Spotlight
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CAST BREAKDOWNS SINGLE CHARACTER Drama 1M
Blanche and Beyond Clarence Darrow Private Peaceful (solo)
2M, 1F
2F
The Captain’s Tiger The Few The God Game The Which Isn’t
Airswimming The Anarchist
1M, 1F
Amelia Everythings Turning Into Beautiful H2O
1F
Grounded The Second Coming of Joan of Arc Shakespeare for My Father Where Do Little Birds Go? The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe
A Distant Country Called Youth Morcambe Through the Night
Dramatic Comedy 2M
The Big Voice: God or Merman?
TWO CHARACTERS Comedy 2M
1M, 1F
Acting: The First Six Lessons The Days are as Grass Occupant, Edward Albee's Maytag Virgin
Dramatic Comedy 3F
Dramatic Comedy 1M, 3F
A Lifetime Burning
2M, 1F
2M, 2F
FOUR CHARACTERS
3M, 1F
4000 Days
The Quality of Life The Realistic Joneses The Flick The Happy One The Penitent
Comedy 4F
The MOMologues
1M, 3F
FIVE CHARACTERS
2M, 2F
Comedy 1M, 4F
4000 Miles
THREE CHARACTERS
Collapse Engaging Shaw It’s Only Murder The Kitchen Witches Last Dance My First Time Out of the City Power Plays Rose’s Dilemma Skin Deep Smart People
Comedy 3M
The Albatross 3rd & Main
A Couple of Blaguards China Doll Greater Tuna Red, White and Tuna A Tuna Christmas Tuna Does Vegas
3F
1M, 1F
2M, 1F
Educating Rita Everythings Turning Into Beautiful Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam and Eve Same Time, Next Year Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks Triangles for Two
The Dying Gaul Leveling Up The Picture of Dorian Gray
2F
1F
Shirley Valentine
3M, 1F
From Door to Door Murder, Margaret and Me
The Gulf
Dramatic Comedy 1M
Dancing in the End-Zone Fixing Gwen Grand Concourse No Exit
Vanities
1M, 2F
Late, A Cowboy Song Seven Interviews
The Cemetery Club
2M, 3F
Dead Accounts The Mystery of Miz Arnette Private Lives
3M, 2F
Birth and After Birth Election Day A Feminine Ending Flamingo Court Lunch with Mrs. Baskin Olive and the Bitter Herbs One Shoe Off Seminar Sick Spreading It Around The Waverly Gallery
3M, 1F
The Love List
The 39 Steps Better Late Birds of a Feather Lucky Me A Masterpiece of Comic...Timing! True West
Drama 3M
Back Back Back
3F Drama 2M
Barrymore
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
Agnes of God
1M, 2F
Al’s Business Cards Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery Smoke and Mirrors
Barrio Hollywood
Apostasy
8
4M, 1F
Drama 2M, 2F
Play Title Guides
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Play Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
Edith in the Dark Fiction
1M, 3F, 1G
2M, 2F, 1 M OR F Who Is Theo?
Somebody/Nobody Three One-Act Plays About the Elderly Welcome Back to Ivy Gap Wonderland Wives
Drama 1M, 5F
2M, 4F
Beachwood Drive The Stranger
Detroit ‘67 Informed Consent The Mystery of Miz Arnette
All This Intimacy Boeing Boeing Glorious!: The True Story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the Worst Singer in the World Mom’s Gift The Tribute Artist
3M, 2F
3M, 3F
Drama 2M, 3F
Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology Gates of Gold The Old Neighborhood The Vertical Hour
4M, 1F
BecauseHeCan A Moon for the Misbegotten
5M
Sleuth
2M, 2F, 1G
brownsville song (b-side for tray)
Dramatic Comedy 3M, 2F A Christmas Carol Fall The Fall of Heaven If I Were You Poor Richard Precious Sons
4M, 1F
Battle Hymn Secrets of the Trade
SIX CHARACTERS Comedy 6F
Belles: The Reunion Showtime at First Baptist
3C Adult Entertainment Be My Baby Bullets for Broadway Don’t Dress for Dinner A Facility for Living The Hatmaker’s Wife The Last Schwartz Love, Lies & the Doctor’s Dilemma Money Matters The Most Deserving A Night in Provence The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks The Poorly-Written Play Festival Social Security Wasp What is Susan’s Secret?
4M, 2F
Barefoot in the Park Beyond Therapy The End of the Day Forsooth, My Lovely George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead Live James and the Giant Peach The Mnemonist of Dutchess County Peccadillo Picture Ourselves in Latvia What the Butler Saw
5M, 1F
The Faculty Room Loot
4M, 3F
The Altos A Comedy of Tenors Jewtopia Murder at Cafe Noir Murderous Crossing My Big Gay Italian Mid-Life Crisis A Nice Family Gathering Noir Pointblank Noir Suspicions Splitting Heirs Squabbles Stage Kiss
2M, 4F
3M, 3F
Blood At The Root Bulrusher Crossing Jerusalem A Doll’s House A Great Wilderness Ground Spoils of War The Sugar Witch Wonderful Tennessee
5M, 2F
Books Fantastic Mr. Fox
5M, 1F
Song Of Extinction
The Underpants
6M, 1F
Dramatic Comedy 6F
Cuba and His Teddy Bear
First Baptist of Ivy Gap
4M, 2F, 1B Verité
1M, 5F
Saturday Night at Old Smokey
3M, 2F, 1B, 1G
The Magic Finger
3M, 3F
Melancholy Play: a contemporary farce The Novelist
3M, 3F, 1B OR G
Seasonal Allergies
4M, 2F
The End of the Day The Night Hank Williams Died
3M, 3F, 1M OR F
SEVEN CHARACTERS
Drama 1M, 6F
Things My Mother Taught Me
A Piece of My Heart
Comedy 2M, 5F
2M, 5F
Blithe Spirit Evelyn in Purgatory Foolish Fishgirls and the Pearl
The Healing
4M, 3F
The Herd Hurlyburly Rest
Brighton Beach Memoirs Chasing Manet In the Next Room, or the vibrator play Jack of Diamonds A Nice Family Christmas
2M, 3F, 1G
My Wonderful Day
Saturday Night at Old Smokey
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Storm in a Flower Vase
3M, 4F
1M, 5F
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
Perfect Arrangement Project Murder
Play Title Guides
5M, 2F
The Bells
11
Play Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
Dusty and the Big Bad World
6M, 1F
7F
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf
Dramatic Comedy 7F Top Girls
1M, 6F
Belles The Cover of Life
3M, 4F
In the Next Room, or the vibrator play Old Money
4M, 3F
5M, 3F
Charles Busch’s Cleopatra The Eight: Reindeer Monologues Leading Ladies Love, Sex and the I.R.S. Story Theatre Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol
6M, 2F
Funny Money The Odd Couple Run for Your Wife Too Many Cooks
5M, 4F
3M, 7F
7M, 2F
5M, 5F
3M, 3F, 1B, 1G Table Settings
Drama 3M, 5F
6M, 4F
Charley’s Aunt Two on the Aisle, Three in a Van Writer’s Block
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
7M, 3F
Nana's Naughty Knickers
5M, 3F
Afterlife Biloxi Blues Dracula The Elephant Man
Fools No Sex Please, We're British!
Drama 5M, 5F
Anatomy of Gray
A Gift of Time Pocatello
Far from the Madding Crowd Native Son
8M, 2F
John Ball’s In the Heat of the Night Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
6M, 3F
Any Given Day
EIGHT CHARACTERS
2M, 1F, 7 M OR F
7M, 2F
Dramatic Comedy 1M, 7F
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
A Poirot Double Bill
Welfarewell
8M, 1F
3M, 3F, 1B, 1G The Big Meal
3M, 5F
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
Rumors
3M, 5F, 1M OR F
God’s Heart
5M, 4F
Death by Design Devil Boys from Beyond If Memory Serves Lend Me a Tenor Moon Over Buffalo The Skin Of Our Teeth Seniors of the Sahara
The House of Blue Leaves
Coastal Disturbances
6M, 2F
4M, 4F
4M, 6F
3M, 4F, 1B, 1G
5M, 3F
The Game’s Afoot Rose
Play On!
A Dram of Drummhicit Picasso at the Lapin Agile
Drama 4M, 5F
My Deah The Odd Couple (Female Version) The Witch in 204
Stepping Out
Beethoven’s Tenth A Company of Wayward Saints A Good Old Fashioned Red Neck Country Wedding See How They Run
The Mousetrap The Piano Lesson Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie Red Velvet
Comedy 2M, 6F
Comedy 1M, 9F
6M, 3F
The Holy Terror Lost in Yonkers OOHRAH! Go Back to Where You Are The Lion in Winter
TEN CHARACTERS
Noises Off A Good Old Fashioned Red Neck Country Christmas
Jitney
ELEVEN CHARACTERS
6M, 2F, 1B
Comedy 11M
The Final Toast
Keep Your Pantheon
NINE CHARACTERS
6M, 5F
Dramatic Comedy 6M, 3F
Comedy 3M, 6F
The Graduate
Abstract Expression Rocket City, Alabam’
4 Beekman Any Body for Tea?
8M, 3F
Passion Play
4M, 5F
Hay Fever
12
Play Title Guides
13
Play Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
As The Beast Sleeps The Force of Change The Judas Kiss The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Diviners
7M, 4F
Towards Zero
8M, 3F
And Then There Were None
7M, 3F, 1B
A Raisin in the Sun
7M, 5F, 1B, 1G
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (14m, 2f ) Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding (15m, 11f )
Drama
THIRTEEN CHARACTERS
FIFTEEN OR MORE CHARACTERS
Comedy 4M, 9F
Comedy
Dramatic Comedy 6M, 6F
Shakespeare’s Sister
Middletown
The Awesome 80s Prom (12m, 8f ) The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (4m, 9f, 8b, 6g) The Doctor in Wonderland (3m, 5F, 17m or f Grandchild of Kings (23 m or f ) In-Laws, Outlaws, and Other People (That The Should Be Shot) (7m, 8f ) The Matchmaker (9m, 7f ) The Mundy Scheme (12m, 3f ) Romance Language (10m, 5f )
Calendar Girls
8M, 5F
My Big Gay Italian Wedding
Dramatic Comedy 11F Talking With…
5M, 6F
Trudy Blue
8M, 3F
Passion Play
Drama 8M, 5F
Murder on the Nile Towards Zero (Outdoor)
Comedy 4M, 8F
Murder Inn
6M, 6F
45 Seconds from Broadway Sordid Lives
8M, 4F
Arcadia Inspecting Carol
Drama 9M, 3F
Not About Nightingales
7M, 3F, 2B Golda
ALL FEMALE CAST
FOURTEEN CHARACTERS Comedy 7M, 7F
My Big Gay Italian Funeral The Miracle Worker
9M, 5F
The Lady in the Van
Drama 7M, 7F
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The 39 Steps 4000 Miles Agnes of God Amelia The Anarchist Barefoot in the Park Be My Baby Blithe Spirit Calendar Girls The Cemetery Club The City of Conversation A Comedy of Tenors The Days are as Grass Devil Boys from Beyond ADoll’s House A Dram of Drummhicit Educating Rita Engaging Shaw Fall A Feminine Ending Fiction First Baptist of Ivy Gap The Force of Change Glorious!: The True Story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the Worst Singer in the World A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Wedding The Graduate Grand Concourse Ground
ALL MALE CAST
9M, 6F
Three Sisters
10M, 4F 11M, 3F
The General from America
6M, 6F, 1B, 2G, 1M OR F
The Albatross 3rd & Main Back Back Back The Changing Room China Doll Greater Tuna Keep Your Pantheon Red, White and Tuna Tuna Does Vegas A Tuna Christmas
See You in Bells
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
14
The Ballad of Soapy Smith (24m, 9f ) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (13m, 4f ) Love and Information (Flexible Casting)
ROLES FOR LEADING WOMAN
Agnes of God Airswimming The Anarchist Belles Belles: The Reunion Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End First Baptist of Ivy Gap From Door to Door The Gulf The Second Coming of Joan of Arc Shirley Valentine Showtime at First Baptist Top Girls Talking With... Vanities
The Miracle Worker
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
2M, 3F, 7M OR F
Dramatic Comedy
CASTING ATTRIBUTES
Dramatic Comedy 10M, 3F Black Coffee
TWELVE CHARACTERS
Advise and Consent (18m, 4f, 12 m or f ) Amadeus (12m, 3f ) The Changing Room (22m) Dark of the Moon (10m, 12f ) David and Lisa (11m, 11f ) Our Town (17m, 7f ) Private Peaceful Ensemble (Flexible Casting) The Trip Back Down (9m, 6f )
Play Title Guides
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Play Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
Drama 6M, 5F
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
ROLES FOR LEADING MAN The 39 Steps 4000 Miles Advise and Consent Afterlife Amelia The Ballad of Soapy Smith Barefoot in the Park Barrymore Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery Be My Baby Beethoven’s Tenth Black Coffee Blanche and Beyond Boeing Boeing Brighton Beach Memoirs China Doll A Christmas Carol Clarence Darrow A Comedy of Tenors Dancing in the End-Zone The Days are as Grass Dead Accounts Devil Boys from Beyond A Distant Country Called Youth The Diviners Dracula A Dram of Drummhicit Educating Rita The Elephant Man The End of the Day Engaging Shaw Fall of Heave Fiction The Final Toast Fools Forsooth, My Lovely The Game’s Afoot The God Game The Happy Ones The House of Blue Leaves In the Next Room, or the vibrator play John Ball’s In the Heat of the Night The Judas Kiss Leading Ladies Lend Me a Tenor Love, Sex and the I.R.S. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance A Masterpiece of Comic... Timing! The Matchmaker The Mnemonist of Dutchess County Moon Over Buffalo Morcambe Murder at Cafe Noir
16
Play Title Guides
My Big Gay Italian Mid-Life Crisis Native Son A Nice Family Gathering Noir Suspicions The Odd Couple Occupant, Edward Albee's One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Our Town A Piece of My Heart The Penitent Pocatello A Poirot Double Bill Red Velvet Same Time, Next Year See You in Bells Seminar Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks The Skin Of Our Teeth Stage Kiss Things My Mother Taught Me Too Many Cooks The Tribute Artist True West What is Susan’s Secret? What the Butler Saw Who Is Theo?
Last Dance Leading Ladies Lend Me a Tenor Lucky Me The Love List Lunch with Mrs. Baskin The Matchmaker Money Matters Moon Over Buffalo Murder Inn Nana’s Naughty Knickers A Nice Family Christmas A Nice Family Gathering The Night Hank Williams Died Occupant, Edward Albee's Pocatello Rest Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks The Skin Of Our Teeth Social Security Splitting Heirs Spreading It Around The Sugar Witch Three One-Act Plays About the Elderly Three Sisters The Waverly Gallery Welcome Back to Ivy Gap Welfarewell What is Susan’s Secret? Witch in 204
ROLES FOR SENIOR ACTORS 3C Any Given Day Be My Baby Belles: The Reunion Better Late Blithe Spirit Calendar Girls The Cemetery Club Chasing Manet The City of Conversation Coastal Disturbances The Days are as Grass Devil Boys from Beyond A Dram of Drummhicit A Facility for Living First Baptist of Ivy Gap Flamingo Court The Game’s Afoot Glorious!: The True Story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the Worst Singer in the World A Good Old Fashioned Red Neck Country Christmas The Herd Jack of Diamonds
ROLES FOR CHILDREN/TEENS Any Given Day Arcadia The Awesome 80s Prom The Best Christmas Pageant Ever The Big Meal Blood At The Root brownsville song (b-side for tray) Bulrusher The City of Conversation Coastal Disturbances David and Lisa Dusty and the Big Bad World Fall The Final Toast Fixing Gwen A Good Old Fashioned Red Neck Country Christmas Golda Lost in Yonkers The Magic Finger
17
Play Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
Grounded In the Next Room, or the vibrator play Last Dance Late, A Cowboy Song Leading Ladies Lend Me a Tenor A Lifetime Burning The Lion in Winter Lost in Yonkers Lucky Me Lunch with Mrs. Baskin Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom The Matchmaker Maytag Virgin Melancholy Play: a contemporary farce Middletown The Miracle Worker The Mnemonist of Dutchess County Moon Over Buffalo The Mystery of Miz Arnette Nana’s Naughty Knickers A Nice Family Gathering Occupant, Edward Albee's The Odd Couple (Female Version) Olive and the Bitter Herbs Our Town A Piece of My Heart Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie A Raisin in the Sun Rose Rose’s Dilemma Same Time, Next Year Saturday Night at Old Smokey The Second Coming of Joan of Arc See You in Bells Shakespeare for My Father Shirley Valentine Showtime at First Baptist Sick Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks Skin Deep The Skin Of Our Teeth Spreading It Around Stage Kiss Stepping Out Storm in a Flower Vase Things My Mother Taught Me Trudy Blue What is Susan’s Secret? Where Do Little Birds Go? Who Is Theo? The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe Vanities
MULTICULTURAL CASTING:
4000 Miles Abstract Expression Adult Entertainment Agnes of God Al’s Business Cards The Albatross 3rd & Main Apostasy The Awesome 80s Prom Barrio Hollywood Beachwood Drive Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery The Bells Blood At The Root brownsville song (b-side for tray) Bulrusher The Captain’s Tiger The City of Conversation Cuba and His Teddy Bear The Days are as Grass Detroit ‘67 The Doctor in Wonderland Evelyn in Purgatory The Fall of Heaven First Baptist of Ivy Gap The Flick For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf Forsooth, My Lovely George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead Live The God Game God’s Heart Grand Concourse Ground The Happy Ones Informed Consent Jitney John Ball’s In the Heat of the Night Lend Me a Tenor A Lifetime Burning Love, Sex and the I.R.S.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
Lucky Me Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Maytag Virgin The Mnemonist of Dutchess County The Most Deserving My First Time Native Son Not About Nightingales The Piano Lesson A Piece of My Heart Pocatello Project Murder A Raisin in the Sun Red Velvet Rest Rocket City, Alabam’ Saturday Night at Old Smokey Seminar Showtime at First Baptist Smart People Song Of Extinction Three One-Act Plays About the Elderly Through the Night What is Susan’s Secret?
FLEXIBLE CASTING:
The 39 Steps 4 Beekman Amelia Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery Be My Baby The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Birds of a Feather Bullets for Broadway Charles Busch’s Cleopatra Chasing Manet Dark of the Moon David and Lisa The Days are as Grass The Doctor in Wonderland A Dram of Drummhicit Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology The Eight: Reindeer Monologues Far from the Madding Crowd The Final Toast First Baptist of Ivy Gap Flamingo Court For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf Forsooth, My Lovely George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead Live
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Play Title Guides
God’s Heart Golda The Graduate Greater Tuna Grounded The Hatmaker’s Wife The Holy Terror James and the Giant Peach The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Love and Information Love, Sex and the I.R.S. The Magic Finger The Matchmaker Middletown My Big Gay Italian Funeral My Deah Nana’s Naughty Knickers Noir Pointblank Noir Suspicions Our Town Passion Play Picasso at the Lapin Agile
The Picture of Dorian Gray A Piece of My Heart Project Murder Red Velvet Red, White and Tuna Rocket City, Alabam’ Romance Language Seasonal Allergies Seven Interviews Shakespeare’s Sister The Skin Of Our Teeth That Which Isn’t Things My Mother Taught Me Through the Night Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol Top Girls A Tuna Christmas Tuna Does Vegas Welfarewell What is Susan’s Secret? Who Is Theo? Wonderland Wives
GENRES Coastal Disturbances Collapse A Comedy of Tenors A Company of Wayward Saints A Couple of Blaguards Cuba and His Teddy Bear Dead Accounts Death by Design Devil Boys from Beyond Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency The Doctor in Wonderland Don’t Dress for Dinner Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde A Dram of Drummhicit Dusty and the Big Bad World Educating Rita Election Day Engaging Shaw Erma Bombeck: At Wit's End A Facility for Living Fantastic Mr. Fox Flamingo Court Foolish Fishgirls and the Pearl Fools Forsooth, My Lovely Funny Money The Game’s Afoot
COMEDY
The 39 Steps 4 Beekman 45 Seconds from Broadway Adult Entertainment Al’s Business Cards The Altos Arcadia The Awesome 80s Prom Barefoot in the Park Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery Be My Baby Beethoven’s Tenth Belles: The Reunion The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Better Late Beyond Therapy Birds of a Feather Birth and After Birth Blithe Spirit Boeing Boeing Books Bullets for Broadway Calendar Girls Charles Busch’s Cleopatra Charley’s Aunt Chasing Manet
19
Play Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
My Wonderful Day The Piano Lesson Pocatello Rest Seasonal Allergies See You in Bells Spoils of War Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol Verité
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
A Nice Family Christmas A Nice Family Gathering A Night in Provence No Sex Please, We’re British Noir Pointblank Noir Suspicions Noises Off The Odd Couple The Odd Couple (Female Version) Olive and the Bitter Herbs One Shoe Off Out of the City Peccadillo Perfect Arrangement Picasso at the Lapin Agile The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks Play On! The Poorly-Written Play Festival Private Lives Project Murder Red, White and Tuna Romance Language Rose Rose’s Dilemma Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Rumors Run for Your Wife Same Time, Next Year Seasonal Allergies See How They Run See You in Bells Seniors of the Sahara Seven Interviews Showtime at First Baptist Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks Skin Deep The Skin Of Our Teeth Smoke and Mirrors Social Security Somebody/Nobody Splitting Heirs Spreading It Around Squabbles Stage Kiss Stepping Out Story Theatre Table Settings Things My Mother Taught Me Three One-Act Plays About the Elderly Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding Too Many Cooks Triangles for Two The Tribute Artist True West
20
Play Title Guides
A Tuna Christmas Tuna Does Vegas Two on the Aisle, Three in a Van The Underpants Vanities The Waverly Gallery Welcome Back to Ivy Gap What is Susan’s Secret? What the Butler Saw Who Is Theo? The Witch in 204 Wonderland Wives Writer’s Block
Far from the Madding Crowd The Few Fiction The Final Toast Fixing Gwen For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf The Force of Change Gates of Gold The General from America A Gift of Time The God Game God’s Heart Golda Grandchild of Kings Grand Concourse A Great Wilderness Ground Grounded H2O The Healing The Herd Hurlyburly Informed Consent Jitney John Ball’s In the Heat of the Night The Judas Kiss The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Leveling Up Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance The Miracle Worker A Moon for the Misbegotten The Mousetrap Murder on the Nile Native Son No Exit Not About Nightingales The Old Neighborhood Our Town The Penitent The Piano Lesson The Picture of Dorian Gray A Piece of My Heart Pocatello A Poirot Double Bill Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie A Raisin in the Sun Red Velvet Rest The Second Coming of Joan of Arc Shakespeare for My Father Shakespeare’s Sister
DRAMA
Advise and Consent Afterlife Agnes of God Airswimming Amadeus Amelia The Anarchist Anatomy of Gray And Then There Were None Any Given Day Apostasy As the Beast Sleeps Back Back Back Barrio Hollywood Barrymore Beachwood Drive BecauseHeCan The Bells Blood At The Root brownsville song (b-side for tray) Bulrusher The Captain’s Tiger The Changing Room The City of Conversation Clarence Darrow Crossing Jerusalem Dancing in the End-Zone Dark of the Moon David and Lisa Detroit ‘67 Diviners A Doll’s House Dracula The Dying Gaul Edith In the Dark Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology The Elephant Man
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Play Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead Live Glorious!: The True Story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the Worst Singer in the World A Good Old Fashioned Red Neck Country Christmas A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Wedding The Graduate Greater Tuna The Hatmaker’s Wife Hay Fever If Memory Serves In-Laws, Outlaws, and Other People (That Should Be Shot) Inspecting Carol It’s Only Murder Jack of Diamonds James and the Giant Peach Jewtopia Keep Your Pantheon The Kitchen Witches The Lady in the Van Last Dance The Last Schwartz Late, A Cowboy Song Leading Ladies Lend Me a Tenor Loot The Love List Love, Lies & the Doctor’s Dilemma Love, Sex and the I.R.S. Lucky Me Lunch with Mrs. Baskin The Magic Finger A Masterpiece of Comic... Timing! The Matchmaker The Mnemonist of Dutchess County Mom’s Gift The MOMologues Money Matters Moon Over Buffalo The Most Deserving The Mundy Scheme Murder at Cafe Noir Murder Inn Murderous Crossing My Big Gay Italian Funeral My Big Gay Italian Mid-Life Crisis My Big Gay Italian Wedding My Deah My First Time My Wonderful Day Nana’s Naughty Knickers
DRAMATIC COMEDY
4000 Days 4000 Miles Abstract Expression Acting: The First Six Lessons All This Intimacy The Ballad of Soapy Smith Battle Hymn Belles The Big Meal Biloxi Blues Black Coffee Brighton Beach Memoirs The Cemetery Club China Doll A Christmas Carol The Cover of Life The Days are as Grass A Distant Country Called Youth Everythings Turning Into Beautiful The End of the Day Fall The Fall of Heaven First Baptist of Ivy Gap The Flick From Door to Door Go Back to Where You Are The Gulf The Happy Ones The Holy Terror If I Were You In the Next Room, or the vibrator play A Lifetime Burning The Lion in Winter Lost in Yonkers Love and Information Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam and Eve
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
Maytag Virgin Melancholy Play: a contemporary farce Middletown Morcambe Murder, Margaret and Me The Mystery of Miz Arnette The Night Hank Williams Died The Novelist Occupant, Edward Albee's Old Money One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest OOHRAH! Passion Play Picture Ourselves in Latvia Poor Richard Precious Sons The Quality of Life The Realistic Joneses Rocket City, Alabam’ Saturday Night at Old Smokey Secrets of the Trade Seminar Shirley Valentine Showtime at First Baptist Smart People Talking With... Through the Night Top Girls Trudy Blue Vanities Welfarewell
DARK COMEDY
The Albatross 3rd & Main The Eight: Reindeer Monologues Evelyn in Purgatory The Faculty Room A Feminine Ending George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead Live The House of Blue Leaves Loot Sick Sordid Lives Verité
ROMANTIC COMEDY Barefoot in the Park Be My Baby Better Late The Cemetery Club
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Play Title Guides
A Dram of Drummhicit Engaging Shaw A Feminine Ending The Hatmaker’s Wife Jewtopia Love and Information Lucky Me Maytag Virgin The Mnemonist of Dutchess County Mom’s Gift My Big Gay Italian Wedding Nana’s Naughty Knickers Rocket City, Alabam’ Same Time, Next Year Seasonal Allergies Seniors of the Sahara Skin Deep Stage Kiss Things My Mother Taught Me Who Is Theo?
Murder at Cafe Noir Murder Inn Murder on the Nile Murder, Margaret and Me Noir Pointblank Noir Suspicions A Poirot Double Bill Project Murder Smoke and Mirrors Saturday Night at Old Smokey Sleuth The Stranger Towards Zero Towards Zero (Outdoor) Who Is Theo?
FARCE
The 39 Steps Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery Be My Baby Blithe Spirit Boeing Boeing Bullets for Broadway Charley’s Aunt A Comedy of Tenors Death by Design Don’t Dress for Dinner A Dram of Drummhicit Election Day Forsooth, My Lovely Funny Money The Game’s Afoot The House of Blue Leaves In-Laws, Outlaws, and Other People (That Should Be Shot) It’s Only Murder Jack of Diamonds Jewtopia Leading Ladies Lend Me a Tenor Loot Love, Lies & the Doctor’s Dilemma Love, Sex and the I.R.S. A Masterpiece of Comic... Timing! The Matchmaker Money Matters Moon Over Buffalo Murderous Crossing Nana’s Naughty Knickers A Night in Provence No Sex Please, We’re British Noises Off
ACTION & ADVENTURE The 39 Steps The Ballad of Soapy Smith Be My Baby Devil Boys from Beyond A Dram of Drummhicit The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Seniors of the Sahara
MYSTERY/THRILLER
The 39 Steps The Altos And Then There Were None Any Body for Tea? Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery Black Coffee Books Bullets for Broadway Death by Design Devil Boys from Beyond Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency Dracula A Dram of Drummhicit The Final Toast Forsooth, My Lovely The Game’s Afoot It’s Only Murder John Ball’s In the Heat of the Night The Mousetrap
23
Play Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
Song Of Extinction Spoils of War The Stranger Storm in a Flower Vase That Which Isn’t Towards Zero Towards Zero (Outdoor) The Sugar Witch Three Sisters The Trip Back Down The Vertical Hour Where Do Little Birds Go? Wonderful Tennessee The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe
LGBTQ+ THEMES
3C 4000 Days Beyond Therapy Birds of a Feather Blanche and Beyond Charles Busch’s Cleopatra Devil Boys from Beyond A Distant Country Called Youth Dusty and the Big Bad World Gates of Gold Go Back to Where You Are A God Game God’s Heart A Great Wilderness The Gulf My Big Gay Italian Funeral My Big Gay Italian Mid-Life Crisis My Big Gay Italian Wedding A Nice Family Gathering No Exit Not About Nightingales Perfect Arrangement The Penitent Pocatello The Second Coming of Joan of Arc Secrets of the Trade Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks Sordid Lives Storm in a Flower Vase The Tribute Artist Who Is Theo?
THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Fantastic Mr. Fox James and the Giant Peach The Magic Finger
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
Story Theatre Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
CHRISTMAS/HOLIDAY
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever A Christmas Carol The Eight: Reindeer Monologues A Facility for Living, The Game’s Afoot A Good Old Fashioned Red Neck Country Christmas In-Laws, Outlaws, and Other People (That Should Be Shot) Inspecting Carol The Lion in Winter A Nice Family Christmas A Nice Family Gathering Seasonal Allergies Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol A Tuna Christmas
FAITH-BASED
First Baptist of Ivy Gap The God Game Grand Concourse Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam and Eve A Nice Family Gathering Passion Play See You in Bells Showtime at First Baptist Welcome Back to Ivy Gap
PLAYS WITH MUSIC
The Altos The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Bullets for Broadway A Couple of Blaguards Everythings Turning Into Beautiful For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf First Baptist of Ivy Gap Grandchild of Kings Noir Pointblank Noir Suspicions Rocket City, Alabam’ Saturday Night at Old Smokey Showtime at First Baptist Welcome Back to Ivy Gap
24
Play Title Guides
The Elephant Man Fools For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf A Gift of Time Golda The Graduate Hay Fever The House of Blue Leaves Hurlyburly In the Next Room, or the vibrator play The Judas Kiss Lend Me a Tenor The Lion in Winter Loot Lost in Yonkers Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom The Matchmaker The Miracle Worker A Moon for the Misbegotten Moon Over Buffalo The Mundy Scheme No Sex Please, We’re British Noises Off Not About Nightingales The Odd Couple The Odd Couple (Female Version) The Old Neighborhood One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Our Town The Piano Lesson Poor Richard Precious Sons Private Lives A Raisin in the Sun The Realistic Joneses Rose Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Rumors Run for Your Wife Same Time, Next Year Seminar Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks Shakespeare for My Father Shirley Valentine The Skin Of Our Teeth Sleuth Social Security Spoils of War Spoon River Anthology
TONY AWARDS
Amadeus Biloxi Blues Boeing Boeing The Elephant Man Lost in Yonkers The Miracle Worker A Moon for the Misbegotten The Odd Couple One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest A Raisin in the Sun Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Sleuth
PULITZER PRIZE FOR DRAMA The Flick Lost in Yonkers Our Town The Piano Lesson The Skin Of Our Teeth
FROM BROADWAY The 39 Steps 45 Seconds from Broadway Arcadia Advise and Consent Agnes of God Amadeus The Anarchist And Then There Were None Any Given Day Barefoot in the Park Beethoven’s Tenth Beyond Therapy Biloxi Blues Blithe Spirit Boeing Boeing Brighton Beach Memoirs The Cemetery Club The Changing Room China Doll Clarence Darrow Coastal Disturbances Dancing in the End-Zone Dark of the Moon Dead Accounts Don’t Dress for Dinner Dracula
25
Play Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
Rumors Run for Your Wife See How They Run See You in Bells The Skin Of Our Teeth Splitting Heirs Too Many Cooks The Tribute Artist What the Butler Saw Who Is Theo?
Stepping Out Story Theatre The Trip Back Down True West A Tuna Christmas The Vertical Hour Wonderful Tennessee
FROM OFF-BROADWAY
3C 4000 Miles Adult Entertainment Al’s Business Cards All This Intimacy Amelia Apostasy The Awesome 80s Prom Back Back Back The Ballad of Soapy Smith BecauseHeCan Beyond Therapy The Big Meal Birth & After Birth brownsville song (b-side for tray) The Captain’s Tiger Chasing Manet A Christmas Carol The City of Conversation Coastal Disturbances Collapse The Cover of Life Detroit ‘67 The Diviners The Dying Gaul Devil Boys from Beyond Election Day The End of the Day Engaging Shaw Everythings Turning Into Beautiful A Feminine Ending The Few Fiction Flamingo Court The Flick For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf Go Back to Where You Are God’s Heart Grand Concourse Greater Tuna Grounded The Hatmaker’s Wife
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
The Healing The Holy Terror The House of Blue Leaves If Memory Serves Informed Consent Jewtopia Jitney Last Dance A Lifetime Burning Love and Information Middletown The Mnemonist of Dutchess County The Most Deserving My Big Gay Italian Wedding My Deah My First Time The Night Hank Williams Died The Novelist Occupant Old Money Olive and the Bitter Herbs One Shoe Off OOHRAH! Our Town Passion Play The Penitent Perfect Arrangement The Piano Lesson Picasso at the Lapin Agile Piece of My Heart Pocatello Power Plays Romance Language Rose’s Dilemma Secrets of the Trade Smart People Spoils of War Stage Kiss Table Settings Talking With... Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding Tribute Artist Trudy Blue True West Top Girls A Tuna Christmas The Underpants Vanities Verité The Waverly Gallery Writer’s Block
26
Play Title Guides
MUSICAL TITLE GUIDES
27
3M, 3F
TWO CHARACTERS Comedy 1m, 1f
Barbara’s Blue Kitchen They’re Playing Our Song
Dramatic Comedy 2M
The Big Voice: God or Merman?
THREE CHARACTERS Comedy 2M, 1F
Oedipus For Kids!
FOUR CHARACTERS Comedy 1M, 3F
Cougar: The Musical
2M, 2F
Doctor! Doctor! The Last Smoker in America Musical of Musicals! The Musical The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers
Dramatic Comedy 2M, 2F
No Way to Treat A Lady
FIVE CHARACTERS Comedy 5M
Nunsense A-Men!
3M, 2F
Children’s Letters to God Don’t Hug Me A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol Don’t Hug Me County Fair Don’t Hug Me, I’m Pregnant Don’t Hug Me We’re Married Judge Jackie: Disorder In The Court Savin’ Up For Saturday Night: The Honky-Tonk Musical Too Old for The Chorus, But Not Too Old to be a Star
4M, 1F
2M, 3F
Green Heart, The
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
Redheaded Robbie’s Christmas Story
Dramatic Comedy 4M, 1F American Tales
Pump Boys and Dinettes
Dramatic Comedy 4M, 4F
The Wildest!!! Hip, Cool and Swinging!
SEVEN CHARACTERS NINE CHARACTERS
Comedy 1M, 6F
Bingo! The Winning Musical Nymph Errant Ruthless!
Comedy 5M, 4F
3M, 4F
7M, 2F
Whenever Doonesbury
Adrift in Macao Big Nate Sanders Family Christmas Smoke on the Mountain Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming
Drama 5M, 4F
Adding Machine: A Musical
4M, 4F, 1B
The City of Conversation
5M, 2F
Fly By Night Oh! My Giddy Aunt or Himalayan Madness
SIX CHARACTERS
Dramatic Comedy 3M, 6F Imaginary Friends
2M, 4F, 1M OR F
5M, 4F
Cinderella’s Mice
Comedy 2M, 4F
Sex Please, We’re Sixty: The Musical
3M, 3F
ReWrite Uncle Pirate
4M, 2F
Really Rosie The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks The Tales of Custard the Dragon
Jasper in Deadland Lust ‘n’ Rust: The Trailer Park Musical
Drama 3M, 4F
The Spitfire Grill
TEN CHARACTERS
Dramatic Comedy 4M, 3F
Comedy 5M, 5F
Perfect Harmony Zombie Prom
See Rock City and Other Destinations
5M, 2F
6M, 4F
Fly By Night
Drama 3M, 3F
The Taxi Cabaret
Something’s Afoot A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas, The Musical
EIGHT CHARACTERS
7M, 3F
Comedy 5M, 3F
Dramatic Comedy 1M, 5F
Saturday Night at Old Smokey
28
4M, 2F
4M, 3F
5 M OR F
5F
Nunsense
Blood Brothers
Paint!
Monster Makers
Musical Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
CAST BREAKDOWNS
Drama 5M, 3F
Love Songs: A Musical Melancholy Play: a chamber musical
La Cage Aux Folles
Clue: The Musical
29
Musical Title Guides
3M, 4F, 3 M OR F
Drama 6M, 4F
I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road New Brain, A
Dramatic Comedy 7M, 3F
The Rocky Horror Show
10 M or F Scrooge!
ELEVEN CHARACTERS Comedy 5M, 6F
A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas
7M, 4F
Return to the Forbidden Planet
8M, 5F
11M, 5F
A Boy Called Lizard
FOURTEEN CHARACTERS Comedy 7M, 7F
Death Takes a Holiday Neil Simon’s Musical Fools
The Tap Dance Kid
8M, 3F
The Gig
TWELVE CHARACTERS
2M, 9F, 5 M or F
13M, 6M
Dramatic Comedy 1M, 3F, 4B, 5G, 3 M or F
TWENTY OR MORE CHARACTERS
Nunsense: The Mega-Musical Version
Comedy
Kudzu: A Southern Musical
7M, 6F, 1B
Yo, Vikings!
Comedy 7M, 10F
High School Reunion: The Musical Rock of Ages
Drama 9M, 5F
Jack’s Holiday
9M, 8F
FIFTEEN CHARACTERS
10M, 7F
Comedy 6M, 5F, 4M or F
Happy Days - A New Musical Lust The Wind in the Willows
11M, 4F
Merrily We Dance and Sing
Dramatic Comedy 8M, 9F
15 M or F
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Heathers The Musical
EIGHTEEN CHARACTERS
Drama 9M, 6F
Drama 15M, 3F
THIRTEEN CHARACTERS
SIXTEEN CHARACTERS
NINETEEN CHARACTERS
Drama 7M, 6F
Comedy 8M, 8F
Drama 7M, 3F, 1G, 8 M OR F
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
Dramatic Comedy First Impressions (14m, 12f )
17 M OR F
Dramatic Comedy 9M, 6F
A Doll's Life
Drama Nine (1m, 22f, 4b) Phantom (30m, 7f ) The Secret Garden (12m, 10f, 1b, 1g) Side Show (13m, 9f )
Grease
10M, 2F
Trey Parker’s Cannibal the Musical
70, Girls, 70 (18m, 14f ) The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (13m, 14f ) The Body Beautiful (20m, 6F) How to Eat Like a Child (30 b or g) The Wind in the Willows (25m or f )
SEVENTEEN CHARACTERS
Comedy 6M, 10F, 2B
LUCK! A Musical
Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical
11M, 3F
Raisin The Rise of David Levinsky
Comedy 6M, 6F
Chicago
Bridge to Terabithia
The Wiz
Dramatic Comedy 5M, 6F
Dramatic Comedy 9M, 10F
The Revenge of Sherlock Holmes Skyscraper
Smile
Hands on a Hardbody
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Henry, Sweet Henry
30
A Tale of Two Cities the Musical
Musical Title Guides
31
Musical Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
The People vs. Mona
ALL FEMALE CAST Nunsense
ROLES FOR LEADING WOMAN The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Bingo! The Winning Musical Chicago Death Takes a Holiday First Impressions Grease Happy Days - A New Musical Heathers The Musical Henry, Sweet Henry I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road The Last Smoker in America Lust Lust ‘n’ Rust: The Trailer Park Musical Melancholy Play: a chamber musical Nine No Way to Treat A Lady Nunsense: The Mega-Musical Version Nymph Errant Oedipus For Kids! The People vs. Mona Phantom Ruthless! The Secret Garden Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical Side Show Skyscraper Something’s Afoot Spitfire Grill, The The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers They’re Playing Our Song The Wiz
ROLES FOR LEADING MAN Adding Machine: A Musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Blood Brothers Chicago Death Takes a Holiday Grease Happy Days - A New Musical Henry, Sweet Henry Jasper in Deadland
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
Kiss of the Spider Woman La Cage Aux Folles The Last Smoker in America Lust Lust ‘n’ Rust: The Trailer Park Musical Merrily We Dance and Sing A New Brain Nine No Way to Treat A Lady Oedipus For Kids! The People vs. Mona Phantom Rock of Ages Ruthless! Scrooge! Sex Please, We’re Sixty: The Musical Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical Tale of Two Cities, A, the Musical The Tap Dance Kid They’re Playing Our Song Trey Parker’s Cannibal The Musical
ROLES FOR SENIOR ACTORS 70, Girls, 70 The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Death Takes a Holiday The Gig LUCK! A Musical The People vs. Mona See Rock City and Other Destinations Sex Please, We’re Sixty: The Musical Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical Something’s Afoot The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers The Spitfire Grill Too Old for The Chorus, But Not Too Old to be a Star
Nine No Way to Treat A Lady Nunsense: The Mega-Musical Version A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas Oedipus For Kids! Paint! The People vs. Mona Perfect Harmony Raisin Really Rosie Redheaded Robbie’s Christmas Story The Revenge of Sherlock Holmes ReWrite The Rise of David Levinsky The Rocky Horror Show Scrooge! See Rock City and Other Destinations Sex Please, We’re Sixty: The Musical Side Show Skyscraper The Tales of Custard the Dragon Trey Parker’s Cannibal The Musical Uncle Pirate Whenever The Wind in the Willows The Wiz Yo, Vikings! Zombie Prom
FLEXIBLE CASTING
70, Girls, 70 Adding Machine: A Musical American Tales Barbara’s Blue Kitchen Big Nate Bingo! The Winning Musical Blood Brothers Bridge to Terabithia Chicago Children’s Letters to God Cinderella’s Mice A Doll’s Life Fly By Night Green Heart, The A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas, The Musical Happy Days - A New Musical Heathers The Musical High School Reunion: The Musical How to Eat Like a Child Imaginary Friends Jack’s Holiday Jasper in Deadland La Cage Aux Folles LUCK! A Musical Lust ‘n’ Rust: The Trailer Park Musical Melancholy Play: a chamber musical Merrily We Dance and Sing Monster Makers Musical of Musicals! The Musical
MULTICULTURAL CASTING The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Children’s Letters to God Cinderella’s Mice Hands on a Hardbody Kiss of the Spider Woman Lust ‘n’ Rust: The Trailer Park Musical Merrily We Dance and Sing Oedipus For Kids! Perfect Harmony Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical The Wiz
ROLES FOR CHILDREN/TEENS Bridge to Terabithia Children’s Letters to God Fantastic Mr. Fox A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas, The Musical Grease Happy Days - A New Musical Heathers The Musical A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas
32
Musical Title Guides
GENRES Big Nate Bingo! The Winning Musical The Body Beautiful Chicago Children’s Letters to God
COMEDY
70, Girls, 70 Adrift in Macao Barbara’s Blue Kitchen The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
33
Musical Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
CASTING ATTRIBUTES
Paint! Perfect Harmony Ruthless! Sanders Family Christmas The Secret Garden Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical Smoke on the Mountain A Tale of Two Cities the Musical Yo, Vikings! Zombie Prom
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
Smile Smoke on the Mountain Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming Something’s Afoot The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers Tales of Custard the Dragon, The They’re Playing Our Song Too Old for The Chorus, But Not Too Old to be a Star Trey Parker’s Cannibal the Musical Uncle Pirate Whenever The Wind in the Willows The Wiz Yo, Vikings! Zombie Prom
DRAMA
Adding Machine: A Musical Blood Brothers A Boy Called Lizard A Doll’s Life I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road Jack’s Holiday Kiss of the Spider Woman A New Brain Nine Phantom Raisin The Rise of David Levinsky The Secret Garden Side Show The Spitfire Grill A Tale of Two Cities the Musical The Taxi Cabaret
No Way to Treat A Lady Pump Boys and Dinettes Scrooge! See Rock City and Other Destinations Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical Tap Dance Kid, The The Wildest!!! Hip, Cool and Swinging!
The Green Heart Jack’s Holiday No Way to Treat A Lady Oh! My Giddy Aunt or Himalayan Madness The People vs. Mona Phantom Something’s Afoot
FARCE
DARK COMEDY
The Hunchback of Notre Dame The Last Smoker in America Lust Merrily We Dance and Sing Ruthless! Sex Please, We’re Sixty: The Musical
Chicago Fly By Night Heathers The Musical Jasper in Deadland Oedipus For Kids! Rocky Horror Show, The
ROMANTIC COMEDY
LGBTQ+ THEMES
Cougar: The Musical Don’t Hug Me A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol Don’t Hug Me County Fair Don’t Hug Me, I’m Pregnant Don’t Hug Me We’re Married First Impressions Fly By Night La Cage Aux Folles Love Songs: A Musical Lust ‘n’ Rust: The Trailer Park Musical No Way to Treat A Lady Sex Please, We’re Sixty: The Musical Skyscraper They’re Playing Our Song Zombie Prom
Kiss of the Spider Woman La Cage Aux Folles A New Brain Perfect Harmony The Rocky Horror Show
THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES
Yo, Vikings! Big Nate Bridge to Terabithia Children’s Letters to God Cinderella’s Mice How to Eat Like a Child Paint! The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks Really Rosie Redheaded Robbie’s Christmas Story Secret Garden, The The Tales of Custard the Dragon Uncle Pirate
ACTION & ADVENTURE DRAMATIC COMEDY
American Tales The Big Voice: God or Merman? Bridge to Terabithia First Impressions Gig, The Hands on a Hardbody Heathers The Musical Imaginary Friends Jasper in Deadland Love Songs: A Musical Lust ‘n’ Rust: The Trailer Park Musical Melancholy Play: a chamber musical Monster Makers
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Musical Title Guides
Bridge to Terabithia Death Takes a Holiday Gig, The No Way to Treat A Lady Oedipus For Kids! Return to the Forbidden Planet Trey Parker’s Cannibal the Musical Uncle Pirate Yo, Vikings!
FAITH-BASED
Barbara’s Blue Kitchen Children’s Letters to God Nunsense Nunsense A-Men! Nunsense: The Mega-Musical Version Sanders Family Christmas Smoke on the Mountain Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming
MYSTERY/THRILLER Adrift in Macao Clue: The Musical
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Musical Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
Cinderella’s Mice Clue: The Musical Cougar: The Musical Death Takes a Holiday Doctor! Doctor! Don’t Hug Me A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol Don’t Hug Me County Fair Don’t Hug Me, I’m Pregnant Don’t Hug Me We’re Married Doonesbury Fly By Night A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas, The Musical Grease The Green Heart Happy Days - A New Musical Henry, Sweet Henry High School Reunion: The Musical How to Eat Like a Child The Hunchback of Notre Dame Judge Jackie: Disorder In The Court Kudzu: A Southern Musical La Cage Aux Folles The Last Smoker in America LUCK! A Musical Lust Merrily We Dance and Sing Musical of Musicals! The Musical Neil Simon’s Musical Fools Nunsense Nunsense A-Men! Nunsense: The Mega-Musical Version A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas Nymph Errant Oedipus For Kids! Oh! My Giddy Aunt or Himalayan Madness Paint! The People vs. Mona Perfect Harmony The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks Really Rosie Redheaded Robbie’s Christmas Story Return to the Forbidden Planet The Revenge of Sherlock Holmes ReWrite Rock of Ages The Rocky Horror Show Ruthless! Sanders Family Christmas Savin’ Up For Saturday Night: The Honky-Tonk Musical Sex Please, We’re Sixty: The Musical Skyscraper
Children’s Letters to God A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas, The Musical A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas Redheaded Robbie’s Christmas Story Sanders Family Christmas Scrooge!
VOCAL DEMANDS DIFFICULT VOCALS
Adding Machine: A Musical Heathers The Musical Jasper in Deadland Melancholy Play: a chamber musical Musical of Musicals! The Musical A New Brain Nine Rock of Ages The Secret Garden Side Show The Wiz
MODERATE VOCALS
70, Girls, 70 American Tales Barbara’s Blue Kitchen The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Big Nate The Big Voice: God or Merman? Bingo! The Winning Musical The Body Beautiful A Boy Called Lizard Chicago Children’s Letters to God Clue: The Musical Cougar: The Musical Death Takes a Holiday Doctor! Doctor! A Doll’s Life Doonesbury First Impressions Fly By Night Gig, The Grease The Green Heart Hands on a Hardbody The Hunchback of Notre Dame PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road Imaginary Friends Jack’s Holiday Judge Jackie: Disorder In The Court Kiss of the Spider Woman Kudzu: A Southern Musical La Cage Aux Folles Last Smoker in America, The Love Songs: A Musical LUCK! A Musical Lust Monster Makers No Way to Treat A Lady Nymph Errant Oedipus For Kids! Oh! My Giddy Aunt or Himalayan Madness The People vs. Mona Perfect Harmony Phantom Pump Boys and Dinettes Raisin Redheaded Robbie’s Christmas Story Return to the Forbidden Planet The Revenge of Sherlock Holmes ReWrite The Rocky Horror Show Ruthless! Sanders Family Christmas Scrooge! See Rock City and Other Destinations Sex Please, We’re Sixty: The Musical Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical Skyscraper Smile Smoke on the Mountain Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming Something’s Afoot The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers The Spitfire Grill A Tale of Two Cities the Musical
36
Musical Title Guides
Don’t Hug Me We’re Married A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas, The Musical Happy Days - A New Musical Henry, Sweet Henry High School Reunion: The Musical How to Eat Like a Child Lust ‘n’ Rust: The Trailer Park Musical Merrily We Dance and Sing Neil Simon’s Musical Fools Nunsense Nunsense A-Men! Nunsense: The Mega-Musical Version Nutty Nutcracker Christmas, A Plant that Ate Dirty Socks, The Paint! Really Rosie Rise of David Levinsky, The Savin’ Up For Saturday Night: The Honky-Tonk Musical Whenever The Wind in the Willows
EASY VOCALS
Adrift in Macao Blood Brothers Bridge to Terabithia Cinderella’s Mice Don’t Hug Me A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol Don’t Hug Me County Fair Don’t Hug Me, I’m Pregnant
ORCHESTRA SIZE Happy Days - A New Musical Heathers The Musical I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road Jasper in Deadland Kudzu: A Southern Musical La Cage Aux Folles Nunsense Nunsense: The Mega-Musical Version The People vs. Mona Phantom Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical Something’s Afoot The Wind in the Willows
LARGE ORCHESTRA
The Body Beautiful Chicago Cinderella’s Mice First Impressions Kiss of the Spider Woman Nine The Revenge of Sherlock Holmes The Secret Garden Side Show Smile A Tale of Two Cities the Musical They’re Playing Our Song The Tap Dance Kid The Wiz
SMALL/COMBO BAND Adding Machine: A Musical Adrift in Macao American Tales Barbara’s Blue Kitchen Big Nate Bingo! The Winning Musical A Boy Called Lizard Clue: The Musical Cougar: The Musical
MEDIUM ORCHESTRA
70, Girls, 70 The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Blood Brothers Death Takes a Holiday Doonesbury The Gig Grease Hands on a Hardbody
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Musical Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
The Tales of Custard the Dragon The Tap Dance Kid The Taxi Cabaret They’re Playing Our Song Too Old for The Chorus, But Not Too Old to be a Star Trey Parker’s CANNIBAL THE MUSICAL Uncle Pirate The Wildest!!! Hip, Cool and Swinging! Yo, Vikings! Zombie Prom
CHRISTMAS/HOLIDAY
Don’t Hug Me A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol Don’t Hug Me County Fair Don’t Hug Me, I’m Pregnant Don’t Hug Me We’re Married A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas, The Musical Henry, Sweet Henry How to Eat Like a Child The Hunchback of Notre Dame Imaginary Friends Love Songs: A Musical LUCK! A Musical Monster Makers Musical of Musicals! The Musical! A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas Paint! The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks Perfect Harmony Redheaded Robbie’s Christmas Story ReWrite Sex Please, We’re Sixty: The Musical Skyscraper Smoke on the Mountain Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming The Tales of Custard the Dragon Taxi Cabaret, The Trey Parker’s Cannibal the Musical Uncle Pirate Whenever Yo, Vikings!
PERFORMANCE TRACKS PIANO ONLY
The Big Voice: God or Merman? Bridge to Terabithia Children’s Letters to God Doctor! Doctor! A Doll’s Life
Don’t Hug Me A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol Don’t Hug Me County Fair Don’t Hug Me, I’m Pregnant Don’t Hug Me We’re Married Merrily We Dance and Sing
MUSICAL STYLE CLASSIC BROADWAY
70, Girls, 70 Adrift in Macao American Tales The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Big Nate Bingo! The Winning Musical
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
A Boy Called Lizard Blood Brothers The Body Beautiful Bridge to Terabithia Chicago Children’s Letters to God Cinderella’s Mice
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Musical Title Guides
Clue: The Musical Cougar: The Musical Death Takes a Holiday (Musical) Doctor! Doctor! A Doll’s Life Don’t Hug Me A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol Don’t Hug Me County Fair Don’t Hug Me, I’m Pregnant Don’t Hug Me We’re Married First Impressions Fly By Night The Gig Green Heart, The Henry, Sweet Henry High School Reunion: The Musical How to Eat Like a Child The Hunchback of Notre Dame Imaginary Friends Jack’s Holiday Kiss of the Spider Woman La Cage Aux Folles Love Songs: A Musical LUCK! A Musical Lust Melancholy Play: a chamber musical Merrily We Dance and Sing Monster Makers Musical of Musicals! The Musical Neil Simon’s Musical Fools Nine No Way to Treat A Lady Nunsense Nunsense A-Men! Nunsense: The Mega-Musical Version Nymph Errant Oedipus For Kids! Oh! My Giddy Aunt or Himalayan Madness Paint! The People vs. Mona Raisin Really Rosie The Revenge of Sherlock Holmes The Rise of David Levinsky Redheaded Robbie’s Christmas Story Ruthless! Scrooge! Secret Garden, The Sex Please, We’re Sixty: The Musical Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical Side Show Skyscraper Smile Something’s Afoot
A Tale of Two Cities the Musical The Tales of Custard the Dragon The Tap Dance Kid The Taxi Cabaret They’re Playing Our Song Too Old for The Chorus, But Not Too Old to be a Star Trey Parker’s Cannibal The Musical Uncle Pirate Whenever The Wind in the Willows Yo, Vikings! Zombie Prom
CONTEMPORARY BROADWAY Blood Brothers Fly By Night Hands On A Hardbody Heathers The Musical Judge Jackie: Disorder In The Court Kudzu: A Southern Musical A New Brain Smile Side Show The Tap Dance Kid Zombie Prom
JAZZ
Adrift in Macao Chicago Gig, The Don’t Hug Me Death Takes a Holiday First Impressions The People vs. Mona No Way to Treat A Lady Oedipus For Kids! Skyscraper The Tap Dance Kid The Wiz The Wildest!!! Hip, Cool and Swinging!
FOLK
Barbara’s Blue Kitchen Don’t Hug Me A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol Don’t Hug Me County Fair Don’t Hug Me, I’m Pregnant Don’t Hug Me We’re Married
39
Musical Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
Fly By Night The Green Heart High School Reunion: The Musical Jack’s Holiday Judge Jackie: Disorder In The Court The Last Smoker in America Lust Lust ‘n’ Rust: The Trailer Park Musical Melancholy Play: a chamber musical Neil Simon’s Musical Fools A New Brain No Way to Treat A Lady Nunsense A-Men! Nymph Errant Oedipus For Kids! Oh! My Giddy Aunt or Himalayan Madness Pump Boys and Dinettes Really Rosie Return to the Forbidden Planet The Rise of David Levinsky Rock of Ages The Rocky Horror Show Ruthless! Sanders Family Christmas Savin’ Up For Saturday Night: The Honky-Tonk Musical Scrooge! See Rock City and Other Destinations The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers The Spitfire Grill Too Old for The Chorus, But Not Too Old to be a Star The Wildest!!! Hip, Cool and Swinging! Zombie Prom
POP/ROCK
Big Nate The Big Voice: God or Merman? Bingo! The Winning Musical Children’s Letters to God Cinderella’s Mice Don’t Hug Me A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol Don’t Hug Me County Fair Don’t Hug Me, I’m Pregnant Don’t Hug Me We’re Married Doonesbury Fly By Night A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas, The Musical Grease Hands on a Hardbody Happy Days - A New Musical Heathers The Musical How to Eat Like a Child I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road Jasper in Deadland Judge Jackie: Disorder In The Court Kudzu: A Southern Musical Last Smoker in America, The Nutty Nutcracker Christmas, A Oedipus For Kids! The People vs. Mona Perfect Harmony The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks Pump Boys and Dinettes
Return to the Forbidden Planet ReWrite Rock of Ages Rocky Horror Show, The Savin’ Up For Saturday Night: The Honky-Tonk Musical See Rock City and Other Destinations Too Old for The Chorus, But Not Too Old to be a Star Uncle Pirate The Wildest!!! Hip, Cool and Swinging! Wiz, The Yo, Vikings! Zombie Prom
COUNTRY/WESTERN
Barbara’s Blue Kitchen The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Don’t Hug Me A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol Don’t Hug Me County Fair Don’t Hug Me, I’m Pregnant Don’t Hug Me We’re Married A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas, The Musical Hands on a Hardbody Kudzu: A Southern Musical Lust ‘n’ Rust: The Trailer Park Musical The People vs. Mona Pump Boys and Dinettes Sanders Family Christmas Savin’ Up For Saturday Night: The Honky-Tonk Musical Smoke on the Mountain Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers Trey Parker’s Cannibal The Musical
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS TONY AWARD
Chicago Kiss of the Spider Woman La Cage Aux Folles Nine The Secret Garden The Wiz
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
FROM BROADWAY
70, Girls, 70 The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Blood Brothers The Body Beautiful Chicago A Doll’s Life Doonesbury
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Musical Title Guides
First Impressions Grease Hands on a Hardbody Henry, Sweet Henry I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road Imaginary Friends Kiss of the Spider Woman La Cage Aux Folles A New Brain Nine Play On! Pump Boys and Dinettes Rock of Ages The Rocky Horror Show The Secret Garden Side Show Skyscraper Smile A Tale of Two Cities the Musical Tap Dance Kid, The They’re Playing Our Song The Wiz
Smoke on the Mountain The Spitfire Grill Uncle Pirate Zombie Prom
FROM OFF-BROADWAY
Adding Machine: A Musical Adrift in Macao The Big Voice: God or Merman? Children’s Letters to God Clue: The Musical Cougar: The Musical Death Takes a Holiday Fly By Night The Green Heart Heathers The Musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road Jack’s Holiday The Last Smoker in America Lust Melancholy Play: a chamber musical Musical of Musicals! The Musical A New Brain No Way to Treat A Lady Nunsense Perfect Harmony Pump Boys and Dinettes Really Rosie The Rise of David Levinsky Ruthless!
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Musical Title Guides
TITLE GUIDES
Melancholy Play: a chamber musical The People vs. Mona Sanders Family Christmas See Rock City and Other Destinations The Spitfire Grill The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers
PLAY AND MUSICAL LISTINGS
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43
THE 39 STEPS
70, GIRLS, 70
adapted by Patrick Barlow, from the novel by John Buchan
book by David Thompson and Norma L. Martin, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb based on the play Breath of Spring by Peter Coke, adapted by Joe Masteroff.
3m, 1f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy, Farce, Mystery/Thriller
A man with a boring life meets a woman with a thick accent who says she’s a spy. When he takes her home, she is murdered. Soon, a mysterious organization called “The 39 Steps” is hot on his trail in a nationwide manhunt across Great Britain! Packed with nonstop laughs, over 150 zany characters, an on-stage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers, and some good old-fashioned romance, this show is a riotous blend of virtuoso performances and wildly inventive stagecraft.
18m, 14f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Classic Broadway
3C
ABSTRACT EXPRESSION
3m, 3f | 90 minutes | Comedy, Satire
6m, 3f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
by Theresa Rebeck
The war in Vietnam is over and Brad, an ex-serviceman, lands in L.A. to start a new life. When he winds up trashed in Connie and Linda’s kitchen after a party, the three figure out a living arrangement with hilarious and devastating consequence. Inspired by 1970s sitcoms, 1950s existentialist comedy, Chekhov and Disco anthems, 3C is a terrifying yet amusing look at a culture that likes to amuse itself, even as it teeters on the brink of ruin.
A once-celebrated painter has faded into impoverished obscurity, after receiving a scathing review 15 years ago. Will one chance encounter resurrect this volatile artist and relaunch him to overnight success? An exploration of lives on the edge mixed with the capricious intrigues of the uptown gallery scene. A place where fame is a matter of who you know, and reputations can be bought and sold.
4 BEEKMAN
ACTING: THE FIRST SIX LESSONS
3m, 6f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Comedy
1m, 1f | 75 Minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Adaptation
by Ron Clark
by Emily Bridges and Beau Bridges
In this swift moving comedy, Deanne is shocked to find that her newlywed husband Robert has unwittingly bought the apartment that she used to live in with her ex-husband,Skip. What’s more, Skip has bought the apartment right next door! It becomes apparent that Deanne and Skip are still in love, and getting the couple back together is easily facilitated when Robert falls for Deanne’s mother Louella.
A stage version of Richard Boleslavsky’s 1933 narrative about a dedicated acting teacher who instructs a young actress in her craft, and gives her valuable lessons for living as well. The action moves from the teacher’s studio to a small theater to a film set to Central Park and back, and finally, atop the Empire State Building in 1936.
ADDING MACHINE: A MUSICAL
4000 DAYS
composed by Joshua Schmidt, libretto by Jason Loewith and Joshua Schmidt based on the play The Adding Machine by Elmer Rice
by Peter Quilter 2m, 1f | 105 Minutes | Dramatic Comedy
When Michael wakes from a coma, 11 years of his memory have been completely erased. He remembers nothing of the last 4000 days. His husband Paul must now fight to bring his memory back while his mother Carol fights to remove Paul from their lives completely.
4000 MILES
by Amy Herzog
5m, 4f | 105 Minutes | Drama, Experimental Difficult Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Operetta
A heartbreakingly beautiful musical adaptation of Rice’s incendiary 1923 play. Mr. Zero, after 25 years of service to his company, is replaced by a mechanical adding machine. Enraged, he murders his boss. An eclectic score gives memorable voice to this stylish and stylized show, following Zero’s journey to the afterlife, where he is met with one last chance for romance and redemption.
1m, 3f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
ADRIFT IN MACAO
After suffering a major loss while he was on a cross-country bike trip, 21 year-old Leo seeks solace from his feisty 91 year-old grandmother Vera in her West Village apartment. Over the course of a single month, these unlikely roommates infuriate, bewilder, and ultimately reach each other. A touching and funny look at how two outsiders find their way in today’s world.
4m, 3f | 90 minutes | Comedy, Parody, Mystery/Thriller Easy Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway,Jazz
45 SECONDS FROM BROADWAY by Neil Simon
book & lyrics by Christopher Durang, music by Peter Melnick
Everyone that comes to Macao is waiting for something, though none of them know exactly what that is. Here, Laureena, the curvaceous blonde, bumps into Rick Shaw, the cynical surf and turf casino owner. And don’t forget about Mitch, the American who has just been framed for murder by the mysterious villain McGuffin. With songs, puns, and farcical shenanigans, this musical parody of noir films will please audiences of all ages.
6m, 6f | More than 120 minutes | Comedy
From America’s master of contemporary Broadway comedy comes another revealing comedy behind-the-scenes in the entertainment world. At the legendary “Polish Tea Room” on New York’s 47th Street, Broadway theatre personalities — washed-up and on-the-rise — gather to schmooze. A touching valentine to Broadway, the theatre and New York City.
ADULT ENTERTAINMENT by Elaine May
3m, 3f | Full Length Play | Comedy
There is a cloud over porn queen Heidi the ‘Ho’s usually cheery cable TV show. Her guests are wearing armbands to mourn the passing of their employer and mentor, a legendary porn filmmaker. Tired of working for others, this motley group of adult video veterans decides to write and shoot their own extravaganza. Unexpected ideas develop as the hilarity escalates to a raucous and riotous conclusion.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
44
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
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45
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
by David Adjmi
A group of senior citizens living on New York’s Upper West Side learn that the long-term hotel they live in will be sold off to developers. To save their home, they form an unlikely ring of thieves, wreaking havoc in stores across the city. Using their ill-gotten to provide safe harbor for other poor seniors they regain their zest for life.
ADVISE AND CONSENT
ALL THIS INTIMACY
18m, 4f, 12m or f | Full Length Play | Drama, Adaptation
2m, 4f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
A political drama depicting the debate sparked when controversial candidate Robert Leffingwell is nominated as U.S. Secretary of State. As concerns are aired during the Senate investigation of Leffingwell’s qualifications, Senator Brig Anderson, the head of the committee, soon finds the proceedings descending into heated exchanges, with various politicians trying to further their own agendas. An inside look at politics behind closed doors in Washington, D.C.
Ty Greene is a normal guy with three very big problems. In an unprecedented run of promiscuity, Ty has managed to impregnate three women in the span of one week: His ex-girlfriend, his 40-something married next-door neighbor, and his 18-year-old student. In this edgy comedy, Ty’s problems illuminate every triumph and failure of his life, and as the women in his world converge and figure out what’s happened, Ty realizes his life is adrift, and that he only has a limited time to piece it back together.
AFTERLIFE
THE ALTOS
6m, 2f | 120 minutes | Drama, Docudrama/Historic
4m, 3f | 75 Minutes | Farce, Mystery/Thriller Play with Music
by Loring Mandel, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Allen Drury
by David Landau, music & lyrics by Nikki Stern
Max Reinhardt, had a lifelong ambition: to dissolve the boundary between theatre and the world it portrays. Each year at the Salzburg Festival he directed the famous morality play, Everyman, about God sending Death to summon a representative of mankind for judgment. Then, in 1938, Hitler declares his own day of reckoning and sends Death into Austria, whereupon Reinhardt, a Jew, is left as naked and vulnerable as Everyman himself.
AGNES OF GOD by John Pielmeier
An interactive musical comedy mystery spoof of the famous HBO series. Meet the family that inspired it all, the Altos. It’s Tony’s funeral and his wife Toffee has invited you to the wake where almost no one seems sad that Tony is gone and they certainly done seem happy once he’s discovered alive. Be prepared to dodge bullets, laugh at the songs and see if you can’t figure out who put a contract out on Tony!
AMADEUS
3f | 120 minutes | Drama
by Peter Shaffer
Dr. Martha Livingstone, a court-appointed psychiatrist, is summoned to a convent to assess the sanity of a novice accused of murdering her newborn. Mother Superior determinedly keeps young Agnes from the doctor, arousing Livingstone’s suspicions further. Who killed the infant and who fathered the tiny victim? Livingstone’s questions force all three women to re-examine the meaning of faith and the power of love.
12m, 3f | Full Length Play | Drama, Historical
AIRSWIMMING
by Charlotte Jones
In the court of the Austrian Emperor Josef, Antonio Salieri is the established composer. Enter the greatest musical mind of all time: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Salieri has given himself to God so that he might realize his sole ambition to be a great composer. Mozart is a foul-mouthed, graceless oaf who has that which is beyond Salieri’s envious grasp: Genius.
AMELIA
2f | Full Length Play | Drama
by Alex Webb
Set in 1920s England, two women have been incarcerated in a hospital for the “criminally insane” for having borne illegitimate children. Forgotten by their families, Dora and Persephone adopt alter-egos, Dorph and Porph, to enact their fantasies and survive the silence of incarceration. By turns funny and moving, this play reminds us of the forgotten women of these generations in both Britain and Ireland.
1m, 1f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Drama, Docudrama/Historic
AL’S BUSINESS CARDS
AMERICAN TALES
4m, 1f | 75 Minutes | Comedy
4m, 1f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
by Josh Koenigsberg
A heroic Civil War tale of one woman’s search for her husband across battlefields, culminating at the gates of the notorious Andersonville Prison Camp. With just two performers, this vivid docudrama celebrates the inherent theatricality of two bodies on stage creating an epic and vast world.
book & lyrics by Ken Stone, music by Jan Powell
When New Jersey gaffing assistant, Al Gurvis accidentally gets his new business cards swapped with those of real estate agent, Eileen Lee, he’s mildly annoyed it sparks a chain reaction which will ultimately ruin his life. A comedy about waking up from the American Dream.
THE ALBATROSS 3RD & MAIN by Simon David Eden
Two classic American tales brought to life in this entertaining musical. The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton, from Mark Twain’s story of two people falling in love with the aid of that brandnew invention, the telephone. Bartleby, the Scrivener, is dramatized from Herman Melville’s slyly funny but ultimately tragic story. A darker take on the theme of human connections made and missed.
3m | 90 minutes | Dark Comedy
THE ANARCHIST
Gene Lacy, a former fisherman and proprietor of Lacy’s General Store, is down on his luck big time: he’s ducking creditors, huge gambling debts, and an ex-wife with expensive tastes. When Spider walks into his store with a golden lottery ticket in the shape of a rare and valuable dead bird, Gene has a choice to make.
2f | 75 minutes | Drama
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
46
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
by David Mamet
A parole review officer conducts an extended interview with a long-term prisoner incarcerated for a Weather Underground-type crime during which she killed two police officers. As Cathy, the inmate pleads for parole from the warden, Ann, the interview turns into a heated battle over religion, money, and power, complete with Mamet’s signature verbal jousting.
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47
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
by Michael Frayn
by Rajiv Joseph
ANATOMY OF GRAY
AS THE BEAST SLEEPS
4m, 5f | Full Length Play | Drama
6m, 1f | Full Length Play | Drama
When June’s father dies, she prays for a healer to come to the small town of Gray, so that no one will ever suffer again. The next thing she knows, there’s a tornado, and a man in a balloon blows into town claiming to be a doctor. At first, the new doctor cures anything and everything, but soon the town’s preacher takes ill with a mysterious plague. And then the plague begins to spread. Set in Indiana during the late 1800s, the play deals with death, loss, love, and healing in a unique coming of age story.
Ulster Defence Association members Kyle and Freddie help the cause by robbing cigarette warehouses and distributing the fags to selected clubs. With the UDA’s push toward political acceptance under way, this sort of scam is now taboo. When Freddie goes his own way and launches a masked raid on their local club, Kyle is recruited to carry out a punishment beating of his former friend.
by Jim Leonard Jr.
by Gary Mitchell
THE AWESOME 80S PROM by Ken Davenport
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
12m, 8f | 90 minutes | Comedy, Parody, Interactive
8m, 3f | 90 minutes | Drama, Mystery/Thriller
The Queen of Crime’s most popular thriller! Ten strangers are trapped on an island. A voice accuses each of having gotten away with murder. One by one they are accused. One by one they start to die.
ANY BODY FOR TEA? by C.B. Gilford
A blast-from-the-past party in the style of Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding and The Donkey Show set at Wanaget High’s Senior Prom… in 1989! All your favorite characters from your favorite ’80s movies are there, from the Captain of the Football Team to the Geek to the hottie Head Cheerleader, and they’re all competing for Prom King and Queen. Just like on American Idol, the audience decides who will be crowned!
BACK BACK BACK
3m, 6f | 30 minutes | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller
by Itamar Moses
Detective Dennis O’Finn, investigating the death of an elderly lady, discovers that he is the motive for her murder. Six sweet, but balmy, ladies are all in love with their bachelor neighbor, the handsome, forty-ish O’Finn. To lure him to visit, they stage a homicide. But to keep him around, they must do it again!
3m | 90 minutes | Drama
ANY GIVEN DAY by Frank D. Gilroy
Before headlines blazed, before the Mitchell Report and ESPN lit up millions of television screens with the scandals, before congressional jaws dropped, comes the story of three guys making their way in the world of professional baseball — a world too competitive to rely solely on raw talent. What happens is a behind-theheadlines battle for their careers, their legacies, and the future of America’s favorite pastime.
THE BALLAD OF SOAPY SMITH
6m, 3f | Full Length Play | Drama
A household in the 1940s ruled by Mrs. Benti, includes her three adult children and illegitimate grandson, Willis, whom the others orbit like the sun. Eighteen-year-old Willis is mentally impaired and in a wheelchair. He appears both younger and older as he presides in often startling and humorous ways over the conflicting dreams, desires, and passions that ebb and flow about him. The family appears to be making noble sacrifices on Willis’ behalf, but each is using him for selfish ends.
APOSTASY
by Gino Dilorio
by Michael Weller
24m, 9f | More than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Docudrama/Historic
Col. Jefferson Randolph Smith, known as ‘Soapy’ to friends and foes, is a notorious con man whose reputation has preceded him to the Alaska Gold Rush town of Skagway in 1897. There, this charming gentleman starts a protection racket that brings law and order, a church, and an infirmary to the town. Soapy finds himself a force for moral good, that is, until the town’s vicious self-interest bring him down.
BARBARA’S BLUE KITCHEN
1m, 2f | 105 Minutes | Drama
book, music & lyrics by Lori Fischer
Sheila Gold, suffering from terminal cancer, is spending the end of her life in a comfortable hospice. Her only companion is her 30-year-old daughter Rachel, who is generally a disappointment to her entrepreneurial mother. While in the hospice, Sheila has become fascinated by a late night televangelist, Dr. Julian Strong, a black man in his 50’s. When he two fall head over heels in love, Sheila must choose between her daughter and a new love and lifestyle, in what will certainly be her final days.
1m, 1f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Comedy Small/Combo Band | Moderate Vocals | Country, Folk
ARCADIA
by Tom Stoppard
Set in a small town just outside of Nashville, this slice-of-life comedic play with music is a genuine look into the hearts of everyday people. As the proprietor, Barbara Jean, tries to figure out, “When is it courageous and when is it just plain crazy to hang on to love,” her customers come in and take a load off by sharing their funny, heartbreaking humanity.
BAREFOOT IN THE PARK
8m, 4f | Full Length Play | Comedy
Neil Simon
In 1809, the grounds of the Coverly family’s elegant estate are being transformed from an Arcadian landscape into a picturesque Gothic garden. In the present, Coverly descendants and two competing scholars research a possible 1809 scandal at the estate involving Lord Byron. This brilliant play moves smoothly between the centuries and explores the nature of truth and time, the difference between classical and romantic temperaments, and the disruptive influence of sex on our orbits in life.
4m, 2f | 120 minutes | Romantic Comedy
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
48
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
The hit romantic comedy about newlyweds, in every sense of the word. Paul’s a straight-as-an-arrow lawyer. Corie’s a free spirit, looking for the latest kick. Over the course of four days, the couple learns to live together in their tiny fifth floor walk-up, while facing daily ups-and-downs, unusual neighbors, and in-laws. Corrie wants Paul to become more easy-going: for example, to run “barefoot in the park.”
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49
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
by Agatha Christie
BARRIO HOLLYWOOD
BECAUSEHECAN
2m, 2f | Full Length Play | Drama
4m, 1f | 90 minutes | Drama
A Mexican American boxer dreams of fighting his way out of his barrio neighborhood. His sister dreams of owning her own dance studio. Their mother dreams of going on an extended vacation. Their dreams are deferred when the young boxer sustains a brutal head injury in the boxing ring. Each family member must realize how far they are willing to go in the name of love. Available in English and Spanish.
He calls himself ISeeU, but you can’t see him. And if it’s you he wants, nothing can stop him. In a plot worthy of Kafka or Orwell, an unsuspecting couple is propelled into their worst nightmare: a world with no secrets. For his couple, the future has arrived and they are among its first casualties.
by Elaine Romero
by Arthur Kopit
BEETHOVEN’S TENTH
BARRYMORE
by Peter Ustinov
by William Luce
6m, 3f | Full Length Play | Comedy
The legendary actor has rented a stage to prepare for a comeback performance of Richard III. Barrymore jokes with the audience, spars with an offstage prompter, reminisces about better times, and performs delicious imitations of his siblings Lionel and Ethel.
An acidic music critic is writing a book about what Beethoven’s tenth symphony might have been like. Ludvig himself appears to lend a hand. Also helping are the critic’s son, an aspiring composer whose work his father detests, and the critic’s wife, formerly an opera singer who desperately wants to sing a lieder accompanied by the composer.
Ken Ludwig’s BASKERVILLE: A SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY
BELLES
4m, 1f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Farce, Adaptation, Mystery/Thriller
by Mark Dunn
The male heirs of the Baskerville line are being dispatched one by one. To find their ingenious killer, Holmes and Watson must brave the desolate moors before a family curse dooms its newest heir. Watch as our intrepid investigators try to escape a dizzying web of clues, silly accents, disguises, and deceit as five actors deftly portray more than 40 characters. Join the fun and see how far from elementary the truth can be. Don your deerstalker cap! The play’s afoot!
1m, 6f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
BATTLE HYMN
BELLES: THE REUNION
4m, 1f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
6f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
by Jim Leonard Jr.
A play in two acts and forty-five phone calls. Over the course of an autumn weekend, six Southern sisters seek to bridge their physical and emotional distance via the telephone, and in the process come to terms with their shattered family history. A celebration of strong Southern women and a time before cell phones when a phone call to another city could be weighted with consequence and heartbreaking honesty.
by Mark Dunn
Abandoned by her father, losing her true love, pregnant, and witnessing the horrors of the Civil War, 16-yearold Martha settles on one incontrovertible fact: She will not raise her baby in a blood-soaked, violent country. From the mud and the blood of Fort Sumter to San Francisco in the summer of love, Martha’s journey embodies the tragedy and hope that have helped shape the last 150 years of U.S. history.
Twenty-five years have passed since we last visited the six Walker sisters from Memphis, Tennessee, and they’re all back on the phone again for another crisis-filled weekend. The most immediate concern: Mama has taken off all her clothes in the community room of her nursing room and the sisters must put their heads together and decide what to do with her. And that’s just for starters.
Ken Ludwig’s BE MY BABY
THE BELLS
by Theresa Rebeck
3m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Romantic Comedy
John, an irascible Scotsman and Maude, an uptight Englishwoman set out on the journey of a lifetime. They are brought together when his ward marries her niece and the older couple must travel to California to pick up their adopted child. John and Maude despise each other. They get stranded in San Francisco for several weeks and are expected to jointly care for the helpless newborn. There they form a new partnership and learn some startling lessons about life and love.
5m, 2f | 90 minutes | Melodrama, Period
BEACHWOOD DRIVE
THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER
by Steven Leigh Morris
by Barbara Robinson
2m, 4f | Full Length Play | Drama
A smart, character-driven drama that tells the story of Nadya, a Ukrainian prostitute and single mother smuggled into Los Angeles. Nadya attempts to free herself from the snares of both the Russian Mafia and the Los Angeles Police Department after she’s arrested in a sting operation. Unfolding Rashomon-style, the story is retold from four different perspectives.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
An expressionistic melodrama explores the intertwining fates of the citizens of a boomtown gone bust in the waning days of the Alaskan Gold Rush. Hard luck and hunger have brought them together, but when a stranger begins asking about the mysterious disappearance of a Chinese prospector, he soon learns that it’s every man for himself in this vast, white wilderness.
50
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
4m, 6f, 9g, 8b, Flexible Casting | 60 minutes | Comedy, Adaptation, Holiday/Christmas Play with Music
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. Mayhem (and fun) ensues when the Herdmans collide with the Christmas story head on! This delightful comedy is adapted from the best-selling young adult book, and has become a holiday staple for groups across the United States!
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51
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
2m | 90 minutes | Drama
THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS
BILOXI BLUES
13m, 14f | 120 minutes | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Classic Broadway, Country/Western
6m, 2f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy, Period
book by Larry L. King and Peter Masterson, music & lyrics by Carol Hall
A happy-go-lucky view of small town vice and statewide political side-stepping recounting the good times and demise of the Chicken Ranch, one of the better pleasure palaces in all of Texas. Governors, senators, and even victorious college football teams frequent Miss Mona’s cozy bordello until the puritan nemesis Watchdog focuses his television cameras and righteous indignation on the institution.
by Neil Simon
Picking up where Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs left off, young Eugene Jerome is now an army recruit during World War II, going through basic training and learning about Life and Love with a capital “L”. along with some harsher lessons, while stationed at boot camp in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1943.
BINGO! THE WINNING MUSICAL
book by Michael Heitzman and Ilene Reid, music & lyrics by Michael Heitzman, Ilene Reid, and David Holcenberg
3m, 1f | 120 minutes | Romantic Comedy
1m, 6f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock
by Larry Gelbart Julian must move in with his ex-wife and her new husband to recuperate from a sudden illness. With each day, the awkward situation spirals further out of control. As the laugh builds, the question becomes: How long will Julian have to stay? A bitingly funny look at a December-December-December romance.
BEYOND THERAPY
by Christopher Durang
A splashy, zippy, fun musical about a group of die-hard bingo players. In between the number calling, strange rituals and fierce competitions, love blossoms and long-lost friends reunite. Lovable characters spring to life with a smart, funny script and bouncy, hummable score. Audiences will be laughing in the aisles when they aren’t playing games of bingo along with the cast.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
4m, 2f | Full Length Play | Comedy
by Marc Acito
Prudence’s therapist is urging her to be more assertive while Bruce’s therapist wants him to meet women by placing a personal ad. Meanwhile, Bruce has a male lover who is not pleased by Bruce’s desire to date a woman. Bruce doesn’t know how to handle poor nervous Prudence and Prudence doesn’t know what to make of her unpredictable new boyfriend. Will they learn to live beyond therapy?
3m, 1f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Comedy, Parody
THE BIG MEAL by Dan LeFranc
Roy and Silo, two male penguins, partnered and raised a chick in the Central Park Zoo. Their story inspired a children’s book which became one of the most banned books ever. Pale Male and Lola, two red-tailed hawks built a nest on the side of a Fifth Avenue apartment. When it was removed, protests ensued. Their story has also inspired a number of children’s books, none of which have been banned.
BIRTH AND AFTER BIRTH
3m, 3f, 1g, 1b | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
by Tina Howe
Somewhere in America, in a typical suburban restaurant, on a typical night, Sam and Nicole first meet. So begins an expansive tale traversing five generations of a modern family, from first kiss to final goodbye. A stunning, big-hearted play that spans 80 years and tells the extraordinary story of an ordinary family.
3m, 2f | Full Length Play | Comedy
BIG NATE
To their son’s fourth birthday, a couple has invited a pair of anthropologist,s renowned for their international studies of childhood behavior. When the adults become so involved in debating various theories of child rearing and telling each other stories, they forget to actually be parents.
book by Jason Loewith and Lincoln Peirce, music by Chris Youstra lyrics by Jason Loewith and Chris Youstra
BLACK COFFEE
4m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 75 Minutes | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock
10m, 3f | More Than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Mystery/Thriller
A rockin’ musical based on the popular comic-strip series. Nate Wright, a detention-riddled sixth grader hopes to capture beautiful Jenny’s heart by winning “The Nicholodeon,” the first prize in his school’s Battle of the Bands. But when Artur and Jenny team up with Nate’s arch-rival Gina to form the sap-pop band Rainbows and Ponies, he’s gotta take his game to an all-star level.
One of Christie’s most gripping country house murder mysteries. Accomplished physicist Sir Claud Amory has constructed a workable formula for one of the most deadly weapons known to man – the atom bomb. Hercule Poirot, with the help of Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp, is called in after the formula is mysteriously stolen and Sir Claud is callously murdered.
BLANCHE AND BEYOND
THE BIG VOICE: GOD OR MERMAN?
adapted by Steve Lawson from The Correspondence Of Tennessee Williams Between 1945 and 1957
book by Jim Brochu, music & lyrics by Steve Schalchlin 2m | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Biography Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Pop/Rock
1m | Full Length Play | Drama, Biography
A comedy about gay marriage created by the couple themselves. This high energy, razzle dazzle show chronicles the lives of a Baptist from Arkansas and a Catholic from Brooklyn who find eternal salvation in the temple of musical theatre. The show traces their meeting aboard a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, Steve’s struggle with AIDS, the production of their hit Off-Broadway musical their separation and reconciliation.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
by Agatha Christie
52
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
A one-man show that traces the life of Tennessee Williams at the peak of his career. No longer an obscure writer, he faces the seismic shock of international fame. The stage sequel to A Distant Country Called Youth.
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53
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
BETTER LATE
BLITHE SPIRIT
A BOY CALLED LIZARD
by Noel Coward
book by James J. Mellon, music & lyrics by James J. Mellon & Scott DeTurk based on the novel Lizard by Dennis Covington
2m, 5f | Full Length Play | Comedy, Farce
A smash hit of the London and Broadway stages. This much-revived classic offers up fussy, cantankerous novelist Charles Condomine who is married to Ruth but haunted (quite literally) by the ghost of his late first wife, the clever and insistent Elvira. As personalities clash, Ruth is accidentally killed and passes over to join Elvira to haunt the hapless Charles into perpetuity.
BLOOD AT THE ROOT
by Dominique Morisseau
8m, 5f | Full Length Musical | Drama, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
With his sea-green eyes more displaced than most people’s and a nose deformed at birth, Lucius Sims, or “Lizard” looks and feels like a freak. So when Callahan, a shoe salesman from up North arrives and claims to be his father, Lizard takes a chance. He escapes from his miserable life into the madcap world of Callahan’s traveling theater and their ragtag production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA
A striking new ensemble drama based on the Jena Six; six Black students who were initially charged with attempted murder for a school fight after being provoked with nooses hanging from a tree on campus. This bold new play examines the miscarriage of justice, racial double standards, and the crises in relations between men and women of all classes.
1m, 3f, 5g, 4b, 3m or f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Adaptation, Theatre for Young Audiences Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway
BLOOD BROTHERS
book, music & lyrics by Willy Russell
book by Katherine Paterson and Stephanie S. Tolan, music by Steve Liebman
A powerful adaptation of the Newbery Award-winning novel. Jesse dreams of becoming something special. Leslie, the new girl, opens a world of imagination for him. Together they create Terabithia, a fantasy kingdom where they are safe from those who don’t understand them.
5m, 3f, Flexible Casting | More than 120 minutes | Drama Easy Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Classic Broadway, Contemporary Broadway
BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS
An impoverished woman surrenders one of her newborn twins to the childless woman she cleans for. The boys grow up streets apart, becoming firm friends and falling in love with the same girl. One prospers while the other falls. A narrator warns that a price has to be paid for separating twins: the lives of the blood brothers, who die on the day they find out they are related.
3m, 4f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy, Period
THE BODY BEAUTIFUL
by Neil Simon
Dreaming of baseball and girls, Eugene Jerome must cope with the mundane existence of his family life in their lower middle class Brooklyn walk-up: formidable mother, overworked father, and worldly older brother. Throw into the mix his widowed Aunt Blanche, her two young (but rapidly aging) daughters, and Grandpa the Socialist, and you have a recipe for hilarity, served up Simon-style.
book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman, music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
BROWNSVILLE SONG (B-SIDE FOR TRAY)
20m, 6f | Full Length Musical | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Large Orchestra | Classic Broadway
by Kimber Lee
2m, 2f, 1g | 90 minutes | Drama
A fight manager finds an Ivy League graduate who wants to be a fighter but can’t box. The manager and his lively secretary connive a fantastic winning streak that swells his head and threatens to break up his romance with the secretary. The first collaboration of the famed musical team, Bock and Harnick.
A powerful tale of resilience in the face of tragedy set in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Moving fluidly between past and present, this bold new play tells the story of Tray, a spirited African-American 18-year-old, and his family, who must hold on to hope when Tray’s life is cut short.
BOEING BOEING
BULLETS FOR BROADWAY
2m, 4f | 120 minutes | Farce
3m, 3f | 75 Minutes | Comedy, Farce, Mystery/Thriller
by Marc Camoletti, translated by Beverly Cross, revised by Francis Evans This 1960s French farce features self-styled Parisian Lothario Bernard, who has Italian, German, and American fiancées, each a beautiful airline hostess with frequent “layovers.” He keeps “one up, one down, and one pending” until unexpected schedule changes bring all three to Paris at the same time.
BOOKS
by Stuart Kaminsky
by David Landau, music by Killer Tracks Gangster Tony Alto and his wife Toffee are back, in a story that answers the question, “What would happen if The Sopranos met The Producers?” Toffee wants to be a Broadway star and Tony needs to “clean” some money. So he’s hired two producers to mount a hit musical, “The Mafia Queen.” An evening of mystery, comedy and music which just goes to prove that sometimes when people say they’re going to make a hit, they mean it!
BULRUSHER
5m, 2f | 60 minutes | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller
by Eisa Davis
A hilarious crime caper set in a down-and-out used bookstore. After robbing a savings and loan, Brian takes refuge in Maddy and Betty’s store. Bullets and one-liners fly, as the store owners and their loyal customers must figure out what to do with Brian. And the stolen loot.
3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Drama, Period
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
54
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
Bulrusher is an orphan with a gift for clairvoyance that makes her a stranger even amongst the strange: the schoolteacher who adopted her, the madam who runs her brothel, the logger with a zest for horses and women, and the guitar-slinging boy who is after Bulrusher’s heart. Just when she thought the world might close in on her, she discovers a new sense of self when a black girl from Alabama comes to town.
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55
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
3m, 3f | 105 Minutes | Drama
CALENDAR GIRLS
CHASING MANET
4m, 9f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Adaptation
3m, 4f, Flexible Casting | 105 Minutes | Comedy
When Annie’s husband dies, she and best friend Chris resolve to raise money for a new settee in the local hospital. They manage to persuade four fellow WI members to pose nude with them for an “alternative” calendar, with a little help from hospital porter and amateur photographer Lawrence. The calendar is a success, but Chris and Annie’s friendship is put to the test under the strain of their new-found fame.
A rebellious painter from a distinguished Boston family and an ebullient Jewish woman with a huge adoring family form an unlikely bond. Inside the confining walls of Mount Airy Nursing Home, the two plot an escape to Paris aboard the QE2. Can they pull it off amidst the chaos of their surroundings?
by Tim Firth
by Tina Howe
CHICAGO
book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins
THE CAPTAIN’S TIGER by Athol Fugard
On board the SS Graigaur, a young sailor pens his first novel. Assisted by his muse, a portrait of his mother come to life, and supported by the illiterate ship’s mechanic, he struggles to balance romance and reality. This most personal of Athol Fugard’s works is strictly autobiographical; at 20 he abandoned his education, hitchhiked up Africa and ended up on a tramp steamer.
THE CEMETERY CLUB by Ivan Menchell
9m, 10f | 120 minutes | Dark Comedy Moderate Vocals | Large Orchestra | Classic Broadway, Jazz
The Roaring Twenties, Chicago. Chorine Roxie Hart murders a faithless lover and convinces her hapless husband Amos to take the rap — until he finds out he’s been duped. Convicted and sent to death row, Roxie and another “Merry Murderess” Velma Kelly, vie for the spotlight and the headlines, both in search of the “American Dream”: fame, fortune and acquittal. The second-longest running show on Broadway!
CHILDREN’S LETTERS TO GOD
1m, 4f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Romantic Comedy
book by Stuart Hample, music by David Evans, lyrics by Douglas J. Cohen
Three Jewish widows meet once a month for tea before going to visit their husband’s graves. Ida is sweet tempered and ready to begin a new life, Lucille is a feisty embodiment of the girl who just wants to have fun, and Doris is priggish and judgmental, particularly when Sam the butcher enters the scene. He meets the widows while visiting his wife’s grave. Doris and Lucille squash the budding romance between Sam and Ida They are guilt stricken when this nearly breaks Ida’s heart.
3m, 2f Flexible Casting | 75 Minutes | Comedy, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock
THE CHANGING ROOM by David Storey
Inspired by the international bestseller of the same name, this musical follows the lives of five young friends as they voice beliefs, desires, questions and doubts common to all people but most disarmingly expressed by children. Sixteen tuneful songs and assorted scenes (some based on actual letters) explore timeless issues such as sibling rivalry, divorce, holidays, loss of a beloved pet, the trials of being unathletic and first love.
CHINA DOLL
22m | Full Length Play | Drama
by David Mamet
During the week, the members of a semi-pro Northern England rugby team are peaceable men toiling away at mindless, working class jobs. On Saturday, they prepare for gory combat on the playing field. The changing room is where they perform their pre-game initiation rites, strip down, loosen muscles, and get into their uniforms. There, each man explore his hurts, hopes, desires, and fighting instincts.
2m | 120 minutes | Dark Comedy
Charles Busch’s CLEOPATRA
A very wealthy businessman buys a plane to carry his fiancée, a non-US citizen, into Canada. However, an unexpected landing of the plane prompts an investigation into the man’s affairs based on his tax payment history. As his assistant tries to help him put things back together, secrets are revealed, the investigation deepens and his future is even more at risk.
5m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Comedy, Parody
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
The turbulent life of Cleopatra is told through a comic lens, evoking both 1930s Hollywood epics and the grand nineteenth century romantic theatre. This version of the Egyptian Queen’s life takes her from her teenage seduction of Julius Caesar through her volatile tragic romance with Mark Antony and her untimely death.
3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Adaptation
CHARLEY’S AUNT by Brandon Thomas
6m, 4f | Full Length Play | Farce
Jack Chesney loves Kitty Verdun and Charley loves Miss Amy Spettigue. They invite the ladies to meet Charley’s wealthy aunt from Brazil, “where the nuts come from.” Canceling her visit at the last minute, the millionaire aunt sends the boys into cataclysmic confusion. What do they do now? The problem is solved by drafting their feckless Oxford undergrad pal into a black satin skirt, bloomers and wig.
by Patrick Barlow
This thrilling adaptation uses only five actors to bring some of Dickens’ most beloved characters to life. Barlow’s A Christmas Carol uses nothing more than some simple props, fresh physicality, and the power of imagination to convey this timeless story of redemption. Witness Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation from a stingy miser to a man who celebrates the spirit of the season all year long, in this highly theatrical adaptation.
CINDERELLA’S MICE
music & lyrics by Ben Morss, book & additional lyrics by Justin Warner 2m, 4f, 1m or f, Flexible Casting | 60 minutes | Comedy, Parody Easy Vocals | Large Orchestra | Classic Broadway, Contemporary Broadway, Pop/Rock
A fresh, frivolous take on a time-honored fairy tale, showing that even the smallest characters in a story can make a big difference. Spencer is a little mouse with big dreams. He’s got exciting plans for the royal ball just like his friend Cinderella. But when Cinderella’s fairy godmother turns Spencer and his sister Mitzi into horses, mouse and human dreams collide! How will Spencer sneak into the ball now?
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
56
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
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57
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
2m, 1f | 90 minutes | Drama
THE CITY OF CONVERSATION
A COMPANY OF WAYWARD SAINTS
4m, 4f, 1b | More than 120 minutes | Drama
6m, 3f | Full Length Play | Comedy, Commedia Dell'arte
In 1979, Washington, D.C. was a place where people actually talked to each other. Adversaries fought it out on the Senate floor and then smoothed it out over drinks. In this play spanning 30 years and six presidential administrations, Hester Ferris throws Georgetown dinner parties that can change the course of politics. When her son suddenly turns up with an ambitious Reaganite girlfriend and a conservative worldview, Hester must choose between preserving her family and defending the causes she’s spent her whole life fighting for.
A commedia dell’arte group wanders by mistake into the eye of an allegory. They are humanity, wayward saints all, who are far from home and without means. A nobleman may be their salvation if they can put on a good show for him. The company chooses to present the history of Man, from the Garden of Eden through Everyman in birth, adolescence, marriage, and death. A fine mosaic of life redeemed by humor and human understanding.
CLARENCE DARROW
COUGAR: THE MUSICAL
by Anthony Giardina
by George Herman
1m | Full Length Play | Drama, Biography
This champion of dissenters and underdogs reminisces over his long and renowned career, touching on many of his famous trials, including the “Monkey” trial and the sensational Leopold-Loeb case. His private life and many contemporary events, including labor conditions, are woven into this story of a man who accepted unpopular cases and defended unpopular causes with salty humor, courtroom gusto, and human relish.
CLUE: THE MUSICAL
book & lyrics by Donna Moore; music by Donna Moore, Meryl Leppard, Mark Barkan, Arnie Gross, John Baxindine, and Seth Lefferts 1m, 3f | 90 minutes | Romantic Comedy Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
Three women develop a taste for hot, young men. They let their inner cougar roar and finding self-love and empowerment in the process. The cast of three fabulous-over-forty women and one multi-talented boy toy sing and dance through a satiating range of original songs. A hilarious, soulful and heartwarming lesson in saying “yes” to getting older, “yes” to trust and friendship and “yes’ to proving that love is ageless.
book by Peter DePietro; lyrics by Tom Chiodo; music by Galen Blum, Wayne Barker, and Vinnie Martucci
A COUPLE OF BLAGUARDS
5m, 3f | Full Length Musical | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
by Frank McCourt and Malachy McCourt 2m | 90 minutes | Comedy, Biography
The world’s best known murder suspects the popular boardgame are brought to life in this fun-filled musical. Audiences are invited to help solve the mystery: Who killed Mr. Boddy, in what room and with what weapon? With 216 possible solutions, only one hard-nosed female detective is qualified to unravel the merry mayhem.
A story of immigration, triumph over hardship, and the love between family. From literary greats Frank and Malachy McCourt, comes this bubbling stew of their well-known humor with a dash of poignancy to sharpen the flavor. A comedic springboard for Angela’s Ashes, ‘Tis, and Malachy’s A Monk Swimmin’, the story follows the trials of the young McCourts in poverty-stricken Limerick, Ireland, to their journey to the U.S. and Brooklyn, New York, where the young men learn to incorporate the day-to-day lessons of their hard Irish past.
COASTAL DISTURBANCES by Tina Howe
3m, 4f, 1g, 1b | Full Length Play | Comedy
THE COVER OF LIFE
A charming ensemble play that follows four generations of vacationers on a Massachusetts beach, focusing on a romance between a lifeguard and a kooky young photographer.
1m, 6f | 105 Minutes | Dramatic Comedy
COLLAPSE
by Allison Moore 2m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy
by R.T. Robinson
Three brides in rural Louisiana in 1943 each married a Cliffert brother. The men are off to war and a local news story about these young wives intrigues Henry Luce. He decides they belong on the cover of Life Magazine and assigns Kate Miller to the story. Kate spends a week with the Cliffert women where her haughty urban attitude gives way to sympathy as she begins to understand them while coming face-to-face with her own powerlessness in a man’s world. A deeply affecting and joyful story about the struggle for self worth.
Hannah tries desperately to hold the facade of her perfect life together, even as her husband, David, mysteriously calls in sick to work. Day after day they struggle with infertility, and Hannah herself is on the verge of being laid off. When Hannah’s sister appears on their doorstep, she brings with her a renegade attitude and an illicit package that send David and Hannah on a 12-hour odyssey into the heart of their deepest fears.
CROSSING JERUSALEM
Ken Ludwig’s A COMEDY OF TENORS
Crossing Jerusalem describes twenty-four hours in the life of an Israeli family in March 2002, as they cross Jerusalem at the beginning of the latest intifada. Over these twenty-four hours, personal and political history burst into the present. A complex family drama explodes in the most politically tense city in the world.
4m, 3f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Farce
One hotel suite, four tenors, two wives, three girlfriends, and a soccer stadium filled with screaming fans. What could possibly go wrong? It’s 1930s Paris and the stage is set for the concert of the century — as long as producer Henry Saunders can keep Italian superstar Tito Merelli and his hot-blooded wife, Maria, from causing runaway chaos. An uproarious ride, full of mistaken identities, blissful romance, and madcap delight!
by Julia Pascal
3m, 3f | Full Length Play | Drama
CUBA AND HIS TEDDY BEAR by Reinaldo Povod
6m, 1f | Full Length Play | Comedy
Cuba is a small time cocaine and marijuana dealer whose pride and joy is his 16 year old son Teddy. Cuba has great hopes for his son; what he doesn’t know is that the boy has already succumbed to the lure of the streets and is fast becoming a heroin junkie.
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Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
by David Rintels, based on Clarence Darrow For The Defense by Irving Stone
DANCING IN THE END-ZONE
DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY
2m, 2f | Full Length Play | Drama
7m, 7f | More than 120 minutes | Romantic Comedy, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Classic Broadway, Jazz
by Bill C. Davis
music & lyrics by Maury Yeston, book by Peter Stone and Thomas Meehan
An exploration of the heart of a young man in crisis, inflamed by the people who claim to care for him: his mother, his football coach and his tutor. James Bernard is a star college quarterback whose innocence renders him devastatingly vulnerable. His mother and coach are pushing him to go “professional’; his tutor is concerned over the inherent corruption of organized athletics, believing that football is just another metaphor for war.
It’s just after World War I and Death, the loneliest of souls, arrives at an Italian villa disguised as a handsome young Prince. For the first time, he experiences the joys and heartbreaks of life. Based on the play by Alberto Cassella, and later made into a 1934 film starring Fredric March and a 1998 film starring Brad Pitt.
DARK OF THE MOON
DETROIT ‘67
10m, 12f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Drama
2m, 3f | 120 minutes | Drama
by Howard Richardson and William Berney
by Dominique Morisseau In 1967 Detroit, Motown music is getting the party started, and Chelle and her brother Lank are making ends meet by turning their basement into an after-hours joint. But when a mysterious woman finds her way into their lives, the siblings clash over much more than the family business. As their pent-up feelings erupt, so does their city, and they find themselves caught in the middle of the ‘67 Riots.
DAVID AND LISA
DEVIL BOYS FROM BEYOND
11m, 11f | Full Length Play | Drama, Adaptation
4m, 4f | 90 minutes | Comedy, Action & Adventure, Parody, Science Fiction
by James Reach, adapted from the book by Theodore Isaac Rubin and screenplay by Eleanor Perry The strange, appealing, and utterly fascinating story of two mentally disturbed adolescents: David, the only son of wealthy parents who is tortured by his mania against being touched, and Lisa, the waif with a split personality. One of her selves will speak only in childish rhymes and insists on being spoken to in the same manner.
Flying Saucers! Backstabbing Bitches! Muscle Hunks and Men in Pumps! Summer of 1957 is a scorcher and something strange is going on in the swamps of Lizard Lick, Florida. Wake up and smell the alien invasion in this outrageous camp comedy.
DIRK GENTLY’S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY
THE DAYS ARE AS GRASS
by James Goss and Arvind Ethan David, based on the novel by Douglas Adams
by Carol Hall
10m, 4f | Full Length Play | Comedy
1m, 1f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
A full-length performance consisting of eight short plays by Carol Hall. The actors portray more than a dozen characters ranging in age from 40 to 85, exploring the fragility of hope, memory, old friends, lost loves, and the inevitability of time. The tone is always a blend of the funny and the touching, as the characters march bravely into that last colorful sunset, still fully engaged by life’s changes, love’s quirks, and the surprises of age.
Dirk Gently finds himself on the trail of a gruesome murderer who is somehow involved with the works of Coleridge, quantum physics, and the enigmatic study of the Cambridge Professor of Chronology. Ultimately, the stakes of the case are far greater than a single murder, but go to the fate of life on Earth. Confused? Don’t be — everything is connected.
A DISTANT COUNTRY CALLED YOUTH
DEAD ACCOUNTS
by Steve Lawson, adapted from The Early Letters of Tennessee Williams
by Theresa Rebeck
1m | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy, Biography
2m, 3f | 120 minutes | Comedy
Jack’s unexpected return throws his family into a frenzy, and his sister Lorna needs answers. Is he coming home or running away? Where is his wife everyone hates? And how did he get all that money? Theresa Rebeck’s new comedy tackles the timely issues of corporate greed, small town values, and whether or not your family will always welcome you back… with no questions asked.
Spanning the 25 years from boyhood to the opening of The Glass Menagerie, this one man show evokes the evolution of an American genius through his extraordinary correspondence with family, friends, lovers and other writers. Hilarious, raunchy and poetic in turn, the piece spotlights these fairly obscure years in William’s life. Here is a young Thomas Lanier Williams growing up, exploring and finding his artistic voice.
THE DIVINERS
DEATH BY DESIGN
by Jim Leonard Jr.
by Rob Urbinati
6m, 5f | Full Length Play | Drama
4m, 4f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Farce, Mystery/Thriller
What happens when you mix the brilliant wit of Noel Coward with the intricate plotting of Agatha Christie? It’s1932 and Edward Bennett, a playwright, and his wife Sorel Bennett, an actress, have fled London for their manor house in Cookham after a disastrous opening night. But various guests arrive unexpectedly – each with a long-held secret. When one of the guests is murdered, it’s left to Bridgit, the feisty Irish maid with a macabre interest in homicide, to solve the crime.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
by Buddy Thomas and Ken Elliott
60
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A disenchanted preacher befriends a disturbed boy in southern Indiana in the 1930s. When the boy was younger he almost drowned. This trauma and the loss of his mother in the same accident has left him deathly afraid of water. The preacher, set on breaking away from a long line of family preachers, is determined not to do what he does best. The women of the town try to persuade him to preach while he tries to persuade the child to wash.
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Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
Based on the haunting folk ballad of “Barbara Allen.” John, a “witch boy” upon first beholding the beautiful Barbara Allen immediately falls in love. Given human form, they marry on the condition that she remain true to him. The marriage is consummated and Barbara gives birth to a witch child whom the townspeople destroy in a superstitious frenzy. During a religious revival Barbara is led to betray John thus breaking their spell of love.
THE DOCTOR IN WONDERLAND
A DON’T HUG ME CHRISTMAS CAROL
3m, 5f, 17m or f | Full Length Play | Comedy, Adaptation, Science Fiction
3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Romantic Comedy Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock, Jazz, Country/Western
Don Zolidis
book & lyrics by Phil Olson, music by Paul Olson
Wonderland is no longer just in the mind of Alice. In Don Zolidis’ new parody, Dr. What and his companion Cara crash into Wonderland. When the two are separated they meet all the usual suspects, mainly the Queen of Hearts who is ready to chop of the heads of anyone who crosses her. It’s up to the time traveling duo to escape and get their phone booth fixed before it’s off with their heads!
DOCTOR! DOCTOR!
music & lyrics by Peter Ekstrom, additional lyrics and material by David DeBoy
A DON’T HUG ME COUNTY FAIR
book & lyrics by Phil Olson, music by Paul Olson 3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Romantic Comedy Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock, Jazz, Country/Western
Doctors and patients get a dose of rib tickling comic medicine in sketches and songs about all things medical. Characters include the hillbilly organ donor who happened to hiccup and totaled his pick up, a hacking smoker who loves his cigarettes, and a couple who live in an iron lung and every night go “bing, bang, boom”’ There is even a “Hymn to the H.M.O.’”A number about the pain of death, “I Loved My Father More Than I Knew” and the joy of new life “Nine Long Months Ago” make this a revue that touches the heart as well as the funny bone.
It’s summer time and the Bunyan County Fair is approaching, the biggest thing that’s happened in Bunyan Bay since the winter snowplow parade. This year’s big event is the Miss Walleye Queen beauty pageant, and everyone wants to win the chance to get their face carved in butter.
DON'T HUG ME, I’M PREGNANT
book & lyrics by Phil Olson, music by Paul Olson
A DOLL’S HOUSE
3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Romantic Comedy Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock, Jazz, Country/Western
by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Thornton Wilder 3m, 3f | Full Length Play | Drama
Nora becomes aware that she has been deluded in her marriage and that she now has a greater duty to herself. For the sake of her own salvation, she must leave her home and her husband to seek a life in which she can be truly herself. The sound of the door closing as Nora leaves is a sound that has reverberated through all of drama.
At the Bunyan Bar, Clara is 8½ months pregnant, and looking forward to her baby shower, presents, and taking a break from her raging hormones. When a freak snowstorm hits the Bunyan Bay, her husband Gunner’s worst nightmare comes true: Clara gone into labor and he has to deliver the baby in the bar.
A DOLL’S LIFE
DON’T HUG ME, WE’RE MARRIED
7m, 6f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Drama, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway
3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Romantic Comedy Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock, Jazz, Country/Western
book & lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, music by Larry Grossman
book & lyrics by Phil Olson, music by Paul Olson
Revived by The York Theatre Company to acclaim, this reworking of the original Broadway script and score puts this hauntingly beautiful show within the reach of smaller producing groups. Thirteen actors double in several roles and two pianos create the sights and sounds of 19th century Norway as Nora, Ibsen’s heroine from A Doll’s House, tries to make her way in a male dominated society after she slams the door on her former life.
In Bunyan Bay, the romance has left Clare and Gunnar’s marriage. When Gunner find Clara’s pamphlet for a “Divorce Fantasy Camp,” he has to convince his wife he’s a good husband. At the same time, Bernice, the pretty waitress, gets engaged to Aarvid, a karaoke salesman and Gunner’s twin sister, Trigger (played by Gunner) proposes to Kanute, the local business icon. It’s a double wedding! What could go wrong? Everything.
DON’T DRESS FOR DINNER
DOONESBURY
3m, 3f | Full Length Play | Farce
7m, 2f | Full Length Musical | Comedy, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Pop/Rock
book & lyrics by Garry Trudeau, music by Elizabeth Swados
by Marc Camoletti, adapted by Robin Hawdon Bernard is planning a romantic weekend with his chic Parisian mistress whilst his wife Jacqueline, is away. He has arranged for a cordon bleu cook, and has invited his best friend, Robert, along too to provide the alibi. It’s foolproof; what could possibly go wrong? Perhaps Robert and Jacqueline are secret lovers? Perhaps the cook has to pretend to be the mistress and the mistress is unable to cook? Perhaps everyone’s alibi gets confused with everyone else’s. An evening of hilarious confusion ensues as Bernard and Robert improvise at breakneck speed.
A delightful romp of a show based on Garry Trudeau’s famous comic strip. While they try to make it through commencement, the Walden crowd must fend off Zonker’s uncle Duke, who wants to bulldoze their off campus house and replace it with condos. Michael Doonesbury steadfastly pursues the feisty and lovely J.J., while J.J. tries to come to terms with her long lost mother, Joanie Caucus.
DON’T HUG ME
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Romantic Comedy Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock, Jazz, Country/Western
3m, 5f, 1m or f | Full Length Play | Comedy
by Georg Osterman
book & lyrics by Phil Olson, music by Paul Olson
It’s Fargo meets The Music Man, with neither the blood nor the trombones. It’s the coldest day of the year in Bunyan Bay, Minnesota when a slick karaoke salesman arrives at the bar and turns the locals’ lives upside down. This Minnesota love story with singin’ and stuff will have you laughing until the spring thaw!
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
62
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A modern take on the classic science-fiction novel. A mild-mannered librarian has brutally butchered 16 1/2 people. The distinguished pneuro-physicist Dr. Henry Jekyll believes this is a case of a rare theoretical disease called quantum synaptic dualism. He ingests a special concoction that changes the good doctor into a loathsome stand up comedian whose act trades on violence, misogyny, homophobia, and ethnic slurs.
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Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
2m, 2f | Full Length Musical | Musical Revue/Cabaret Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Cabaret
It’s Christmas Eve in Bunyan Bay and cantankerous bar owner Gunner gets in an argument with his wife, Clara, tells her he’s skipping Christmas. Landing in a coma after a snowmobile incident, he dreams his own version of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Will Gunner come out of his coma and find redemption with Clara?
DRACULA
EDUCATING RITA
6m, 2f | Full Length Play | Drama, Adaptation, Mystery/Thriller
1m, 1f | Full Length Play | Comedy
Lucy Seward, whose father is the doctor in charge of an English sanitarium, has been attacked by some mysterious illness. Dr. Van Helsing, believes that the girl is the victim of a vampire. The vampire turns out to be a certain Count Dracula.
Frank is a tutor of English in his fifties whose disillusioned outlook on life drives him to drink and bury himself in his books. Enter Rita, a forthright 26-year-old hairdresser who is eager to learn. After weeks of cajoling, Rita slowly wins over the very hesitant Frank with her innate insight and refusal to accept no for an answer. Their relationship as teacher and student blossoms, ultimately giving Frank a new sense of self and Rita the knowledge she so craves.
dramatized by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, from the novel by Bram Stoker
A DRAM OF DRUMMHICIT
by Arthur Kopit and Anton Dudley
by Willy Russell
THE EIGHT: REINDEER MONOLOGUES
An American entrepreneur has found the perfect Scottish island on which to build his new golf course. But as secrets — and bodies — are unearthed, the true nature of the island wreaks comic havoc.
5m, 3f | 90 minutes | Dark Comedy
DUSTY AND THE BIG BAD WORLD by Cusi Cram
1m, 3f, 1g | 120 minutes | Comedy
Dusty and his animated friends hold a competition to find a model family based on letters written by children. The producers pick Lizzie Goldberg-Jones and her family to be featured. Her parents are two men. When word of that selection and the resulting episode reaches Marianne, Secretary of Education, she decides that the program should not be aired on public television because of its possible influence on children. Based on an actual incident that happened in 2005.
THE DYING GAUL by Craig Lucas
by Jeff Goode
Tired of A Christmas Carol and Gift of the Magi? Then this is the script for you: eight reindeer dishing about Santa. All those rumors you’ve heard about him and the elves? About Rudolph’s little secret? About Vixen’s story that was leaked to the press? All true. Yes, the reindeer finally speak up and they do not hold back!
ELECTION DAY by Josh Tobiessen
3m, 2f | 90 minutes | Comedy
It’s Election Day, and Adam knows his over-zealous girlfriend will never forgive him if he fails to vote. But when his sex-starved sister, an ecoterrorist, and a mayoral candidate willing to do anything for a vote all show up, Adam finds that making the trip to the polls might be harder than he thought. A dark comedy about the price of political (and personal) campaigns.
THE ELEPHANT MAN
3m, 1f | Full Length Play | Drama
A modern American tragedy about a grieving screenwriter who compromises his ideals to make a small fortune that enables him to climb from invisible poverty into the rarefied seductions and surreal beauty of the Hollywood Hills. Killingly funny and heart-stoppingly elegiac, this play is a thrilling dramatic experience.
EDGAR LEE MASTERS' SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY
by Charles Aidman, conceived from Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology
by Bernard Pomerance
6m, 2f | 120 minutes | Drama, Historical
Based on the life of John Merrick. In 19th century London, a horribly deformed man, the victim of rare skin and bone diseases, has become the star freak attraction in a traveling side show. Sickly and admitted to hospital, he is put under the care of celebrated young physician Frederick Treves. Through Treves, Merrick is introduced to London society and evolves from an object of pity to an urbane and witty favorite of the aristocracy and literati, only to be denied his ultimate dream: to become a man like any other.
3m, 2f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Drama, Adaptation, Experimental
Via musical interludes, we are introduced in a cemetery to the ghosts of those who were inhabitants of this town, and whose secrets have gone with them to the grave. There are 60 odd characterizations and vignettes in this interesting entertainment. It offers a varied array of roles and impersonations from young lovers, preachers, and teachers to the funny chronicle of the confused Jewish man who ends up in the wrong cemetery. Both the solid and humorous sides of life are portrayed with fetching ballads and the free verse form of Masters.
EDITH IN THE DARK by Philip Meeks
THE END OF THE DAY by Jon Robin Baitz
4m, 2f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
This comic foray into greed and indifference stars a dissipated British doctor turned hustler in Los Angeles. When he abandons his Beverly Hills practice and rich wife, his former father-in-law demands repayment of the hefty sum spent to educate and set him up in practice. Upon traipsing off to England to beg from his estranged family, he eventually ties the evils of his worlds into one smashingly corrupt con that entangles international shipping, a movie studio, a priceless painting, a cocaine network, and a beneficent foundation.
1m, 2f | 60 minutes | Drama
As midnight swiftly approaches, Edith Nesbit gives a reading of her work. Not one of her cherished children’s tales, but her terrifying early horror stories. As the stories unfold it becomes clear all is not what it seems… Someone in the attic is hiding a deadly secret.
ENGAGING SHAW by John Morogiello
2m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Docudrama/Historic, Romantic Comedy
He considered himself the superman. She allowed him to believe it. Engaging Shaw is the hilarious true story of Irish playwright Bernard Shaw’s relationship with wealthy heiress Charlotte Payne-Townshend. According to her, “no man can resist a woman once she has set her sights upon him, unless thwarted by another woman.” But confirmed bachelor Shaw may prove to be more than she bargained for. Can she romance an unromantic man? Can Shaw reconcile his intellectual theories with emotional reality?
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
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Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
7m, 2f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Farce, Mystery/Thriller
ERMA BOMBECK: AT WIT’S END
THE FALL OF HEAVEN
1f | 90 minutes | Comedy, Biography
3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
From the writers of Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins comes a comic look at one of our country’s most beloved voices, who captured the frustrations of her generation by asking, “If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?” Discover the story of the humorist who championed women’s lives with wit that sprang from the most unexpected place of all: the truth.
Tempest Landry, a street-wise young man living in Harlem, unexpectedly finds himself at the Pearly Gates. When Saint Peter orders him to hell, the quick-witted Tempest refuses to go. A technical loophole forces heaven to send Tempest back to Earth with an angel in tow to keep him out of trouble. The resulting battle of wills takes an intriguing look at good versus evil and what it means to be human.
EVELYN IN PURGATORY
FANTASTIC MR. FOX
2m, 5f | Full Length Play | Dark Comedy
5m, 2f, Flexible Casting | 60 minutes | Comedy
A claim of improper behavior by a failing student lands Evelyn Reid in “the rubber room,” where she encounters a group of other New York City teachers, some guilty, some not, who have long since lost any hope of returning to a classroom. Over a year, these colleagues form an unlikely alliance, reminding each other of forgotten passions, and emerging to face life outside in unexpected ways.
No-one is more cunning than fantastic Mr Fox and he has some tricks up his sleeve to make the farmers wish they’d never thought to out-smart the smartest creature of all.
by Margaret Engel and Allison Engel
by Walter Mosley
by Topher Payne
adapted for the stage by David Wood, from the book by Roald Dahl
by Thomas Hardy, adapted by Jessica Swale
EVERYTHINGS TURNING INTO BEAUTIFUL
5m, 4f, Flexible Casting | 105 Minutes | Drama, Adaptation
by Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, songs by Jimmie James
Late one Christmas Eve in lonely New York City, a couple of down-on-their-luck songwriting partners, hitless, loveless and facing their forties, come together for a night of composing and soul searching. When Sam wants to take his relationship with Brenda to the next level, their partnership is put to the test.
When Bathsheba Everdene inherits a farm from her uncle, no one expects her to run it alone. But our spirited young heroine will not be deterred and eagerly takes up the gauntlet. She rises impressively to the challenges of sheep farming, but the trials of the heart are harder to overcome. Caught between a pair of suitors, her choice seems hard enough. Then the dashing Sergeant Troy appears over the horizon, with a swagger in his step and a dangerous secret in his past.
A FACILITY FOR LIVING
A FEMININE ENDING
3m, 3f | 90 minutes | Comedy
3m, 2f | 90 minutes | Dark Comedy, Romantic Comedy
1m, 1f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
by Katie Forgette
by Sarah Treem
Joe Taylor, a retired actor, moves into a prison-turned-elder-care facility shortly after the demise of Medicare and the election of Dick Cheney as President. There he discovers a community of loveable, irascible inmates hell-bent on bucking the dehumanizing system in which they have landed. Together, this band of aging misfits rediscovers purpose and dignity in the face of a system mightily stacked against them. A delightful comedy with bite from Katie Forgette, that dares to confront the issue of aging in America.
Having recently graduated from a major conservatory, and with a rocker boyfriend on the brink of stardom, Amanda Blue’s “extraordinary life” seems to be all mapped out. But when she’s called home to answer her mother’s distress call, Amanda’s grand plan starts to unravel. A bittersweet play about dreams deferred, loves lost, and learning to trust a woman’s voice in a man’s world.
THE FEW
THE FACULTY ROOM
by Samuel D. Hunter
by Bridget Carpenter
2m, 1f | 90 minutes | Drama
5m, 1f | Full Length Play | Comedy, Dark Comedy
The darker side of high school life is explored from the inside of that mythic room, the teacher’s lounge Dedicated yet desperate, inspired yet burnt out, hateful yet loving — the teachers of Madison Feury High are a bundle of contradictions in this rich portrait of teachers’ lives outside the classroom. Our education system may never recover.
Four years ago, Bryan abandoned his labor of love, a newspaper for truckers. Now he’s returned – with no word of where he’s been – and things have changed. His former lover is filled with rage, his new coworker is filled with incessant adoration, and his paper is filled with personal ads. As he considers giving up for good, Bryan searches for what he couldn’t find on the road: a way to keep faith in humanity.
FICTION
FALL
by Steven Dietz
by Bridget Carpenter
1m, 2f | Full Length Play | Drama
3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
At a three-week swing dance camp, middle-aged married couple Jill and Doug practice their steps, mingle with other dance enthusiasts, and rekindle the flame. Their teenage daughter Lydia, however, is decidedly not an enthusiast in any sense. She prefers scuba classes and sarcasm to the magic of the Shim Sham, shags, and Lindy Hop. Lydia’s self-imposed isolation gives way when Mr. Gonzales, her mother’s quiet colleague, begins to pay attention to her. She learns to dance and allows herself to fall in love.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
66
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
Linda and Michael Waterman are both successful writers, happily married to each other. They thrive on the give and take of their unusually honest and candid relationship. When they decide to share their diaries with each other, the boundaries between past and present, fact and fiction, trust and betrayal begin to break down. No life, as it turns out, is an open book.
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Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD
THE FINAL TOAST
FLY BY NIGHT
6m, 2f, 1b | 75 Minutes | Drama, Mystery/Thriller
5m, 2f, Flexible Casting | More than 120 minutes | Romantic Comedy Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock, Contemporary Broadway
by Stuart Kaminsky
conceived by Kim Rosenstock; written by Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick, and Kim Rosenstock
In a witty, imaginative story filled with twists and surprises, Sherlock Holmes unravels a murder only to find himself the unwilling target of the killer-at-large. Along with the aid of his loyal and inquisitive companion, Dr. Watson, Holmes uses his masterful power of deduction to make a nebulous situation seem “simply elementary.” From this Edgar Prize-winning author, The Final Toast is an exciting new take on the classic characters of fiction we know and love, and its ending will please even the most savvy mystery connoisseurs.
A star-crossed prophecy. A lot of music. Just not a lot of light. In this darkly comic rock-fable, a melancholy sandwich maker’s humdrum life is intersected by two entrancing sisters. A sweeping ode to young love set against the backdrop of the northeast blackout of 1965. Fly By Night is a tale about making your way and discovering hope in a world beset by darkness.
FIRST BAPTIST OF IVY GAP
FOOLISH FISHGIRLS AND THE PEARL
6f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
2m, 5f | Full Length Play | Comedy
by Ron Osborne
by Barbara Pease Weber
Three former mermaids, didn’t exactly have the “happily ever after” lives they dreamed of when they rescued their handsome sailors and swam ashore 30 years ago. Now the trio of middle-age former sea goddesses try to convince the young mermaid, Pearl, to learn from their mistakes and hightail it back to the sea. A feisty fairytale about a mermaid’s life on dry land after true love is found, lost and found again.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
FOOLS: A COMIC FABLE
14m, 12f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Romantic Comedy, Adaptation Easy Vocals | Large Orchestra | Classic Broadway,Jazz
7m, 3f | Full Length Play | Comedy
adapted by Abe Burrows; music & lyrics by Robert Goldman, Glenn Paxton, and George Weiss
Mrs. Bennett, rural, prosaic and the mother of five daughters has her gaze on the social whirl of London while her husband and farm languish. The eldest, headstrong Elizabeth has her own ideas on life and love. With her eyes on the “prize” and “a house in town”, Mrs. Bennett sets about bringing stubborn Elizabeth into the social orbit of upscale snob William Darcy, with classic, hilarious results.
FIXING GWEN
by Neil Simon
Leon Tolchinsky has landed a terrific teaching job in an idyllic Russian hamlet. When he arrives he finds people sweeping dust from the stoops back into their houses and people milking upside down to get more cream. The town has been cursed with Chronic Stupidity for 200 years and Leon’s job is to break the curse. No one tells him that if he stays over 24 hours and fails to break the curse, he too becomes stupid. But, he has fallen in love with a girl so stupid that she has only recently learned how to sit down.
FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF
by Sam Bobrick
2m, 2f | 90 minutes | Drama
by Ntozake Shange
Mark and his reluctant 16-year-old son Danny share a Palm Springs motel for several days. They are there for family week at a rehab center where Gwen, Mark’s wife and Danny’s mother is trying to recover from severe alcoholism. While Mark has great hopes for Gwen’s recovery, Danny has none. An emotional and poignant journey, as father and son discover how little they know about one another.
7f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Drama, Experimental
FLAMINGO COURT
THE FORCE OF CHANGE
3m, 2f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Comedy
6m, 1f | Full Length Play | Drama
by Luigi Creatore
by Gary Mitchell
Three short plays all taking place in an apartment building where several retirees live. Angelina starts to fall for her neighbor Dominic. The only problem is her sick husband in the other room. Clara is suffering from memory loss and struggles with the idea of being away from her husband in a nursing home. Harry attempts to celebrate his 89th birthday his way — with a hooker.
Caroline is a detective sergeant in the Royal Ulster Constabulary. She is accustomed to battling the ingrained sexism of her male colleagues, but now she suspects something far worse that they are collaborating with the terrorists they are supposed to defend against.
FORSOOTH, MY LOVELY
THE FLICK
by David Belke
by Annie Baker
4m, 2f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller
3m, 1f | More than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
Winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama! In a run-down theater in central Massachusetts, three underpaid employees mop the floors and attend to one of the last 35mm film projectors in the state. Their tiny battles and not-so-tiny heartbreaks play out in the empty aisles, becoming more gripping than the lackluster, second-run movies on screen. A finely-tuned comedy and heartrending plea for authenticity in a fast-changing world.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
This groundbreaking “choreopoem” is a spellbinding collection of vivid prose and free verse narratives about and performed by black women. Capturing the brutal, tender, and dramatic lives of contemporary black women, it offers a transformative, riveting evening of provocative dance, music, and poetry.
68
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
A film noir comedy/mystery with Shakespeare on the brain. Hard-boiled detective Birnam Wood faces his most difficult case ever as he travels to Italy to unravel a scandal involving a rich merchant’s young daughter. But he soon finds himself drawn into a murder with a cast of characters that includes Scottish witches, starcrossed lovers, a pack of jesters and a strong willed woman people call a shrew. It’s a case of laugh out loud hilarity combined with a puzzling murder mystery with every suspect drawn from the works of Shakespeare.
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69
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
During WWII, six women gather at the church to roll bandages and plan the church’s 75th anniversary, while the men are away fighting. Conflict and false accusation cause conflict in the small group. 25 years later, they reunite for the church’s centennial. With humor and pathos, these six very different women find comfort, forgiveness and redemption in each other.
FROM DOOR TO DOOR
A GIFT OF TIME
3f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
5m, 5f | Full Length Play | Drama
A heartwarming comedy about three generations of American women. Mary, a woman of the “greatest generation” is mourning her husband. Her daughter, Deborah, is encouraging her to move on with a new independence. In a series of scenes between Mary, Deborah, and Bessie, Mary’s mother reflects back on her life as a daughter, wife and mother. A trio of actresses plays the women over the course of 65 years.
An American editor resigns his post and moves to France with his wife and two children to spend his time on writing important books. All too shortly he learns that he is dying of an inoperable cancer, and determines to live every day to the fullest.
by James Sherman
by Garson Kanin, based on the book by Lael T. Wertenbaker
THE GIG
by Douglas J. Cohen
FUNNY MONEY by Ray Cooney
Henry Perkins accidentally picks up the wrong briefcase, and finds it full of money. He rushes home to his wife to book one-way fares to Barcelona. The doorbell rings as they wait for their taxi. The police detective at the door thinks Henry was soliciting in the men’s room of the local pub. Actually, he was sitting in the loo counting the cash. The bell rings again. Another detective arrives thinking Henry is dead. Henry’s inept attempts to extricate himself from this impossible situation lead to increasingly hysterical situations.
Ken Ludwig’s THE GAME’S AFOOT OR HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS 3m, 5f | 120 minutes | Farce, Mystery/Thriller
It is December 1936 and Broadway star William Gillette, admired the world over for his leading role in the play Sherlock Holmes, has invited his fellow cast members to his Connecticut castle for a weekend of revelry. When one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house quickly turn dangerous. Then it’s up to Gillette himself, as he assumes the persona of his beloved Holmes, to track down the killer before the next victim appears.
A used car salesman, a dentist, a real estate agent, a financial advisor, a deli owner and a music teacher get together once a week to play jazz. When one answers an ad and gets a two week gig in the Catskills, they shed their ordinary lives and begin an adventure that reveals truths about friendship, the joy of music and the importance of dreams.
GLORIOUS! THE TRUE STORY OF FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS, THE WORST SINGER IN THE WORLD by Peter Quilter
2m, 4f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Historical
In 1940s New York, the performer everyone wanted to see live was Florence Foster Jenkins, an enthusiastic soprano whose pitch was far from perfect. Known as “the first lady of the sliding scale,” she warbled and screeched her way through the evening to an audience who mostly fell about with laughter. The story of a joyously happy woman who paid little attention to her critics but instead surrounded herself with a circle of devoted friends.
GATES OF GOLD
by Frank McGuinness
GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE by David Greenspan
3m, 2f | Full Length Play | Drama
An acerbic duel between two lovers, the fashionable and eloquent theatrical trailblazers who founded Dublin’s Gate Theatre. A witty and moving and vibrant celebration of art, love, and finally, life itself.
THE GENERAL FROM AMERICA by Richard Nelson
5m, 2f | 75 Minutes | Dramatic Comedy
Passalus, a failed actor from ancient Athens festering in hell, is given the opportunity of redemption by returning to Earth to free a young woman from her domineering mother, a distinguished stage actress. An amusing dramatization of second chances in love – and love that facilitates the soul’s release from hell into life.
11m, 3f | 120 minutes | Drama, Historical
THE GOD GAME
An iconoclastic portrait of America’s quintessential traitor, Benedict Arnold, the military hero who nearly gave his life for the cause of American freedom and ended up disclosing vital information to the British. Revealing some of the Founding Fathers’ less than heroic machinations, this is a unique look into American history
2m, 1f | 90 minutes | Drama
GEORGE A. ROMERO’S NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD LIVE
written by Christopher Bond, Dale Boyer and Trevor Martin; created by Christopher Harrison and Phil Pattison 4m, 2f | 80 minutes | Dark Comedy, Parody, Adaptation
A comedic tribute to the historic 1968 film and the official authorized stage production of the film. The play lovingly examines the film, the period it was made in, and its undying influence on the horror genre. All the iconic moments from the film are hilariously re-visited, along with an entirely new journey for our beloved characters from the farmhouse. Packed with effects, music, and gore, Night of the Living Dead Live skirts the line between horrific and hysterical!
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
70
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
by Suzanne Bradbeer Tom is a Virginia Senator and rising star in the Republican Party. When a long-time family friend resurfaces and offers the opportunity of a lifetime, Tom faces a crisis of conviction while his marriage hangs in the balance. The God Game is a play about faith and politics, marriage and friendship, choices and consequences.
GOD’S HEART by Craig Lucas
3m, 5f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Drama
An African American teenager fights to overcome his family’s cycle of despair and drug dependency,a white advertising executive with a new baby suffers from a deep sense of her own spiritual worthlessness, and a 45-year-old filmmaker, also white, is losing her African American lover to breast cancer. Using newspaper headlines, cyber chat rooms, and online data bases this moving piece gives voice to those who cry out for connection, peace and kindness in the face of unspeakable cruelty and exploitation that erode the heart of American culture.
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71
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
8m, 3f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Classic Broadway, Jazz
6m, 2f | Full Length Play | Farce
GOLDA
GRANDCHILD OF KINGS
7m, 3f, 2b, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Drama
23b or g, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Drama
A dramatization of the extraordinary life of Golda Meir. Focusing on the ten days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the play alternates war scenes with moments in her life: her pogrom-threatened childhood in Russia, growing up in Milwaukee, emigration to Palestine, the heightened hope presented by the dream of a Jewish homeland, and the struggle to make the dream a reality.
Sean O’Casey’s turbulent life unfolds in lyrical excerpts from the first two books of his six volume autobiography. The material is laced with music, singing, and dancing, crowd scenes, plays within the play, and monologues in which the older O’Casey watches early scenes from his life.
by William Gibson
by Harold Prince
A GOOD OLD FASHIONED REDNECK COUNTRY CHRISTMAS by Kris Bauske
GREASE
book, music & lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey
Bill, Dave, and Jimmy have had it with their women! Even though it’s Christmas Eve, and tradition dictates they should be home, drinking hot cocoa and singing carols, the boys decide to high-tail it into the mountains for a little hunting and a lot of beer. What if the three wise men weren’t really all that wise? What if they were just three ordinary guys, avoiding conflicts at home, who happened upon the greatest story ever told?
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Here is Rydell High’s senior class of 1959: duck-tailed, hot-rodding “Burger Palace Boys” and their gumsnapping, hip-shaking “Pink Ladies” in bobby sox and pedal pushers, evoking the look and sound of the 1950s in this rollicking musical. Head “greaser” Danny Zuko and new (good) girl Sandy Dumbrowski try to relive the high romance of their “Summer Nights” as the rest of the gang sings and dances its way through such songs as “Greased Lightnin’,” “It’s Raining on Prom Night,” “Alone at the Drive-In Movie,” recalling the music of Buddy Holly, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley that became the soundtrack of a generation.
A GOOD OLD FASHIONED REDNECK COUNTRY CHRISTMAS, THE MUSICAL by Kris Bauske, additional music contributions by Brent Bauske
A GREAT WILDERNESS by Samuel D. Hunter
A GOOD OLD FASHIONED REDNECK COUNTRY WEDDING by Kris Bauske
6m, 3f | Full Length Play | Comedy
Fans of A Good Old Fashioned Redneck Country Christmas know that Jimmy finally popped the question. Fastforward six weeks later, and as you might expect, things aren’t going so well. The dog ate the cake, Jimmy’s got cold feet, and two strangers from out of town have brought an unexpected element of surprise. Will Jimmy and Darlene make it to the altar? Who are these two strangers? Will Darlene’s cousins stay sober long enough to see her take her vows? The saga continues with the same redneck characters you know and love!
THE GRADUATE
adapted by Terry Johnson, based on the novel by Charles Webb and the motion picture screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry
3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Drama
After decades as the gentle-natured leader of a Christian retreat that endeavors to “cure” gay teens, Walt is packing up and preparing for retirement. But when his final client quietly disappears into the remote Idaho wilderness, Walt discovers that his unwavering moral compass no longer points the way.
GREATER TUNA
by Ed Howard, Joe Sears, and Jaston Williams 2m or f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy
Two (or more) actors play over 20 residents of Tuna, the third smallest town in Texas. From Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie at the helm of Radio OKKK (broadcasting at a big 275 watts when they remember to turn the transmitter on) to Didi Snavely of Didi’s Used Guns to Yippy, the Pet of the Week, Tuna’s citizens parade across the stage in all their outrageous glory, commenting on life, politics, and what makes them (and us) tick.
6m, 5f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Adaptation
Benjamin’s got excellent grades, very proud parents and, since he helped Mrs Robinson with her zipper, a fine future behind him. A cult novel, a classic film, a quintessential hit of the 60s, now Benjamin’s disastrous sexual odyssey is brought vividly to life in this hilarious stage production.
THE GREEN HEART
GRAND CONCOURSE
William discovers that he has run through his entire inheritance. His mistress Uta, gets the idea that he should marry a wealthy woman who will support them both. William latches onto Henrietta, a hopelessly eccentric professor, and heiress to a large fortune. But as he helps free her from the exploitative clutches of her corrupt lawyer McPherson, and sinister housekeeper Mrs. Tragger, he finds himself falling in love with his wife!
by Heidi Schreck
2m, 2f | 90 minutes | Drama
Having dedicated her life to religious service, Shelley runs a Bronx soup kitchen with unsentimental efficiency, but lately her heart’s not quite in it. Her brisk nature masks an unsettling fear that her efforts are meaningless. When Emma — an idealistic but confused college dropout — arrives to volunteer, her reckless mix of generosity and self-involvement pushes Shelley to the breaking point. With keen humor and startling compassion, this touching drama navigates the mystery of faith, the limits of forgiveness, and the pursuit of something resembling joy.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
72
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
book by Charles Busch, music & lyrics by Rusty Magee, based on the short story by Jack Ritchie 2m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
GROUND
by Lisa Dillman 3m, 3f | 105 Minutes | Drama
When Zell Preston inherits her father’s struggling pecan farm and moves back to her childhood home in Fronteras, New Mexico, she finds that the once tight-knit border community has changed radically. A powerful drama examining the human cost of immigration policies, the strength of personal beliefs about family, and home, and civil rights in the face of a shifting political and social landscape.
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73
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
9m, 8f | 120 minutes | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Pop/Rock
6m, 3f | Full Length Play | Comedy
GROUNDED
THE HATMAKER’S WIFE
1f | 75 Minutes | Drama
3m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Romantic Comedy
The story of an fighter pilot whose career in the sky has ended early due to an unexpected pregnancy. Assigned to operate military drones from a trailer outside Las Vegas, she hunts terrorists by day and returns to her family each night. As the pressure to track a high-profile target mounts, the boundaries begin to blur between the desert she lives in and the one she patrols half a world away.
A young woman moves in with her boyfriend expecting domestic bliss, but instead has trouble getting comfortable. Her strange new home seems determined to help out - and soon the walls are talking. They reveal the magical tale of an old hatmaker and his long-suffering wife, who runs away with his favorite hat. This sweet and surreal story bends time and space to redefine the idea of family, home, and true love itself.
THE GULF
HAY FEVER
2f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
4m, 5f | Full Length Play | Comedy
The divide between Kendra and Betty mimics the very world that devours them: a vast and polarizing abyss. On a quiet summer evening down in the Alabama Delta, Kendra and Betty troll the flats looking for red fish. After Betty begins diagnosing Kendra’s dead-end life with career picks from What Color is Your Parachute?, their routine fishing excursion takes a violent turn.
Hoping for a quiet weekend in the country with some guests, David Bliss, a novelist and his wife Judith, a retired actress, find that an impossible dream when their high-spirited children Simon and Sorel appear with guests of their own. A house full of drama waits to be ignited as misunderstandings and tempers flare. With Judith’s new flame and David’s newest literary “inspiration” keeping company as the children follow suit, the Bliss family lives up to its name as the ‘quiet weekend’ comes to an exhausting and hilarious finale.
by George Brant
by Lauren Yee
by Audrey Cefaly
by Noel Coward
by Jane Martin
THE HEALING
1m, 1f | 90 minutes | Drama
by Samuel D. Hunter
After arriving in the City of Angels, an aimless young man catapults to movie stardom and into Hollywood’s sleazy celebrity culture. Banking on his fame and name, he is soon selected to appear on Broadway in Hamlet. Given full casting approval, he embarks to New York City to seek out his Ophelia and encounters his muse and his match —a young evangelical Christian woman set on getting the role…and saving his life.
2m, 5f | 90 minutes | Drama
HANDS ON A HARDBODY
book by Doug Wright, lyrics by Amanda Green, music by Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green 9m, 6f | More than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Pop/Rock, Country/Western, Contemporary Broadway
For ten hard-luck Texans, a new lease on life is so close they can touch it. Under a scorching sun for days on end, armed with nothing but hope, humor, and ambition, they’ll fight to keep at least one hand on a brand-new truck in order to win it. In the hilarious, hard-fought contest only one winner can drive away with the American Dream. Inspired by the true events of the acclaimed 1997 documentary of the same name by S.R. Bindler, produced by Kevin Morris and Bindler.
HAPPY DAYS: A NEW MUSICAL
25 years ago, a group of kids met at a summer camp where the head counselor taught them that their disabilities could be “cured” through the power of prayer. Today, the old friends gather to mourn the untimely passing of one of their circle. Over the night, old wounds are uncovered, friendships tested, and a troubling truth about their late friend becomes clear. The Healing features a cast of mostly differently abled actors.
HEATHERS THE MUSICAL
book, music & lyrics by Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe 8m, 9f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Dark Comedy, Adaptation Difficult Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Pop/Rock, Contemporary Broadway
Veronica Sawyer, a brainy teenage misfit hustles her way into the most powerful and ruthless clique at Westerberg High: The Heathers. Before she can get too comfortable atop the high school food chain, Veronica falls in love with the dangerously sexy new kid, J.D. When Heather Chandler kicks her out of the group, Veronica decides to bite the bullet and kiss Heather’s aerobicized ass…but J.D. has another plan for that bullet.
HENRY, SWEET HENRY
book by Garry Marshall, music & lyrics by Paul Williams
book by Nunnally Johnson, music & lyrics by Bob Merrill, based On The World Of Henry Orient by Nora Johnson
10m, 7f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy, Adaptation Easy Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Pop/Rock
Goodbye gray skies, hello blue! Happy days are here again with Richie, Potsie, Ralph Malph, and the unforgettable Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli. Based on the hit television series, this family-friendly show reintroduces one of America’s best loved families, the Cunninghams, to a whole new generation of kids.
THE HAPPY ONES
by Julie Marie Myatt
8m, 8f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Adaptation Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway
Henry Orient, peripatetic roue and composer of “new music” is a legend in his own mind and skirt-chaser par excellence. Following Henry’s every move are Val and Gil, two smitten teens who unwittingly blow the whistle on Henry and his various amours while chasing him up and down Manhattan.
THE HERD
3m, 1f | 105 Minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Period
by Rory Kinnear
Orange County, California, 1975. For Walter Wells, it’s the happiest place on earth, until fate strikes a devastating blow. He resists attempts of others to help, especially the unexpected, unwanted offer from a Vietnamese refugee named Bao Ngo, who bears his own sadness. Across a cultural divide, Walter and Bao find a game to share, a song, a meal, and then a way back.
4m, 3f | 120 minutes | Drama
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
74
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
Andy, brain-damaged and physically incapacitated from birth, has a mental age of ten months. Carol, his mother, has arranged a small party to celebrate his 21st birthday. Not that he’s counting. But Carol is. Counting the minutes until he arrives, counting the unexpected guests, counting the times that this has happened before.
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75
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
H2O
HIGH SCHOOL REUNION: THE MUSICAL
book & lyrics by Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore; music by Billy Van Zandt, Jane Milmore, and Nick DeGregorio 7m, 10f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy Easy Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
I’M GETTING MY ACT TOGETHER AND TAKING IT ON THE ROAD book & lyrics by Gretchen Cryer, music by Nancy Ford 6m, 4f | Full Length Musical | Drama Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Pop/Rock
A 39-year-old songwriter who is making a comeback, throwing out “the crap of the past” — her commercial sex kitten image — in order to forge a new identity, writing songs that express how she really feels and who she really is. Her manager, a former lover, is appalled. He likes her the way she used to be and says he can’t sell this “new woman.” They battle it out to a bittersweet, triumphant conclusion.
THE HOLY TERROR
IF I WERE YOU
4m, 3f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
3m, 2f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
The play begins as a lecture being delivered by Mark Melon to an English women’s club wherein he recounts how he took over a respected but financially shaky publishing house and ruthlessly streamlined it by firing everyone in sight. The events described then come to life. Melon, who appears at first to be just another ruthless businessman, is actually insane. Losing his job, wife and family, he may have found some shred of his soul.
The Rodales seem like an ordinary family, but beneath the surface things are beginning to crack. Jill and Mal have lost the spark in their marriage. Waking up one morning and finding they have switched personalities, Mal in Jill’s body and Jill in Mal’s. Will seeing things from the other side make matters even worse? Or is this just what they need in order to save their family?
THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES
IF MEMORY SERVES
4m, 6f | Full Length Play | Dark Comedy
4m, 4f | More than 120 minutes | Comedy
Artie Shaugnessy is a songwriter with visions of glory. Toiling by day as a zookeeper, he suffers in seedy lounges by night in Queens, New York where he lives with his wife, Bananas. Artie’s old school chum Billie Einhorn, a successful Hollywood producer, holds the key to Artie’s dreams of getting out of Queens and away from the life he so despises. But like many dreams, this promise of glory evaporates amid the chaos of ordinary lives.
During her classic television series, Diane was America’s sweetheart, everybody’s favorite spunky mom. That was 20 years ago. Now her career is in a slump and her son suddenly remembers some nasty things from his childhood. Or does he? A surprising comedy about memory, mothers, and our maddening culture of complaint.
HOW TO EAT LIKE A CHILD
IMAGINARY FRIENDS
by Alan Ayckbourn
by Simon Gray
by Jonathan Tolins
by John Guare
based on the book by Delia Ephron; book by Delia Ephron, John Forster, and Judith Kahan; music & lyrics by John Forster 30m or f, Flexible Casting | 60 minutes | Comedy Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock
by Nora Ephron, music & lyrics by Marvin Hamlisch and Craig Carnelia 3m, 6f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Dramatic Comedy Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
This musical romp through the joys and sorrows of being a child is hilarious. Children give 23 lessons in subjects like as how to beg for a dog, how to torture your sister, how to act after being sent to your room, and how to laugh hysterically. The pace is fast, the tone subversive, and the recognition instant.
Novelist Mary McCarthy’s notorious statement on the Dick Cavett Show calling playwright Lillian Hellman a liar exploded into one of the most famous of all literary feuds. This surreal farce chronicles a compelling story of two women shaped by their different but equally unsettled childhoods, their looks, and the men in their lives, while it brilliantly examines (to great comic effect) the concept of truth in fiction: Who can you believe?
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME
IN THE NEXT ROOM, OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY
book by Everett Quinton, music by Mark Bennett, lyrics by Everett Quinton and Mark Bennett, based on the book by Victor Hugo 15m or f | Full Length Musical | Comedy, Farce, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway
by Sarah Ruhl
3m, 4f | More than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
This uproarious send up of Victor Hugo’s novel is truly ridiculous — as in the famed Ridiculous Theatrical company where it was a success. Hugo’s tale is enhanced with a hilarious assortment of major and minor characters, some in drag. The score is an eclectic mix of country western, gospel, disco and rhythm and blues.
A comedy about marriage, intimacy, and electricity. Set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used vibrators to treat ‘hysterical’ women (and some men), the play centers on a doctor and his wife and how his new therapy affects their entire household. When a new patient and her husband bring their own complicated relationship into the doctor’s home, the doctor and his wife must examine the nature of their own marriage, and what it truly means to love someone.
HURLYBURLY
IN-LAWS, OUTLAWS, AND OTHER PEOPLE (THAT SHOULD BE SHOT)
4m, 3f | More than 120 minutes | Drama
7m, 8f | 105 Minutes | Farce
The intersecting lives of several low-to-mid-level Hollywood players: casting directors, actors, screenwriters, and their various girlfriends and hangers-on. Fueled by large quantities of drugs, they engage in misogynistic mind games and attempt to find meaning in their empty lives. A black satire of Tinseltown corruption, as characters blindly pursue a sex crazed, drug-addled vision of the American Dream.
The Douglas family is busily preparing for their annual Christmas Eve dinner. After robbing a neighborhood liquor store, high-strung Tony and his dim-witted sidekick Vinny, find themselves in need of a hideout. A comic treasure that is sure to leave your audience in stitches while celebrating the true meaning of Christmas.
by Steve Franco
by David Rabe
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
76
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
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77
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
Welcome to the 30th Reunion of the Class of ‘79. Everyone you ever loved, hated, had a crush on, or wanted to punch in the face will be there. They are just older, fattier and angrier. Old scores will be settled, old games will be replayed and new (or should we say old) love will be found.
INFORMED CONSENT
JASPER IN DEADLAND
2m, 3f | 90 minutes | Drama
5m, 4f, Flexible Casting | More than 120 minutes | Dark Comedy, Fantasy Difficult Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Pop/Rock
by Deborah Zoe Laufer
book by Hunter Foster and Ryan Scott Oliver, music & lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver
Inspired by a recent court case between a Native American tribe and an Arizona university, Informed Consent takes us into the personal and national debate about science versus belief, and whether our DNA is our destiny. With genomic breakthroughs happening at breakneck speed, we can learn more about what our futures may hold than ever before. But how much should we know? And who gets to decide?
INSPECTING CAROL by Daniel Sullivan
When you’re failing classes, kicked off the swim team, and your family is on the skids, life can feel like it’s going to hell. Yet, in all the disappointment, Jasper has his best friend, Agnes. After exploring the possibility of being more than just friends, Jasper wakes in the morning to find Agnes gone and a voicemail telling him to meet her at their cliff. When he arrives there’s no sign of his best friend, only a swirling vortex to another world in the water below. Jasper dives into Deadland.
A Christmas Carol meets The Government Inspector meets Noises Off. A man who asks to audition at a small theater is mistaken for an informer for the National Endowment for the Arts. Everyone caters to the bewildered wannabe actor, and he is given a role in the current production, A Christmas Carol. Everything goes wrong and hilarity is piled upon hilarity. Perfect anytime, this delight is particularly appropriate at Christmas.
IT’S ONLY MURDER by Sam Bobrick
2m, 2f | 90 minutes | Farce, Mystery/Thriller
Jerome Teppel, a recently married, fairly well-off CPA, discovers that among his wife Francine’s monthly purchases was a gun. Shortly after that, Jerome is informed by his neighbor, Lenore Franklin, that his wife and her husband are having a torrid affair. What ensues next is a visit to a private detective, the murder of Anthony with all evidence of his killing pointing to Jerome, several prison breaks and several more murders.
JACK OF DIAMONDS
by Douglas E. Hughes and Marcia Kash
by Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson 4m, 3f | Full Length Play | Comedy, Romantic Comedy
Chris, a gentile, wants to marry a Jewish girl so he’ll never have to make another decision. Adam Lipschitz, a Jew, wants to marry a Jewish girl to please his family, but can’t get a date to save his life. After meeting at a Jewish singles mixer, Adam and Chris form a secret pact. Chris promises that he will help Adam find the Jewish girl of his dreams and show him “Jewtopia,” but only if Adam will help Chris shed his gentile-ness and bring him undercover into the Jewish world.
August Wilson’s JITNEY 8m, 1f | More than 120 minutes | Drama
Set in the early 1970s, this richly textured piece follows a group of men trying to eke out a living by driving unlicensed cabs, or jitneys. When the city threatens to board up the business and the boss’ son returns from prison, tempers flare, potent secrets are revealed and the fragile threads binding these people together may come undone at last.
JOHN BALL’S IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
3m, 4f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Farce
Jack lives in a rather luxurious, privately-owned retirement home along with his fellow residents. Unbeknownst to them, the man to whom they’ve entrusted their life savings — a smooth-talking financial advisor named Barney Effward — has been arrested for bilking his clients out of their savings. Pandemonium ensues as the retirees try to exact their revenge, recoup their losses, and keep the authorities from discovering their plans.
JACK’S HOLIDAY
book by Mark St. Germain, music by Randy Courts, lyrics by Mark St. Germain and Randy Courts
adapted by Matt Pelfrey
8m, 2f | 90 minutes | Drama, Adaptation, Mystery/Thriller, Period
It’s 1962. A hot August night lies heavy over the small town of Argo, Alabama. A dead white man is discovered and the local police arrest a black stranger named Virgil Tibbs. The police discover that their prime suspect is in fact a homicide detective from California. As it happens, Tibbs becomes the racially-tense community’s single hope in solving a brutal murder that is turning up no witnesses, no motives, and no clues.
9m, 5f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Drama, Mystery/Thriller Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
THE JUDAS KISS
The 1921 boast of Police Chief Thomas Byrnes that Jack the Ripper would be captured within thirty six hours in New York City sets off a series of murders and catches a young reporter in the midst of them. Based on the premise that Jack the Ripper actually crossed the ocean, as chronicled in the newspapers of the day, Jack’s Holiday delves into the nature of evil and the responsibility of the press while holding a mirror up to our time.
6m, 1f | More than 120 minutes | Drama, Historical
JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH
JUDGE JACKIE: DISORDER IN THE COURT
by David Hare
adapted for the stage by David Wood, from the book by Roald Dahl 4m, 2f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Comedy, Adaptation, Theatre for Young Audiences
Roald Dahl’s classic tale is faithfully told by James himself and the insect characters – Miss Spider, Old Grasshopper, Centipede, Ladybird, and Earthworm. The play begins at the end of the story, when James and his friends are living in the giant peach stone in Central Park. The epic journey across the Atlantic is acted out with live action, puppetry and theatrical storytelling.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
78
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
A compelling depiction of Oscar Wilde just before and after his imprisonment. Act One captures him in 1895 on the eve of his arrest. In Act Two, Wilde is in Naples more than two years later, after his release from Reading Gaol. In exile, he is drawn to a reunion with his unworthy lover and a final betrayal.
book & lyrics by Christopher Dimond, music by Michael Kooman, based on a concept by Van Kaplan 3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Parody Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway,Pop/Rock, Contemporary Broadway
Judge Jackie Justice rules her reality television courtroom with an iron fist, presiding over a three-ring circus of America’s most chaotic civil cases. But, when a drop in ratings brings her face-to-face with the liability of her own love life, the judge must learn to navigate the ludicrous laws of love in this over-the-top courtroom comedy.
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79
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
JEWTOPIA
8m, 4f | Full Length Play | Comedy
KEEP YOUR PANTHEON
LAST DANCE
11m | Full Length Play | Comedy, Period
2m, 2f | 90 minutes | Comedy
An impoverished acting company on the edge of eviction is offered a lucrative engagement. But through a series of riotous mishaps, the troupe finds its problems have actually multiplied, and that they are about to learn a new meaning for the term “dying on stage.”
An aging poet from the American South who now lives on the coast of France has decided to give up her young lover. Her goddaughter thinks she has actually fallen in love with a local fisherman. The young lover is certain she really wants to marry him. This bittersweet comedy of manners is a tribute to the grandeur of Southern style and a musing on what a smart woman might really want toward the end of her life.
by David Mamet
by Marsha Norman
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN
book by Terrence McNally, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, based on the novel by Manuel Puig
A harrowing tale of persecution made into a dazzling spectacle. Cellmates in a Latin American prison, Valentin is a tough revolutionary undergoing torture and Molina is an unabashed homosexual serving eight years for deviant behavior. Molina shares his fantasies about an actress, Aurora (originated on Broadway by Chita Rivera) with Valentin. One of her roles is a Spider Woman who kills with a kiss.
by Deborah Zoe Laufer
3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Comedy
The Cherry Orchard takes a holiday in the Catskills as the Schwartz family congregates, maybe for the last time, on the one-year anniversary of their father’s death. Nobody seems very clear about what it is to be a family anymore. What is it to be a family? Does anybody care?
THE LAST SMOKER IN AMERICA
book & lyrics by Bill Russell, music by Peter Melnick
THE KITCHEN WITCHES
2m, 2f | 90 minutes | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Pop/Rock
by Caroline Smith
2m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy
Isobel Lomax and Dolly Biddle are two “mature” cable-access cooking show hostesses who have hated each other for 30 years. When circumstances put them together on a TV show called The Kitchen Witches, the insults are flung harder than the food! Dolly’s long-suffering TV-producer son Stephen tries to keep them on track, but as long as Dolly’s dressing room is one inch closer to the set than Isobel’s, it’s a losing battle, and the show becomes a rating smash as Dolly and Isobel top both Martha Stewart and Jerry Springer!
Enter an America where the government is in your kitchen, sniffing for outlawed cigarettes! The extreme anti-smoking laws test the sanity of one suburban family. Pam is having an impossible time trying to quit. Her husband Ernie retreats to the basement to relive the rock star dreams of his youth, while their teenage son Jimmy only turns away from his videogames to explore his gangster rapper persona. This original and hilarious new musical will leave you craving for more!
LATE, A COWBOY SONG
KUDZU: A SOUTHERN MUSICAL
book, music & lyrics by Jack Herrick, Doug Marlette, and Bland Simpson 11m, 3f | Full Length Musical | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Pop/Rock, Country/Western, Contemporary Broadway
The story of a boy who comes of age against the changing face of the American South. Like the comic strip from which it's adapted, this is a celebration of the values, humor, and characters found in rural America.
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
book by Harvey Fierstein, music & lyrics by Jerry Herman, based on the play by Jean Poiret 7m, 3f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Comedy, Romantic Comedy Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Classic Broadway
After 20 years of un-wedded bliss, Georges and Albin get a bit of both when Georges’ son (fathered during a one-night fling) announces his impending marriage to the daughter of a bigoted, right-wing politician. Further complicating the situation is the family business: Albin and Georges run a drag nightclub in St. Tropez, where Albin is the star performer: Zaza. Georges reluctantly agrees to masquerade as “normal” when he meets the family of the bride-to-be. But Albin has other plans, with hilarious results.
by Sarah Ruhl
1m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy
This play is for all the lady cowboys of heart and mind who ride outside the city limits of convention. Mary, always late and always married, meets a lady cowboy outside the city limits of Pittsburgh who teaches her how to ride a horse. Mary’s husband, Crick, buys a painting with the last of their savings. Mary and Crick have a baby, but they can’t decide on the baby’s name, or the baby’s gender. A story of one woman’s education and her search to find true love outside the box.
Ken Ludwig’s LEADING LADIES 5m, 3f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Farce
Two English Shakespearean actors, Jack and Leo, find themselves so down on their luck that they’re performing “Scenes from Shakespeare” on the Moose Lodge circuit. When they hear that an old lady is about to leave her fortune to her two long lost English nephews, they resolve to pass themselves off as her beloved relatives. Trouble is, they find out that the relatives aren’t nephews, but nieces!
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW
created by John Heimbuch and Jon Ferguson 2m, 3f, 7m or f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Drama, Adaptation
THE LADY IN THE VAN by Alan Bennett
9m, 5f | Full Length Play | Comedy
Alan Bennett draws from his memoirs to offer a dramatized account of the genteel vagrant, Miss Shepard, who parked her van in his driveway for fifteen years.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
80
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
In the quaint village of Sleepy Hollow, stories of wonder and strangeness surround the legend of a mighty headless Hessian. When the humble schoolteacher Ichabod Crane vies for the hand of the beautiful Katrina Van Tassel, the townsfolk might protest, but it is ultimately the Horseman who will decide his fate.
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81
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
15m, 3f | More than 120 minutes | Drama, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Large Orchestra | Classic Broadway
THE LAST SCHWARTZ
Ken Ludwig’s LEND ME A TENOR
LOVE AND INFORMATION
4m, 4f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Farce
by Caryl Churchill
September, 1934. Saunders, the general manager of the Cleveland Grand Opera, is primed to welcome worldfamous Tito Morelli, Il Stupendo, to appear for one night only as Otello. The star arrives late and through a hilarious series of mishaps, is given a double dose of tranquilizers. In an attempt to salvage the evening, Saunders persuades Max to get into Morelli’s Otello costume and fool the audience into thinking he’s Il Stupendo. But Morelli comes to and gets into his other costume ready to perform. Now two Otellos are running around in costume and two women are running around in lingerie, each thinking she is with Il Stupendo.
Flexible Casting | 105 Minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Experimental
THE LOVE LIST
LEVELING UP
by Norm Foster
2m, 1f | 120 minutes | Comedy
3m, 1f | 90 minutes | Drama
A story about three twenty-something roommates who are glued to their video games. They are masters of the virtual worlds behind the computer screens in their Las Vegas basement. When one of them uses his gaming skills to land a job with the NSA launching actual drones and missiles, online battles begin to have real consequences. A fresh, contemporary look at how we navigate the blurry line between worlds both virtual and real and what it means to grow up.
In this side-splitting and thought-provoking new comedy, Leon and Bill concoct a list of attributes of the ideal woman — the top ten best qualities in a mate. When this allegedly ‘Ideal Woman’ actually arrives on the scene the men quickly learn that their list could use a few revisions. Be careful what you wish for — especially in choosing a mate. This old adage leads to hilarious results in Foster’s sparkling new comic hit.
LOVE SONGS: A MUSICAL by Steve Cagan
A LIFETIME BURNING
3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Operetta
by Cusi Cram
1m, 3f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
If you had the power to revise your past, what would you change? Who would you be? Trust fund darling Emma imagines what her life would have been like had she come from a less privileged background. Trouble is, she chronicles her alternate life in a new tell-all “memoir,” sold for a hefty advance. When Emma is exposed, will her sister, Tess, stand by her? Or will Emma’s deceit destroy their already fractured relationship?
An expression of hopefulness that we all strive for in this journey called life told through the story of three couples. Jeremy is stuck out of town on a business trip is trying frantically to get back in time for his nuptials. Sarah, who has been engaged to Ben for six years, is weary of his failure to commit to her. Roy and Rose, lovers for many years, just enjoy themselves. Believe in the healing power of love and romance once again.
LOVE, LIES & THE DOCTOR’S DILEMMA
THE LION IN WINTER
by Michael Parker and Susan Parker
by James Goldman
3m, 3f | Full Length Play | Comedy, Farce
5m, 2f | More than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
Sibling rivalry, adultery and dungeons! The Plantagenets are locked in a free-for-all of competing ambitions. The queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, has been kept in prison since raising an army against her husband, Henry II. Let out for holidays, the play centers around the inner conflicts of the family as they fight over the kingdom, during the Christmas of 1183. Every family has its ups and downs and this royal family is no exception.
Joan Scheller lives with the great love of her life, Sandy. In an effort to hide their relationship from her overbearing sister-in-law, the former movie star Olivia St. Claire, she introduces him as her psychiatrist. One little white lie leads to another. Sandy is forced to listen and give misguided advice, which, to everyone’s surprise, seems to work.
LOVE, SEX AND THE I.R.S.
by Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore
LOOT
by Joe Orton
5m, 3f | 120 minutes | Farce
5m, 1f | Full Length Play | Dark Comedy
Dennis works for an undertaker. Hal’s old Mum has just died. They rob the bank next door to the funeral parlor and find just the right place to hide the loot: Mum’s coffin. Now there’s no place for Mum, whose body keeps re-appearing at the most inopportune times. When Inspector Truscott turns up, the already thickened plot goes topsy-turvy.
I Love Lucy meets Some Like it Hot in this classic farce for the modern day. Jon and Leslie are out of work musicians who room together in New York City. To save money, Jon has been filing tax returns listing them as married. The day of reckoning comes when the I.R.S. informs the “couple” they’re going to be audited.
LUCK! A MUSICAL
based on a story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, book & lyrics by Mark Waldrop, music by Brad Ross
LOST IN YONKERS
6m, 6f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy, Fantasy Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway
by Neil Simon
4m, 3f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
By America’s great comic playwright, this memory play is set in Yonkers in 1942. Bella is 35 years old, mentally challenged, and living at home with her mother, stern Grandma Kurnitz. As the play opens, ne’er-do-well son Eddie deposits his two young sons on the old lady’s doorstep. The boys are left to contend with Grandma, with Bella and her secret romance, and with their Uncle Louie, a small-time hoodlum in a strange new world called Yonkers. Winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
82
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
In this fractured folk tale, Singer, Mazel and Shlimazel, the spirits of Good Luck and Bad Luck, make a bet to determine who is the more powerful. The terms: Mazel will take a hapless young man named Tam under her wing for one year, at the end of which Shlimazel will attempt to undo everything she’s done in one second. That’s the point at which Tam and the princess with whom he’s fallen in love have to rely upon their own ingenuity to save the kingdom and keep Tam’s neck out of the hangman’s noose.
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83
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
by Deborah Zoe Laufer
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
Someone sneezes. Someone can’t get a signal. Someone won’t answer the door. Someone put an elephant on the stairs. Someone’s not ready to talk. Someone is her brother’s mother. Someone hates irrational numbers. Someone told the police. Someone got a message from the traffic light. Someone’s never felt like this before. In this fast moving kaleidoscope, more than 100 characters try to make sense of what they know.
LUCKY ME
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE
3m, 1f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Romantic Comedy
6m, 1f | More than 120 minutes | Drama, Adaptation
A whimsical comedy about love, aging, bad luck, and airport security. Sara’s having a bad week. The light bulbs in her apartment keep burning out, there’s a leak in the roof,; the aquarium is full of dead fish, the cat’s gone AWOL, and her father is suspicious of Tom, their new neighbor, As Tom’s attraction to Sara increases, he learns of the bizarre streak of bad luck that’s been haunting Sara for years — 22 years to be precise
Journey to the Wild West in this classic story of good versus evil, law versus the gun, and one man versus Liberty Valance. When a young scholar from New York city travels west in search of a new life he arrives beaten and half-dead on the dusty streets of Twotrees. A local girl gives him purpose in a broken land, but is it enough to save him from the vicious outlaw who wants him dead? He must make the choice: to turn and run or to stand for what he believes, to live or to fight, to become the man who shot Liberty Valance.
by Robert Caisley
by Jethro Compton
LUNCH WITH MRS. BASKIN by Sam Bobrick
MARK TWAIN’S THE DIARIES OF ADAM AND EVE by David Birney
Though she has no intention of buying anything, Mrs. Baskin, a retired widow, sets up appointments with salespeople just to have lunch with them in her home. Two young sales people, Terry, who not very successfully sells garage doors and Kira, who successfully sells solar panels, accidentally meet in Mrs. Baskin’s apartment. Neither have the slightest intention of getting involved in a relationship, but Mrs. Baskin thinks otherwise.
1m, 1f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Adaptation
LUST
A MASTERPIECE OF COMIC... TIMING!
10m, 7f | 105 Minutes | Comedy, Farce, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway, Operetta
3m, 1f | Full Length Play | Comedy, Farce
book, music & lyrics by The Heather Brothers, based on William Wycherley’s The Country Wife
A light-hearted look at the world’s first love story through the eyes of America’s greatest humorist, Mark Twain, Here the Garden of Eden bursts with wit, laughter and the lyric poignancy of the first love and the first loss. A uniquely American theatre piece that is, funny, beautiful, and deeply moving.
by Robert Caisley
This rollicking Restoration revel throws off the shackles of Puritan austerity in a celebration of “the noblest urge bestowed on us.” Ribaldry, romance and drama abound in the hilarious tale of Homer, a notorious London libertine. He charms and seduces his way into the hearts and boudoirs of society ladies, while practicing elaborate deceptions so as to be trusted by the foolish husbands as a eunuch and chaperone to ladies of quality
Theater producer, Jerry Cobb has invested all his money in wunderkind playwright, Nebraska Jones’s next play, which he believes will eclipse his Broadway debut — hailed by critics as a “masterpiece of comic timing.” But Jones is suffering from a severe case of depression. What happens when you’ve paid for the next hit comedy, but what’s coming out of the typewriter is tragedy? In this screwball farce, the line between comedy and drama comes under hilarious scrutiny and is found to be slimmer than you’d think.
LUST ‘N’ RUST: THE TRAILER PARK MUSICAL
THE MATCHMAKER
5m, 4f | 105 Minutes | Dramatic Comedy Easy Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Country/Western
9m, 7f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy, Farce
by Thornton Wilder
by Dave Stratton, Frank Haney, and Carol Kimball
Falling for the waitress who serves your lunch, telling your boss to go to hell, living paycheck to paycheck, while you still can, that’s Lust ‘n Rust, the original trailer park musical. Connie is splitting up with her husband, Duane. Her life is soon complicated by the arrival of a new beau, Steve. He’s moved to town to run the local Agribig food plant and brings with him a change that could have a disastrous impact on the local economy.
Before Hello, Dolly!, Mrs. Levi was known as The Matchmaker. Horace Vandergelder, a wealthy merchant in 19th Century Yonkers, NY, decides to take a wife and employs a matchmaker, Mrs. Dolly Levi. Dolly subsequently becomes involved with two of Vandergelder’s clerks, several lovely ladies, and the headwaiter at an expensive restaurant where this swift farce runs headlong into hilarious complications.
MAYTAG VIRGIN
August Wilson’s MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
by Audrey Cefaly
8m, 2f | More than 120 minutes | Drama, Period
1m, 1f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Romantic Comedy
It’s 1927 in a rundown studio in Chicago. Ma Rainey, the legendary blues singer, is due to arrive with her entourage to cut new sides of old favorites. Waiting for her are her black musician sidemen, the white owner of the record company, and her white manager. More goes down in the session than music in this riveting portrayal of rage, racism, self hate, and exploitation.
Alabama school teacher Lizzy Nash and her new neighbor Jack Key come together over the year following the tragic death of Lizzy’s husband. An exploration of inertia, self-enlightenment, and the bridge between the two.
MELANCHOLY PLAY: A CHAMBER MUSICAL
book & lyrics by Sarah Ruhl, music by Todd Almond
THE MAGIC FINGER
adapted for the stage by David Wood, from the book by Roald Dahl 3m, 2f, 1g, 1b, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Comedy, Adaptation
When Lucy senses injustice, her Magic Finger heats up, and then ANYTHING can happen. When Lucy gets upset with her best friend William and his family for shooting ducks for sport, she points her Magic Finger at them and turns them all into bird-size people, while the ducks become the size of humans. Lucy’s indignation turns the world into a place where the powerless are in charge and the powerful are taught a very big lesson.
3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Experimental Difficult Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway, Folk
Tilly’s melancholy is of an exquisite quality. She turns it into a sexy thing, and every stranger she meets falls in love with her. One day, inexplicably, Tilly becomes happy, and wreaks havoc on the lives of her paramours. Frances, Tilly’s hairdresser, becomes so melancholy that she turns into an almond. Tilly must turn her back.
Also Available:
MELANCHOLY PLAY (A CONTEMPORARY FARCE) by Sarah Ruhl
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
84
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
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85
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy
MERRILY WE DANCE AND SING
book & lyrics by Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore, music by Billy Van Zandt, Jane Milmore, and Ed Alton 11m, 4f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Farce Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway
It’s Gilbert & Sullivan meets the Marx Brothers in this delightful farce. While a smalltown community theater performs an original operetta The Naughty Boy, an escaped serial killer gets loose in the theater — eventually hiding from the local police on the stage — which forces the actors to improvise new plot lines, rewrite dialogue, and take the opportunity to invent their own happy endings.
by Michael Parker and Susan Parker 3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Farce
The late Mr. Hammond spent 20 years printing $20 bills on a printing press he built in the basement of Monet Manor. His faithful retainer George and his daughter Annie, continued the family business for Mr. Hammond’s widow who recently passed away. She has bequeathed the house to a stranger who is emphatic about turning it into a retirement home for ladies. Now, George and Annie must come up with a plan to save Monet Manor.
MONSTER MAKERS
by Will Eno
4m, 1f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway
6m, 6f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
As a friendship develops between longtime resident John Dodge and new arrival Mary Swanson, the lives of the inhabitants of Middletown intersect in strange and poignant ways in a journey that takes them from the local library to outer space and points between.
THE MIRACLE WORKER by William Gibson
A musical triple-feature inspired by monstrously true, behind-the-scenes tales. In 1920s Germany, director F.W. Murnau fears he may lose a lawsuit brought by the estate of Bram Stoker. In 1930s Hollywood, make-up man Jack Pierce works carefully to create the defining look for Frankenstein’s monster. In 1970s England, actor Peter Cushing hopes to finish the final sequels to Frankenstein and Dracula before outside forces threaten to get in the way. Sometimes real life can be even more frightening than the movies!
A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN
7m, 7f | Full Length Play | Drama, Docudrama/Historic
This theatre classic tells the story of Annie Sullivan and her blind and mute student, Helen Keller, dramatizing the volatile relationship between the lonely teacher and her charge. Trapped in a secret, silent world, unable to communicate, Helen is violent, spoiled, almost sub-human, and treated by her family as such. Only Annie realizes that there is a mind and spirit waiting to be rescued
THE MNEMONIST OF DUTCHESS COUNTY by Josh Koenigsberg
4m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Romantic Comedy,
Meet Milo Mazowski, a campus security guard whose determination to woo a lovely local bar owner is only hampered by one thing: his unlimited memory that makes him spout out pretty much every unromantic thing he’s ever heard in his life. A bittersweet comedy about learning how to forget.
MOM’S GIFT by Phil Olson
2m, 4f | 105 Minutes | Comedy, Romantic Comedy
Mom has been dead for 11 months and shows up at her husband’s birthday party as a ghost with a mission. Like It’s A Wonderful Life, she has to accomplish a task to earn her wings. What the task actually is, is a mystery. One by one the family’s secrets are peeled away revealing a shocking truth that surprises even our ghost.
THE MOMOLOGUES
by Lisa Rafferty, Stefanie Cloutier, and Sheila Eppolito 4f | 90 minutes | Comedy
This original comedy about motherhood rips away the gauzy mask of bliss to reveal what all mothers know: Motherhood is overwhelming and exhausting, but also very, very funny. From the joys of infertility, through reading the same books over and over, to finally seeing your baby get on that school bus, this play mines the laughs and tears of the early years of motherhood. Four separate characters tell their stories, either directly to the audience in monologues, or in scenes. A hysterical tribute to “the toughest job you’ll ever love.” The first in series of plays that also includes MOMologues 2: Off to School, and MOMologues 3: The Final Push.
86
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
by Eugene O’Neill
4m, 1f | More than 120 minutes | Drama
James ‘Jamie’ Tyrone, Jr., has come to the home of his tenant farmer, Mike Hogan, a salty Irish geezer. There he encounters Hogan’s voluptuous, amazon-like daughter, Josie. During one moonlit night, as the lovestruck Josie seems to claim him as her own, the truculent, drunken Jamie drowns in a wave of self-pity and remorse. When dawn comes, the moon is gone and so is the man, leaving Josie with a new challenge to her dauntless spirit.
Ken Ludwig’s MOON OVER BUFFALO 4m, 4f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Farce
George and Charlotte Hay, fading stars of the 1950s, are working in Buffalo, NY in a rep with five actors. On the brink of a disastrous split-up, they receive word that they might just have one last shot at stardom: Frank Capra is coming to town to see their matinée, and if likes what he sees, he might cast them in his movie remake of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Unfortunately for George and Charlotte, everything that can go wrong does.
MORCAMBE
by Tim Whitnall 1m | Monologues | Dramatic Comedy, Biography
More than just a monologue, Morecambe forms a hilarious and emotional evocation of a perennial national treasure. Taking its audience back to 1984, the plays joins the much-loved British comedian for the penultimate stop on his heavenward journey, reminiscing before dancing off into immortality.
THE MOST DESERVING
by Catherine Trieschmann 3m, 3f | 90 minutes | Comedy
A small town arts council has $20,000 to award to a local artist with an “under-represented American voice.” Should they choose the teacher/painter of modest talent or the self-taught artist who creates religious figures out of trash? A comedy that explores how gossip, politics, and opinions of art can decide who is the most deserving.
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87
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
by Stephen Dolginoff
MIDDLETOWN
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
MONEY MATTERS
THE MOUSETRAP
THE MUSICAL OF MUSICALS: THE MUSICAL!
5m, 3f | Full Length Play | Melodrama, Mystery/Thriller
2m, 2f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Comedy, Parody Difficult Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway
by Agatha Christie
music by Eric Rockwell, lyrics by Joanne Bogart, book by Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart
The famous classic mystery from the Queen of Crime! A group of strangers is stranded in a boarding house, with a murderer. The suspects include the newly married couple who run the house, a spinster with a curious background, an architect who seems better equipped to be a chef, a retired Army major, a strange little man, and a judge who makes life miserable for everyone. Into their midst comes a policeman who digs into the background of everyone present, and rattles a lot of skeletons.
One story becomes five delightfully, different musicals. June can’t pay the rent and is threatened by her landlord. The story is told via a Rodgers & Hammerstein epic set in Kansas, complete with dream ballet; the landlord as a tortured genius who slashes the throats of his tenants a la Sondheim; a splashy Jerry Herman star vehicle; an Andrew Lloyd Webber rock opera; and a Kander & Ebb version, set in a speakeasy.
MY BIG GAY ITALIAN FUNERAL
12m, 3f | Full Length Play | Comedy
7m, 7f | 120 minutes | Comedy
by Brian Friel
by Anthony J. Wilkinson
Ireland has a new leader and a cabinet minister presents a scheme for prosperity. Offer the bogs and unproductive areas to sentimental Irishmen abroad as a final resting place. The scheme gains momentum and infighting begins as it becomes apparent, the leader ends up as the only one who’ll profit from the scheme.
After Anthony’s father passes away, old family members are reunited after not having been on the best of terms. Hilarity ensues as characters meet for the first time in over a decade. A sequel to My Big Gay Italian Wedding, featuring many of the same characters.
MURDER AT CAFE NOIR
MY BIG GAY ITALIAN MID-LIFE CRISIS
4m, 3f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller
4m, 3f | 120 minutes | Comedy
Private Eye, Rick Archer, is out to find a curvaceous runaway on the island of Mustique, a place stuck in a blackand-white era. The owner of Cafe Noir has washed ashore, murdered. Now Rick needs to employ his hardboiled talents to find the killer. Was it the French madam, the voodoo priestess, the shyster British attorney, the black marketeer, or the femme fatale? The audience gets to vote twice on what they want Rick to do next.
The latest in the My Big Gay series. Anthony Pinnunziato is approaching his 40s and is faced with the challenges of balancing his now very successful company with past and present relationships. Fun characters come together to join him on his journey in this laugh out loud interactive fiasco comedy of errors.
by Anthony J. Wilkinson
by David Landau, music & lyrics by Nikki Stern
MY BIG GAY ITALIAN WEDDING by Anthony J. Wilkinson
MURDER INN
by Howard Voland and Keith McGregor
8m, 5f | 120 minutes | Comedy
4m, 8f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller
This delightful comedy features a cast of zany characters, a Ouija board of doubtful veracity, and a satisfying body count. A group of tourists is forced to make an unscheduled stop at the Barnsley Inn. What looks to be an unpleasant detour soon turns into a night of mayhem and madness. As the storm build, the body count rises, and the survivors try to figure out who done it. And more importantly, who’s likely to have it done to them next?
MY DEAH
by John Epperson
MURDER, MARGARET AND ME
2m, 6f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Comedy, Parody
by Philip Meeks
3f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy, Mystery/Thriller
Agatha Christie didn’t want Margaret Rutherford to bring her fabled spinster to life. Rutherford herself was mortified at the prospect of sullying her reputation with something as sordid as murder. This is the story of why the acting legend didn’t want to take on the role that made her celebrated across the world. Margaret and Agatha form an unlikely friendship, and Agatha turns detective to unearth Rutherford’s tragic secret.
In this outlandish re-working of Euripides’ Medea, Gator Hedgepeth, plans to abandon his wife My Deah — an ex-beauty queen from Louisiana — and marry Simplicity Bullard, the daughter of the corrupt Mississippi governor. Will My Deah and her bridge club friends be able to exact bloody revenge but avoid a tragic outcome?
MY FIRST TIME
by Ken Davenport
MURDER ON THE NILE
2m, 2f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Comedy, Docudrama/Historic
by Agatha Christie
8m, 5f | More than 120 minutes | Drama, Mystery/Thriller
Kay Ridgeway has led a charmed life. Blessed with beauty, enormous wealth, and a new husband, she embarks on a honeymoon voyage down the Nile. Fatal circumstances await when the idyllic surroundings are shattered by a shocking and brutal murder. Under scrutiny is a multitude of memorable passengers, all with a reason to kill. The tension and claustrophobia builds, as a shocking and audacious conspiracy is laid bare.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
Andrew and Anthony are getting married! In this hilarious fiasco, everyone wants to help and everyone wants to get their way. From a saboteur ex-boyfriend to a loud, opinionated Italian mother, personalities and cultures collide in a music and dance-filled extravaganza.
88
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
Hysterical and heartbreaking stories about first sexual experiences written by real people. In 1998, a decade before blogging began, a website was created that allowed people to anonymously share their own true stories about their First Times. The website became an instant phenomenon as over 40,000 stories poured in from around the globe. Now, these true stories and all of the unique characters in them are brought to life by four actors in a bare-it-all, hilarious play.
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89
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
THE MUNDY SCHEME
MY WONDERFUL DAY
A NICE FAMILY CHRISTMAS
2m, 3f, 1g | 90 minutes | Comedy
3m, 4f | Full Length Play | Comedy
Winnie is nearly nine. Her mum, Laverne, is second-generation Afro-Caribbean and heavily pregnant but continues with her cleaning job since her husband left. Not well enough to go to school, Winnie accompanies her mum and settles down to her homework: an essay entitled “My Wonderful Day.” Throughout the course of the next few hours, Winnie will amass plenty of material for her essay as a variety of adults parade before her.
It’s Christmas Eve, and a young reporter has been assigned a last-chance story about a typical family Christmas: His. He goes home to his recently widowed mother, his crazy uncle, his eccentric grandmother, and his battling siblings, who provide no shortage of material. When they learn he’s writing an article with some very personal family information, the fruitcake hits the fan. Will the magic of Christmas bring this family back together?
by Alan Ayckbourn
by Phil Olson
THE MYSTERY OF MIZ ARNETTE
by Alan Bailey and Ronnie Claire Edwards
A NICE FAMILY GATHERING by Phil Olson
The Oklahoma Dust Bowl. The time is 1934, a time when Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd along with their gangs roamed the territory. Out of the desolate nowhere arrives Miz Arnette to rent a room at the Landers’ farm. Desperate for the additional income, young Floy Kate strikes a deal and takes in the intriguing stranger that will forever change her life.
4m, 3f | Full Length Play | Comedy
NANA’S NAUGHTY KNICKERS by Katherine DiSavino
It’s Thanksgiving Day and the first family gathering at the Lundeen household since Dad died. At the gathering, Dad comes back as a ghost with a mission; to tell his wife he loved her, something he neglected to tell her while he was alive. After all, they were only married for 41 years. And things get complicated when Mom’s date arrives for dinner.
THE NIGHT HANK WILLIAMS DIED
3m, 5f, 1m or f | 90 minutes | Comedy, Farce, Romantic Comedy
by Larry L. King
Bridget and her nana are about to be roommates. What Bridget saw as fun opportunity to stay with her grandmother for the summer quickly turns into an experience she’ll never forget. It seems her sweet Grandma is running an illegal boutique from her apartment, selling hand-made naughty knickers to every senior citizen in the area! Will Bridget be able to handle all the excitement? Will her nana get arrested — or worse — evicted?
4m, 2f | More than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
NATIVE SON
by Nambi E. Kelley, adapted from the novel by Richard Wright
Thurmond Stottle pumps gas in a tiny West Texas town and dreams of making it as a country singer like his hero, the late Hank Williams. He whiles away his free time in Gus Gilbert’s bar and waits for the right moment to take off for Nashville. The moment arrives with Nellie, his ex-sweetheart returns home because her marriage is breaking up. Together they devise a plan to leave town, if only they can get money out of Gus.
A NIGHT IN PROVENCE
5m, 4f | 90 minutes | Drama, Adaptation
by Robin Hawdon
Suffocating in rat-infested poverty on the South Side of Chicago in the 1930s, 20-year-old Bigger Thomas struggles to find a place for himself in a world whose prejudice has shut him out. After taking a job in a wealthy white man’s house, Bigger unwittingly unleashes a series of events that violently and irrevocably seal his fate.
3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Comedy
NEIL SIMON’S MUSICAL FOOLS
book & lyrics by Neil Simon, music & lyrics by Ron West and Phil Swann, based on Fools by Neil Simon 7m, 7f | Full Length Musical | Comedy, Period Easy Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
1893. After a harrowing journey, Leon Tolinchinsky arrives in Kulyenchikov, Ukraine to tutor Sophia Zubritsky, age 19. Her parents inform him the village is cursed, rendering every resident as dumb as a bag of rocks. Leon must educate Sophia in 24 hours or fall victim to the curse himself. Teaching her or anyone else about anything is just about impossible. To complicate matters, Leon and Sophia fall in love, infuriating Count Gregor, her longtime suitor. But Leon will risk everything to break the curse and rescue the village.
A NEW BRAIN
Ah, Provence! The French Riviera. Where the well-to-do rent luxury villas for exorbitant sums in order to get their annual fix of sun, sea, and haute cuisine. Imagine the crisis if one such sumptuous place was doublebooked. Or worse, imagine it triple-booked! By a French couple, an English couple, an Irish/American couple. Add copious champagne, heightened sexual impulses, and ingrained cultural differences, and the European Union could well implode! Few comedies threaten international relations on this scale.
NINE
book by Arthur Kopit, music & lyrics by Maury Yeston, adapted from the Italian by Mario Fratti, based on Fellini’s 81/2 1m, 22f, 4b, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Drama, Biography Difficult Vocals | Large Orchestra | Classic Broadway
The story of celebrated film director Guido Contini and his attempts to come up with a plot for his next film as he is pursued by hordes of beautiful women, all clamoring to be loved by him and him alone. Flashbacks reveal the substance of his life that will become the material for his next film: a musical version of the Casanova story.
music & lyrics by William Finn, book by William Finn and James Lapine
NO EXIT
6m, 4f | 105 Minutes | Drama Difficult Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway, Contemporary Broadway
by Jean-Paul Sartre, adapted from the French by Paul Bowles 2m, 2f | 75 Minutes | Drama, Experimental
Gordon collapses into his lunch and awakes in the hospital surrounded by his maritime-enthusiast lover, his mother, a co-worker, the doctor and the nurses. Reluctantly, he had been composing a song for a children’s television show that features a frog, Mr. Bungee. The specter of this large green character and the unfinished work haunts him throughout his medical ordeal.
Two women and one man are locked up together for eternity in one hideous room in hell. The windows are bricked up; there are no mirrors; the electric lights can never be turned off; and there is no exit. Here torture is the soul being stripped of its pretenses by the cruel curiosity of the damned. Here the soul is shorn of secrecy, and even the blackest deeds are mercilessly exposed to the fierce light of hell.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
90
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
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91
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
2m, 3f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
NO SEX PLEASE, WE’RE BRITISH
THE NOVELIST
7m, 3f | Full Length Play | Farce
3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
A young bride who lives above a bank with her husband, innocently sends a mail order request for some Scandinavian glassware. What comes is Scandinavian pornography. What’s to be done with the veritable floods of pornography, photographs, books, films, and eventually girls that threaten to engulf this happy couple?
Formerly titled, The Butterfly Collection. A family of artists are both cruelly destructive and fiercely protective of each other. Paul, a Nobel winning novelist suffering from writer’s block, his elegant but feisty wife, two sons: an actor and an antique dealer, and the actor’s girlfriend are together for the first time in ages. Enter Paul’s new assistant, a talented and passionate writing student. Bitter, funny chaos ensues.
by Anthony Marriott and Alistair Foot
by Theresa Rebeck
NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY by Douglas J. Cohen
NUNSENSE
This theatrically-charged musical comedy thriller about a publicity crazed actor turned killer and the endearing detective who pursues him is based on the best selling novel that became a renowned movie. A devilish blend of humor, romance and murder as the killer adopts a myriad of disguises including a tango instructor, French waiter, female barfly and priest.
NOIR POINTBLANK
by Dan Goggin 5f | Full Length Musical | Comedy Easy Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Classic Broadway
The Little Sisters of Hoboken discover that their cook, Sister Julia, Child of God, has accidentally poisoned 52 of their fellow sisters and they are in dire need of funds for the burials. What better way to raise money then to put on a variety show? Featuring star turns, tap and ballet dancing, an audience quiz, and comic surprises. Nunsense is an international phenomenon with over 5,000 productions worldwide!
Also available:
by David Landau, music & lyrics by Nikki Stern 4m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 75 Minutes | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller
“Just Plain” Rick has hired a singer and opened a photo display of “300 years of shady business” at his cafe to increase business. To this comes an American detective looking for a murderess but stumbling across a gangster on the lam, a beautiful French historian and a British lawyer with a desire to go night diving. When the murderess ends up dead and the cop is implicated in the murder, Rick must get him out of the jam by finding the real killer. It’s a true 1940s American mystery with the perfect mix of action, intrigue, humor, and romance. The third in the ‘Cafe Noir’ series.
NOIR SUSPICIONS
by David Landau, music & lyrics by Nikki Stern 4m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 75 Minutes | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller
In this sequel to the ever-popular Murder at Cafe Noir, ex-private eye Rick Archer is now the confused manager of Cafe Noir on the island of Mustique. He is confronted with a corpse on the dock, a mysterious femme fatale, a French blackmailer and a businessman who wants both the cafe and the woman.
NUNSENSE A-MEN! (5m) NUNSENSE: THE MEGA-MUSICAL VERSION (2m, 9f, 5m or f) by Dan Goggin
A NUTTY NUTCRACKER CHRISTMAS by Ralph Covert and G. Rile Mills
5m, 6f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Comedy Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Pop/Rock
The classic E.T.A. Hoffman tale has been brought into the Xbox age in this rockin’ holiday treat . A fun, fresh holiday spectacular for the entire family. This rockin’ contemporary adaptation follows Fritz and the Nutcracker through Christmas Wood. When trouble arises with the dastardly Mouse King, Fritz and Nutcracker must save the day, and young Fritz will learn there’s more to life than just boys playing video games!
NYMPH ERRANT
NOISES OFF
book by Steve Mackes and Michael Whaley, music & lyrics by Cole Porter, based on the novel by James Laver
5m, 4f | More than 120 minutes | Farce
1m, 6f | Full Length Musical | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
This smash, and oft-revived, Broadway and West End hit sets the standard for the modern farce. A manic menagerie of itinerant actors attempt to rehearse and then perform a flop of a classic British farce called Nothing’s On. Doors slamming, on and offstage intrigue, and an errant herring all figure in the plot of this hilarious and classically comic play.
Cole Porter’s famous “lost musical” follows innocent Evangeline Edwards as she bids farewell to a Swiss finishing school and sets off across Europe, looking for love and adventure. She gets into one scrape after another and is “rescued” by a series of unsuitable men: a French producer, Russian musician, Austrian nudist, Italian count, Greek magnate, Turkish Pasha, and a eunuch.
NOT ABOUT NIGHTINGALES
Edward Albee’s OCCUPANT
by Michael Frayn
by Tennessee Williams
1m, 1f | 75 Minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Biography
9m, 3f | Full Length Play | Drama, Historical
An early work by the revered playwright. This is a raw, sprawling dramatization of real events at a Philadelphia prison in 1937. Convicts who led a hunger strike to protest conditions were locked in a scalding cell where four of them died. The sympathetic treatment of African Americans and homosexuals was revolutionary for the time of the premiere and may explain why the play remained unproduced for 60 years.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
92
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
The public accomplishments and private conflicts of flamboyant sculptor Louise Nevelson are thoroughly examined by an unnamed interviewer who questions the posthumous artist with unabashed scrutiny. From her unique vantage point beyond the grave, Nevelson answers queries with a clarity born of the distance provided by death. A touching, humorous, and honest tribute to a woman who was a pioneer for free-thinking females everywhere.
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93
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
2m, 2f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Adaptation, Mystery/Thriller Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway,Jazz
THE ODD COUPLE
OLIVE AND THE BITTER HERBS
6m, 2f | Full Length Play | Comedy
3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy
This classic comedy opens as a group of the guys assemble for cards in the apartment of divorced slob Oscar Madison. Late to arrive is Felix Unger, who has just been separated from his wife. Fastidious, depressed, and none too tense, Felix seems suicidal. As the action unfolds, Oscar becomes the one with murder on his mind when the clean-freak and the slob ultimately decide to room together with hilarious results.
Olive Fisher is an elderly actress whose claim to fame were the iconic “Gimme the Sausage” commercials of the 1980s. She is a classic New York curmudgeon, at war with the world. Her closed-off life is shaken by the appearance of a spectral figure in her living room mirror. A series of strange coincidences reveal that the figure in the mirror has links to everyone in Olive’s world, and encourages her to change her life.
THE ODD COUPLE (FEMALE VERSION)
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST
2m, 6f | Full Length Play | Comedy
13m, 4f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy, Adaptation
Unger and Madison are at it again! Florence Unger and Olive Madison, that is, in Neil Simon’s hilarious contemporary comic classic: the female version of The Odd Couple. Instead of the poker party that begins the original version, Ms. Madison has invited the girls over for an evening of Trivial Pursuit. The Pidgeon sisters have been replaced by the two Constanzuela brothers. But the hilarity remains the same.
A charming rogue contrives to serve a short sentence in an airy mental institution rather than in prison. This, he learns, was a mistake. He constantly clashes with the head nurse, a fierce martinet, while leading his fellow patients out of their introverted stupors. As his offenses pile up, the nurse resorts to increasingly more violent punishments and is ultimately forced to a final, disturbingly permanent solution.
OEDIPUS FOR KIDS!
ONE SHOE OFF
by Neil Simon
by Charles Busch
by Neil Simon
by Dale Wasserman
by Tina Howe
3m, 2f | 105 Minutes | Comedy
2m, 1f | 120 minutes | Dark Comedy, Adaptation, Parody Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock
Join Oedipus as he takes a journey across ancient Greece to become king! You’ll learn about blind people, familial love, and communicable diseases! In their latest production, the Fuzzy Duck Theatre Company, is tackling Sophocles! Things aren’t going well. What was once a misguided — albeit educational — play for kids swiftly spirals into a Charybdis-like whirlpool of suck.
Leonard is an actor who hasn’t worked in 11 years, Dinah is an overworked costume designer who can’t dress herself for dinner. When an old friend drops in for dinner, memories stir and passions kindle as vegetables and Dinah’s costumes fly. In Howe’s signature style, this story of marriage and adulterous longing becomes a comedy of existential proportions.
OOHRAH!
by Bekah Brunstetter
OH! MY GIDDY AUNT OR HIMALAYAN MADNESS
4m, 3f | 105 Minutes | Dramatic Comedy
music & lyrics by Mildred Kayden, musical book adaptation by Michael Patrick Moran and Mildred Kayden, based on the farce My Giddy Aunt by Pat Cooney and John Chapman 5m, 2f | Full Length Musical | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway
Hilarity and music, two murders, and a seance denouement brighten this lively adaptation of the classic comedy thriller. The aristocratic, daffy mistress of a tea plantation in British India is plagued by wacky nephews who scheme to inherit the estate by various means: having her committed to an institution or doing her in with a poisonous spider. When an investigator arrives with a psychic, comedy reigns while the nephews are unmasked.
Ron is back from his final tour in Iraq, and his wife Sara is excited to restart their life together. When a young marine visits the family, life is turned upside down. A disarmingly funny and candid drama that 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.
OUR TOWN
by Thornton Wilder 17m, 7f | More than 120 minutes | Drama
3m, 4f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
Described by Edward Albee as “the greatest American play ever written,” the story follows the small town of Grover’s Corners through three acts: “Daily Life,” “Love and Marriage,” and “Death and Eternity.” Narrated by a Stage Manager and performed with minimal props and sets, audiences follow the Webb and Gibbs families through first love, marriage, and death.
A drawing room comedy that spans the 19th and 20th centuries and introduces the exotic inhabitants of an old Manhattan mansion. The family of a wealthy robber baron, their descendants, and assorted eccentric characters in their midst mingle in a contrast of old money and new.
OUT OF THE CITY
OLD MONEY
by Wendy Wasserstein
by Leslie Ayvazian
2m, 2f | 90 minutes | Comedy
THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD
When Carol & Matt and Jill & Dan pay a visit to a B&B upstate to celebrate Carol’s 60th birthday, the two wives share an unexpected kiss. A fast-moving farcical comedy that explores how a simple gesture can take on profound meaning for people who take everything for granted.
by David Mamet
3m, 2f | Full Length Play | Drama
In these three short plays, middle-aged Bobby Gould returns to the old neighborhood in a series of encounters with his past that, however briefly, open windows on his present: Bobby and an old buddy fantasize about finding themselves in a nostalgic shtetl paradise; Bobby’s sister Jolly unscrolls a list of childhood grievances that is at once painful and hilarious; and old girlfriend Deeny finds herself obsessively free-associating on gardening, sex, and subatomic particles.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
94
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95
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
book by Gil Varod and Kimberly Patterson, lyrics by Gil Varod, music & additional material by Robert J. Saferstein
PAINT!
PERFECT HARMONY
3m, 4f, Flexible Casting | 60 minutes | Comedy, Biography Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway
5m, 5f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Pop/Rock
This colorful, comedic tale, complete with a singing fish puppet and a dancing cow, paints the story of a young Marc Chagal. How Marc dreams of painting! But Papa wants Marc to be a fishmonger, and Mama imagines her son as their Russian village’s noble photographer. When Marc gets a magic paintbrush, he’s able to bring new color to his village and in doing so be true to both his art and his family.
A musical comedy about the greatest a cappella group in high school history, the Acafellas. It’s also about their classmates and female counterpart, perennial runners up, the Ladies in Red. Through song and story, these students grapple with the weighty issues of truth, love, and what constitutes appropriate choreography for Nationals. As the story unfolds, they learn the true nature of harmony.
PASSION PLAY
PHANTOM
book & lyrics by Robin Seidman, music by Spencer Stephens
by Andrew Grosso and The Essentials
by Sarah Ruhl
A community of players rehearses its annual Easter Passion play in three different eras: 1575 England, just before Queen Elizabeth outlaws the ritual; 1934 Oberammergau, Bavaria, as Hitler rises to power; and Spearfish, South Dakota, from the time of Vietnam through the Reagan Era. At each time, the players grapple with the transformative nature of art, while politics are never far in the background.
PECCADILLO
by Garson Kanin
book by Arthur Kopit, music & lyrics by Maury Yeston, based on the novel The Phantom Of The Opera by Gaston Leroux 30m, 7f | Full Length Musical | Drama, Mystery/Thriller Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Operetta
This mesmerizing drama is traditional musical theatre in the finest sense. A mysterious figure haunts the shadows of the Paris Opera House and obsesses over the company’s young ingénue. Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera is transformed into a powerful stage epic with richly developed characters, beautiful songs, and an expertly crafted book.
August Wilson’s THE PIANO LESSON
4m, 2f | Full Length Play | Comedy
Maestro Vito De Angelis, an egomaniacal but charming conductor, is under contract to deliver his autobiography. The publisher has paid a huge advance and Vito has just fired his fifth ghost writer. The publisher sends pretty Iris Peabody, knowing that Vito is a sucker for the ladies. The stratagem works, a fact that distresses his wife, former opera star Rachel Garland. She hires a handsome young ghost writer to write her autobiography: Mrs. Maestro.
THE PENITENT
by David Mamet
5m, 3f | More than 120 minutes | Drama, Period
It’s 1936 and Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh from the South. He wants to sell an old piano that has been in his family for generations, but he shares ownership with his sister. She has rejected several offers because the antique piano is covered with incredible carvings detailing the family’s rise from slavery. Boy Willie tries to persuade his stubborn sister that the past is past, but she is more formidable than he anticipated.
PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE
3m, 1f | 90 minutes | Drama
by Steve Martin
A renowned psychologist, Charles, is asked to testify on behalf of one of his former patients who has committed a shooting. At first he is hesitant, and as his lawyer and his wife begin to tell him how he should handle the situation, Charles clings more fervently to his morals and his ethics. However, the tighter he clings the more his reputation and career hang in the balance, especially as truths are revealed about his relationship to his patient.
7m, 2f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Comedy
THE PEOPLE VS. MONA
book by Patricia Miller and Jim Wann, music & lyrics by Jim Wann
An absurdist comedy that places Einstein and Picasso in a Parisian cafe in 1904, just before the renowned scientist transformed physics with his theory of relativity and the celebrated painter set the art world afire with cubism. Bystanders, including Picasso’s agent, the bartender and his mistress, Picasso’s date, an elderly philosopher, and an idiot inventor introduce additional flourishes of humor. The final surprise patron to join the merriment is a charismatic dark-haired singer who visits from a later era.
3m, 4f, 3m or f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock, Country/Western
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
Mona Mae Katt, owns the Frog Pad, the long-time musical heart of Tippo, Georgia. She is accused of killing C.C. Katt, her husband of ten hours. Defending her is Jim Summerford, a Southern gentleman and Mayoral candidate Mavis Frye, his fiancée. Jim becomes attracted to her, and Mavis ups the stakes: she wants to convict Mona, marry Jim, and tear down the Frog Pad to put up a casino.
3m, 1f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Drama
PERFECT ARRANGEMENT by Topher Payne
by Oscar Wilde, adapted for the stage by Merlin Holland and John O’Connor Set in the decadent world of Victorian London, a beautiful young man named Dorian Gray becomes infatuated by the exquisite portrait that has been painted of him. He makes a Faustian pact that he will remain forever young while the picture grows old. From Oscar Wilde’s scandalous novel comes this exploration of youth and decay, innocence and corruption, obsession, and madness.
PICTURE OURSELVES IN LATVIA
3m, 4f | 120 minutes | Comedy
by Ross Howard
It’s 1950 and two State Department employees, Bob and Norma, have been tasked with identifying sexual deviants within their ranks. There’s just one problem: both are gay, and have married each other’s partners as a cover. Inspired by the earliest stirrings of the American gay rights movement, madcap classic sitcom-style laughs give way to provocative drama as two couples are forced to stare down the closet door.
4m, 2f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
96
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
Desires are suppressed and aspirations thwarted for the staff and patients of a British psychiatric ward. Orderly Oliver pines for Margaret Thatcher. Dr. Rupert wants Nurse Whitehall. But Dr Rupert and his wife are trying for a baby and Nurse Whitehall has just returned from maternity leave. As for the patients, Duncan secretly loves Anna who secretly loves Martin who loves no one.
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97
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
8m, 3f | More than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Historical, Experimental
A PIECE OF MY HEART
THE POORLY-WRITTEN PLAY FESTIVAL
1m, 6f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Drama, Historical
3m, 3f | 40 minutes | Comedy
A true drama of six women who went to Vietnam: five nurses and a country western singer booked by an unscrupulous agent to entertain the troops. The play portrays each young woman before, during, and after her tour in the war-torn nation and ends as each leaves a personal token at the memorial wall in Washington.
Five members of a play selection committee have gathered in the green room to choose the plays for their Festival of Poorly-Written Plays. The committee enacts every broken rule of playwriting in the course of their wrangling over their selections of bad plays. This “actors nightmare” for playwrights is guaranteed to delight audiences as the incoherencies and inconsistencies of the play itself build to a frantic climax.
by Shirley Lauro
by Carolyn Gage
THE PLANT THAT ATE DIRTY SOCKS
POWER PLAYS
3m, 3f | Full Length Musical | Comedy Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Pop/Rock
by Elaine May and Alan Arkin 2m, 2f | Short Play Collection | Comedy
Messy Michael and his younger brother, Norman, the neatness nut, share a room in constant conflict. From seeds that came in the mail, the boys grow two weird pet plants. As they grow, the plants develop a growing appetite for socks, causing disasters at home and the school science fair. The brothers must put aside their squabbling and work together to save the plants from Mom and Dad’s ultimatum to get rid of them.
This collection of plays premiered Off-Broadway starring the authors themselves. The Way of All Fish looks at a wealthy woman and her secretary who literally and figuratively flex their muscles to prove who has the upper hand. Virtual Reality follows a man on a new job as he begins to question what exactly his future holds. In and Out of the Light is a classic farce about one dentist’s desire to cozy up with his new assistant.
Also Available:
PRECIOUS SONS
THE PLANT THAT ATE DIRTY SOCKS (PLAY) (3m, 3f)
by George Furth
by Nancy McArthur
3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
3m, 7f | 90 minutes | Comedy
A finely wrought autobiographical drama about a Chicago family’s financial struggles in the late 1940s. Fred Small has a chance for a promotion that would necessitate moving to another city. His youngest son is caught between his desire to be an actor and his father’s determination that he finish high school and go to college. Bea, the wife and mother, has her own ideas about how the family should be run.
A theatre group tries desperately to put on a play in spite of maddening interference from a haughty author who keeps revising the script. Act I is a rehearsal of the dreadful show, Act II is the near disastrous dress rehearsal, and the final act is the actual performance, treating the audience to a madcap climax.
PRIVATE LIVES
PLAY ON!
by Rick Abbot
by Noel Coward
2m, 3f | Full Length Play | Comedy, Romantic Comedy
POCATELLO
by Samuel D. Hunter 5m, 5f | 90 minutes | Drama
Eddie manages an Italian chain restaurant in Pocatello, a small, unexceptional city that is slowly being paved over with strip malls and franchises. But he can’t serve enough Soup, Salad & Breadstick Specials to make his hometown feel like home. Against the harsh backdrop of Hunter’s Idaho, this heartbreaking comedy is a cry for connection in an increasingly lonely American landscape.
Elyot and Amanda, once married and now honeymooning with new spouses at the same hotel, meet by chance, reignite the old spark and impulsively elope. After days of being reunited, they again find their fiery romance alternating between passions of love and anger. Their aggrieved spouses appear, a roundelay of affiliations ensues and new partnerships are formed. A uniquely humorous and sophisticated romantic comedy.
PRIVATE PEACEFUL ENSEMBLE
by Michael Morpurgo, adapted by Simon Reade Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Drama
A POIROT DOUBLE BILL
“Private Tommo Peaceful, a First World War soldier awaits the firing squad at dawn. During the night, he looks back at life growing up in rural Devon: his first days at school, the accident in the forest that killed his father, his adventures with Molly the love of his life, and the injustices of war that brought him to the front line.
by Agatha Christie
5m, 5f | 75 minutes | Drama
Two mysteries for the stage featuring Christie’s famous sleuth. In The Wasp’s Nest, Hercule Poirot come between a bitter triangle of lovers to prevent a sinister murder before it takes place. In Yellow Iris, a call from a mystery woman brings Poirot to the Hotel Jardin des Cygnes, where a man commemorates the anniversary of his wife’s sudden death — a death under very suspicious circumstances that Poirot himself witnessed.
Also Available
PRIVATE PEACEFUL (SOLO VERSION) (1m) by Michael Morpurgo
POOR RICHARD
PROJECT MURDER
3m, 2f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
3m, 4f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller
A poet comes to America to attend the dedication of a hospital wing to the memory of his late wife, his publisher’s secretary determines to marry him. His public image of having written beautiful and tremendously successful verses on the death of his wife is a facade. He fears that he did not love her at all. The secretary forces a confrontation with the truth, and from the pages of the loving wife’s diary comes the hope of peace at last.
The police are tipped off that a murder is about to take place on the live TV show Project Design. Detective Carol-Ann Perkins wants the shot to catch the culprit and become a famous star. To do that, she not only has to overcome her bumbling tendencies, but go undercover and compete against some of the top designers around. The audience helps determine the winner of the show and who committed the crime.
by Don Zolidis
by Jean Kerr
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
98
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
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99
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
by Joe Iconis, based on the book by Nancy McArthur
PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES
book, lyrics & music by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel, and Jim Wann 4m, 2f | 105 Minutes | Dramatic Comedy Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Pop/Rock, Country/Western
REALLY ROSIE
book & lyrics by Maurice Sendak, music by Carole King 4m, 2f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Comedy Easy Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
Rosie, the sassiest kid on her block of Brooklyn’s Avenue P, entertains herself and her friends by acting out show biz fantasies, notably directing and starring in an “Oscar-winning movie.” From Sendak, the author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are and other popular children’s books, and acclaimed singer/songwriter Carole King, Really Rosie is a jewel for children and adults.
THE QUALITY OF LIFE
RED VELVET
2m, 2f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
5m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Drama, Docudrama/Historic
Earthy and high-spirited Jeannette, lives with her husband Neil, who is dying of cancer in a yurt, after a wildfire burns their house down. When her cousin Dinah from Ohio comes for a visit with her husband, Bill, the two couples - one solidly on the left, the other resolute in their conservative Christian beliefs - are made to confront their huge dissimilarities and the ways they each struggle to keep their lives intact.
Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, 1833. Edmund Kean, the greatest actor of his generation, has collapsed on stage whilst playing Othello. A young black American actor has been asked to take over the role. But as the public riot in the streets over the abolition of slavery, how will the cast, critics and audience react to the revolution taking place in the theatre?
RADIANCE: THE PASSION OF MARIE CURIE
RED, WHITE AND TUNA
5m, 3f | 90 minutes | Drama
2m | 120 minutes | Comedy
With backbreaking work in a ramshackle lab in Paris, Marie Curie and her husband Pierre achieve a revolutionary understanding of radiation and share a Nobel Prize. When her beloved Pierre dies in an accident, Marie is plunged into depression. Paul Langevin, fleeing an unhappy marriage, gives her the strength to return to her work. But the scandal over their affair threatens to end her career – just when she might become the first person ever to receive a second Nobel Prize.
The much anticipated third installment in the Tuna trilogy takes the audience through another satirical ride into the hearts and minds of the polyester-clad citizens of Texas’ third smallest town. Along with Tuna’s perennial favorites, some new Tuna denizens burst into the 4th of July Tuna High School Class Reunion. This sets the stage for a show full of fireworks and fun in this side-splitting spoof of life in rural America.
by Lolita Chakrabarti
by Jane Anderson
by Ed Howard, Joe Sears, and Jaston Williams
by Alan Alda
REDHEADED ROBBIE’S CHRISTMAS STORY
RAISIN
based on Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, book by Robert Nemiroff and Charlotte Zaltzberg, music by Judd Woldin, lyrics by Robert Brittan 9m, 6f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Drama Large Orchestra | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway
Lorraine Hansberry’s classic is transformed into a soulful, inspiring musical as a proud African American family’s quest for a better life explodes in song, dance, and incisive human drama.
A RAISIN IN THE SUN
book & lyrics by Bill Luttrell, music by Carol Luttrell 5m or f, | 40 minutes | Comedy, Theatre for Young Audiences Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Children’s Music
Mrs. Wallace informs her class that one student will be randomly chosen to make up a story and tell it to the Christmas assembly. All students beg to be picked except for Redheaded Robbie, whose words come out funny whenever he is nervous. Robbie is selected, and he asks his friends for help. They suggest stories about presents, parties, and pranks, but Robbie reminds them that Christmas is for sharing, kindness, and forgiveness.
REST
by Lorraine Hansberry
7m, 3f, 1b | Full Length Play | Drama
by Samuel D. Hunter
On Chicago’s South Side, when her deceased husband’s insurance money comes through, Mama Lena dreams of moving to a new home and a better neighborhood in Chicago. The tensions and prejudice the family face form this seminal American drama. Sacrifice, trust, and love are called into question as they struggle to retain dignity in a harsh and changing world.
4m, 3f | 120 minutes | Drama
A retirement home in northern Idaho is being shut down, and only three residents and a bare-bones staff remain. When a record breaking blizzard blows into town and an elderly resident disappears into the storm, everyone is brought to face his own mortality.
THE REALISTIC JONESES
RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET
2m, 2f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
7m, 4f | More than 120 minutes | Comedy,Science Fiction, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Pop/Rock
by Bob Carlton
by Will Eno
Bob and Jennifer, and their new neighbors, John and Pony, are two suburban couples who have even more in common than their identical homes and their shared last names. As their relationships begin to irrevocably intertwine, the Joneses must decide between their idyllic fantasies and their imperfect realities.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
100
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
Blast off on a routine flight and crash into the planet D’Illyria where a sci-fi version of The Tempest set to rock ’n’ roll golden oldies unfolds with glee. The planet is inhabited by sinister scientist, Dr. Prospero; his delightful daughter Miranda; Ariel, a faithful robot on roller skates; and an uncontrollable monster. A juke box musical packed with classics such as “Heard it Through the Grapevine,” “Young Girl,” “Good Vibrations,” and “Gloria.”
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101
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
The “Pump Boys” sell high octane on Highway 57 in Grand Ole Opry country and the “Dinettes”, Prudie and Rhetta Cupp, run the Double Cupp diner next door. Together they fashion an evening of country western. With heartbreak and hilarity, they perform on guitar, piano, bass, and yes, kitchen utensils.
THE REVENGE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
ROMANCE LANGUAGE
11m, 5f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller Moderate Vocals | Large Orchestra | Classic Broadway
10m, 5f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Comedy, Adaptation
book, music & lyrics by Leslie Bricusse
by Peter Parnell
What appears at first to be the final confrontation between master detective Sherlock Holmes and his perennial arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty, proves to be more than even Holmes bargained for. The professorial villain is more determined than ever to outwit and destroy the great detective. The ensuing intellectual cat-and-mouse game forms the exciting centerpiece of this thrilling musical based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters.
The play begins with Huck Finn climbing through Walt Whitman’s bedroom window. Since Whitman’s male lover has just died, he decides to go on a picaresque journey with Huck down the river of American culture. They encounter Custer, Thoreau, Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, Charlotte Cushman and Emily Dickinson. The craziness reaches a climax at the Battle of Little Big Horn where everyone is killed and goes to literary heaven.
ROSE
by Andrew Davies
REWRITE
3m, 5f | Full Length Play | Comedy
3m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Pop/Rock
Three wild musicals that connect in surprising and dangerous ways. Nelson Rocks! is a pop/rock show about a student who needs to fix his life before the bell rings. Miss Marzipan is a dizzy musical about the life-changing preparation that goes into a suburban dinner party. A little bit of blood is spilt. The Process deals with a writer on a deadline where a Dunkin’ Donuts counter lady acts as our guide through this passionate look into one man’s process.
Rose is an English elementary school teacher who is dissatisfied with her life. But after an affair and a divorce, she must confront the consequences of her ennui; and begins to wonder if some of her disenchantment with life is her own fault.
ROSE’S DILEMMA by Neil Simon
2m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy
THE RISE OF DAVID LEVINSKY
book & lyrics by Isaiah Sheffer, music by Bobby Paul, adapted from a novel by Abraham Cahan 9m, 6f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Drama, Period Easy Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway, Chamber
An early 20th century drama about the Jewish immigrant experience, this musical captures the interaction between history and individuals as young David loses his passion for the Talmud in his quest for lucre.
In her beach house in the Hamptons, celebrated writer Rose Stern stands at a crossroads: She hasn’t written anything in years and money is getting short. Her former lover, literary lion Walsh McLaren, offers her, from beyond the grave, an opportunity to regain her celebrity and gross millions. A touching and unpredictable romantic comedy.
ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD by Tom Stoppard
ROCK OF AGES
14m, 2f | Full Length Play | Comedy
by Chris D’Arienzo, music by A Bunch of Really Sweet 80s Bands 7m, 10f | More than 120 minutes | Comedy, Parody Difficult Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Pop/Rock
Set in L.A.’s infamous Sunset Strip in 1987, Rock of Ages tells the story of Drew, a city boy from South Detroit, and Sherrie, a small-town girl, both in L.A. to chase their dreams of making it big and falling in love. An epic rock journey, a tale of triumph over adversity, and a classic love story, Rock of Ages takes you back to the time of big bands with big egos, playing big guitar solos, and sporting even bigger hair!
The fabulously inventive telling of Hamlet from the worm’s-eye view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare’s play. In Stoppard’s best-known work, this Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy finally get a chance to take the lead role, but do so in a world where echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, where reality and illusion intermix, and where fate leads our two heroes to a tragic but inevitable end.
RUMORS
by Neil Simon
ROCKET CITY, ALABAM’
5m, 5f | Full Length Play | Comedy, Farce
book, lyrics, and music by Mark Saltzman 6m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 105 Minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Period, Docudrama/Historic
At the dawn of the Cold War, a young Army major quietly brings notorious Nazi rocket scientist, Wernher Von Braun, to Huntsville, Alabama, a town selected to become America’s “Rocket City.” But Huntsville has a Jewish community and emotions ignite when they learn of Von Braun’s past. Infused with the music of the American South this soulful tale presents the moral dilemmas of idealism vs. practicality, revenge vs. forgiveness.
At a large, tastefully-appointed Sneden’s Landing townhouse, the Deputy Mayor of New York has just shot himself. Though only a flesh wound, four couples are about to experience a severe attack of Farce. Gathering for their tenth wedding anniversary, the host lies bleeding in the other room, and his wife is nowhere in sight. His lawyer, Ken, and wife, Chris, must get “the story” straight before the other guests arrive. As the confusions and mis-communications mount, the evening spins off into classic farcical hilarity.
RUN FOR YOUR WIFE by Ray Cooney
Richard O’Brien’s THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW
6m, 2f | Full Length Play | Comedy, Farce
7m, 3f | 90 minutes | Dark Comedy, Science Fiction Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Pop/Rock
An over-the-top tribute to science fiction and B movies, this cult classic tells the story of a newly engaged couple getting caught in a storm and coming to the home of a mad transvestite scientist unveiling his new creation: an artificially made, fully grown, physically perfect muscle man named Rocky Horror. Complete with sass from the audience, cascading toilet paper, and an array of other audience participation props, this deliberately kitschy rock ’n’ roll gothic musical is more fun than ever.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
102
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
This superb example of the British farce. A taxi driver gets away with having two wives in different areas of London because of his irregular working schedule. Complication is piled upon complication as the cabby tries to keep his double life from exploding. A superb example of the British farce.
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103
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
by Joe Iconis
RUTHLESS!
SEASONAL ALLERGIES
1m, 6f | Full Length Musical | Comedy, Parody Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
3m, 3f, 1b or g | 90 minutes | Comedy
book & lyrics by Joel Paley, music by Marvin Laird
by Katherine DiSavino and Kevin Mead
Eight-year-old Tina Denmark knows she was born to play Pippi Longstocking, and she will do anything to win the part in her school musical. Anything includes murdering the leading lady!
SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR
Do you feel a tickle in the back of your throat when your vegetable dishes cooked faster than you thought? Do your eyes water after you’ve nearly broken your back climbing into the attic to find the Christmas lights? Then you, my friend, have got Seasonal Allergies, but nobody has a case worse than Julia Shelby and her brother Peter. Get ready to laugh away your throat tickle, and clear your sinuses with a dose of holiday fun.
THE SECOND COMING OF JOAN OF ARC
by Bernard Slade
by Carolyn Gage
1m, 1f | Full Length Play | Comedy, Romantic Comedy
SANDERS FAMILY CHRISTMAS
written by Connie Ray, conceived by Alan Bailey, musical arrangements by John Foley and Gary Fagin 4m, 3f | 105 Minutes | Comedy, Holiday, Period Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Country/Western, Folk
Sanders Family Christmas is the sequel to the wildly successful, bluegrass gospel musical Smoke on the Mountain. It’s December 24, 1941, and America is going to war. So is Dennis Sanders of the Sanders Family Singers. Join Pastor Mervin Oglethorpe and the rest of the Sanders Family as they send Dennis off with hilarious and touching stories and 25 Southern Gospel Christmas favorites.
SATURDAY NIGHT AT OLD SMOKEY by Ron Osborne
1f | 90 minutes | Drama, Biography
Joan of Arc led an army to victory at 17. At 18, she engineered the coronation of a king. At 19, she went up against the Catholic church… and lost. Now, Joan returns to share her story with contemporary women. She relays her experiences with the highest levels of church, state, and military, and unmasks the brutal misogyny behind male institutions.
THE SECRET GARDEN
music & lyrics by Marsha Norman, music by Lucy Simon, adapted from the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett 12m, 10f, 1g, 1b | Full Length Musical | Drama, Adaptation Difficult Vocals | Large Orchestra | Classic Broadway
A stunning musical that brings to life the haunting beauty of this beloved literary classic. Orphaned in India, 11-year-old Mary Lennox is sent to a Yorkshire manor to live with relatives she’s never met. Left to her own devices, Mary’s personality blossoms as she and a young gardener restore a neglected garden — bringing new life to the manor, and ultimately healing her sickly cousin and uncle. Evocative music dramatizes The Secret Garden’s compelling tale of forgiveness and renewal.
SECRETS OF THE TRADE
1m, 5f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Mystery/Thriller
In its heyday, Old Smokey was more than a country store, its porch was home to jamborees that rivaled the Grand Ole Opry. Emma and her friends prepare to reopen the store for her son, injured in Afghanistan and on his way home. But, a stranger is snooping around with plans of his own for the store. Though challenges mount, laughs are shared and songs are sung in this tribute to tradition, friendship, and family.
SAVIN’ UP FOR SATURDAY NIGHT: THE HONKY-TONK MUSICAL
by Jonathan Tolins
4m, 1f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
In show business, it’s about who you know. Or is it? Andy Lipman, an ambitious kid from Long Island dreams of a career on Broadway and hopes that his idol, theatre legend Martin Kerner, can give it to him. Will Kerner open the door to success, or will their complicated relationship force him to question a life in the theatre?
book by Jeff Goode, songs by Richard Levinson
SEE HOW THEY RUN
3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy Easy Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Pop/Rock, Country/Western
by Philip King
6m, 3f | Full Length Play | Farce
Lovin’ ain’t easy in this one-honky-tonk town, so when the bartender and the bandleader fall for the same girl, you’re in for an evening of showstoppers and toe-tappers, cat fights, and love quadrangles that’ll keep any joint jumpin’ till way past last call. And if you think you got the gumption, you’re welcome to get up and dance along.
So swift is the action, so involved the situations, so rib-tickling the plot in this London hit that at its finish audiences are left as exhausted from laughter as though they had run a foot race. Galloping through the four doors of an English vicarage are an American actor and actress, a cockney maid, an old maid who “touches alcohol for the first time in her life,” four men in clergyman suits, and a Bishop aghast at all these goings-on.
SCROOGE!
SEE ROCK CITY AND OTHER DESTINATIONS
book, music & lyrics by Leslie Bricusse 10m or f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Dramatic Comedy, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
In 1970, renowned writer-composer-lyricist Leslie Bricusse adapted the classic Charles Dickens tale, A Christmas Carol, into the hit screen musical Scrooge! Now it’s a charming stage musical. Included are six new songs not performed in the film. A sure-fire audience pleaser!
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
104
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
music by Brad Alexander, book & lyrics by Adam Mathias 4m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Pop/Rock, Folk
A wanderer believes his destiny is written on rooftops along the North Carolina highway. A young man yearns to connect with intelligent life in Roswell. A woman at the Alamo takes a chance on love. Three sisters cruise to Glacier Bay to scatter their father’s ashes. A terrified bride-to-be ponders taking the leap over Niagara Falls. A humorous, humane musical about connections missed and made at tourist destinations across America.
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105
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
New Jersey accountant George and Oakland housewife Doris meet at a California inn in 1951. They agree to meet once a year, despite the fact both are married to others. Over the course of the next 24 years, they develop an emotional intimacy deeper than what one would expect to find between two people meeting just once a year. Together, they help each other adapt to the social changes affecting their lives.
SEE YOU IN BELLS
SHAKESPEARE’S SISTER
6m, 6f, 2g, 1b, 1m or f | 75 Minutes | Farce
7m, 5f, 1g, 1b | 90 minutes | Drama
The mother of the bride has every reason to panic. Three generations of Bower family weddings, three inexplicable disasters. Now, with the church building falling down, half the wedding party AWOL, and the bride’s sisters fighting over what happened at the LAST family wedding, daughter Jenna’s nuptials seem hopelessly doomed. Peacemaking brother Brian is determined to end the sisters’ feud — and the family curse.
Judith Shakespeare has one ambition: to be a playwright. When father forces her into an engagement, she runs away with the help of dashing actor Ned Alleyn, hoping to join her brother in London. But when Judith arrives in the plague-stricken capital, she finds her brother gone, Ned engaged to another, and her play refused.
SEMINAR
SHINE! THE HORATIO ALGER MUSICAL
3m, 2f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
13m, 6f | More than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Classic Broadway
by Edie Claire
by Emma Whipday
by Theresa Rebeck
book by Richard Seff, music by Roger Anderson, lyrics by Lee Goldsmith
SENIORS OF THE SAHARA by Barbara Pease Weber
Lower Manhattan, 1876. Join Dick as he rises from penniless bootblack to budding entrepreneur with a little bit of luck, a little bit of charm, and a whole lot of hard work. Based on Horatio Alger’s beloved tale, Dick’s adventures bring him face to face with scheming ex-convicts, vicious comic villains, kind benefactors, and a host of colorful characters in this rags-to-riches romp for the whole family.
SHIRLEY VALENTINE
4m, 4f | 120 minutes | Comedy
by Willy Russell
Sylvia, a respectable retired school teacher, brings home more than just souvenirs upon returning from her grandson’s wedding in Israel. The old teapot she purchased at an outdoor market is actually a priceless relic containing a geriatric genie, Eugene, with a bad back and a penchant for vodka and V8. Keeping Eugene a secret proves as difficult as protecting herself from Eugene’s former master. Be careful what you wish for Sylvie!
1f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
SEVEN INTERVIEWS by Mark Dunn
The heroine in this actor’s tour-de-force is an ordinary middle class English housewife. As she prepares chips and egg for dinner, she ruminates on her life and tells the wall about her husband, her children, her past, and an invitation from a girlfriend to join her on holiday in Greece to search for romance and adventure. Ultimately, Shirley does escape to Greece and has an "adventure" with a local fisherman.
SHOWTIME AT FIRST BAPTIST
1m, 2f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Comedy
by Ron Osborne
Three actors. One desk. Three chairs. Seven different short plays. From the broadly comic to the achingly tragic, each play has the same interview format, and each illuminates an aspect of the human condition.
6f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
SEX PLEASE, WE’RE SIXTY: THE MUSICAL
book & lyrics by Michael Parker and Susan Parker, music by Robert Brader 2m, 4f | 105 Minutes | Comedy, Farce, Romantic Comedy Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway
Mrs. Stancliffe’s bed & breakfast has been successful for many years. Her guests (nearly all women) return year after year. Her next door neighbor, the elderly, silver-tongued, Bud “The Stud” believes they come to spend time with him in romantic liaisons. Her other neighbor Henry, a retired chemist, has developed a blue pill called "Venusia,” to increase the libido of menopausal women. When Bud gets his hands on the pills, the fun begins!
Also Available:
SEX PLEASE, WE’RE SIXTY (PLAY) by Michael Parker and Susan Parker
SICK
by Zayd Dohrn 3m, 2f | 90 minutes | Dark Comedy, Science Fiction
A college professor brings a student home to meet his dysfunctional family – a home so obsessed with cleanliness that the real dirt lurks around every corner and behind every sentence. Toying with post 9/11 phobias, this dark comedy plays upon our fears, both real and imagined.
SIDE SHOW
book & lyrics by Bill Russell, music by Henry Krieger, additional book material by Bill Condon
SHAKESPEARE FOR MY FATHER
13m, 9f | More than 120 minutes | Drama Difficult Vocals | Large Orchestra | Classic Broadway, Contemporary Broadway
by Lynn Redgrave
1f | 120 minutes | Drama, Biography
Family reminiscences develop into a complex, funny, and moving portrait of a child’s longing for the love of the inscrutable and charismatic Shakespearean actor who was her father. The play weaves scenes from the Bard that delightfully coalesce with events in Ms. Redgrave’s young life eliciting memories of Sir Michael and engaging impressions of the celebrated stars who frequented the Redgraves’ home and lives
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
First Baptist of Ivy Gap’s 100th anniversary picnic was a smashing success, except for one little thing: the bolt of lightning that struck the church’s steeple, igniting a fire that destroyed the sanctuary and so much more. In the wake of the disaster, the key women of the church plan an evening of entertainment designed to showcase the congregation’s talent. Along the way, there are laughs to be shared, battles to be fought, love to be won, relationships to be mended, and losses to be grieved.
106
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
Based on the true story of conjoined twins Violet and Daisy Hilton who became stars during the Depression. A moving portrait of two women joined at the hip whose extraordinary bondage brings them fame but denies them love. Told almost entirely through song, the show follows their progression from England to America, from the vaudeville circuit to Hollywood. With new book and songs, the 2014 revival delves deeper into their backstory, fleshing out characters and situations and offering more sophistication and truth to the story.
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107
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
Four aspiring young novelists sign up for private writing classes with Leonard, an international literary figure. Under his recklessly brilliant and unorthodox instruction, some thrive and others flounder, alliances are made and broken, sex is used as a weapon and hearts are unmoored. The wordplay is not the only thing that turns vicious as innocence collides with experience in this biting Broadway comedy.
SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS
SMILE
1m, 1f | 120 minutes | Comedy
6m, 10f, 2b | Full Length Musical | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Large Orchestra | Classic Broadway, Contemporary Broadway
by Richard Alfieri
music by Marvin Hamlisch, book & lyrics by Howard Ashman
Lily, an aging but formidable retiree, hires Michael, an acerbic dance instructor, to give her dance lessons in her condo in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida. Antagonism between a gay man and the wife of a Southern Baptist minister gives way to profound compatibility as they swing dance, tango, foxtrot, and cha-cha while sharing barbs and intimacies along with the dance steps.
SMOKE AND MIRRORS
SKIN DEEP
by Anthony Herrera and Will Osborne
by Jon Lonoff
4m, 1f | Full Length Play | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller
Large, lovable, and lonely Maureen gives romance one last shot on a blind-date with sweet awkward Joseph. They end up being perfect for each other, and in time they come to admit it. Meanwhile Maureen’s sister Sheila and her husband Squire are having problems of their own: Squire, may or may not have long ago held designs on Maureen. With their relationships changing, the time is ripe for unspoken issues to bubble to the surface.
On an isolated island off the Gulf Coast, power-hungry producer/director Hamilton Orr lures his timid screenwriter Clark into a scheme to get rid of the insufferable star of their multi-million dollar film. The plot hinges on the rehearsal of a suicide scene and the only witness to the murder is Hamilton’s wife Barbara. A wily, eccentric sheriff unearths one surprise after another until the final stunning revelation.
SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN
THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH
book by Connie Ray, conceived by Alan Bailey, musical arrangements by Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick
by Thornton Wilder
4m, 4f, Flexible Casting | More than 120 minutes | Comedy, Experimental
Meet the Antrobus Family: George and Maggie Antrobus of Excelsior, New Jersey; a suburban, commuter-town couple (married for 5,000 years); their children, Gladys and Henry; and their garrulous maid, Sabina (the eternal seductress), who breaks out of character and interrupts the course of the drama at every opportunity. Whether he is inventing the alphabet or merely saving the world from apocalypse, George and his redoubtable family somehow manage to survive: by the skin of their teeth.
SKYSCRAPER
4m, 3f | 105 Minutes | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Country/Western
The Smokey Mountains in 1938. Pastor Oglethorpe, the young minister of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, has enlisted the Sanders Family in his efforts to bring his tiny congregation into “the modern world.” Through over two dozen rousing bluegrass and gospel songs, played and sung by the Family, this lively and touching musical explores the heartfelt and hilarious imperfections of human nature.
SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN HOMECOMING
book by Peter Stone, suggested by Elmer Rice’s play Dream Girl, lyrics by Sammy Cahn, music by James Van Heusen
written by Connie Ray, conceived by Alan Bailey, musical arrangements by Mike Craver 4m, 3f | 105 Minutes | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Country/Western
11m, 5f | More than 120 minutes | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway
Georgina’s brownstone in New York City is being squashed on all sides by skyscrapers. She considers it an historic landmark, and undertakes an “urban prevention” crusade against the construction giants. Two men figure in her life and her dreams: the assistant in her boutique, and a playwright who had a one-night offBroadway flop and is biding his time for the opening of an avant-garde film festival; and the good-natured architect of one of the skyscrapers, who finds the key to her heart and to all her daydreams.
It’s October 1945 and the gospel singing Sanders Family is back together again. The war is over and America’s years of prosperity are just beginning. But there’s another kind of rite of passage at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, where Reverend Oglethorpe is giving his last service. Join the Sanders Family as they the reverend off in style, with hilarious and touching stories and 25 toe tapping bluegrass gospel favorites.
SOCIAL SECURITY by Andrew Bergman
SLEUTH
3m, 3f | 105 Minutes | Comedy
by Anthony Shaffer 5m, Female | Full Length Play | Mystery/Thriller
The ultimate game of cat-and-mouse is played out in an English country house owned by celebrated mystery writer Andrew Wyke. Invited guest Milo Tindle, a rival who shares not only Wyke’s love of the game but also his wife, has come to lay claim. Revenge is devised and murders plotted as the two plan the ultimate whodunit.
Married art dealers’ domestic tranquility is shattered upon the arrival of the wife’s goody goody nerd of a sister, her uptight CPA husband, and her archetypal Jewish mother. The comic sparks begin to fly when the mother hits it off with the elderly minimalist artist, her daughter’s best client.
SOMEBODY/NOBODY by Jane Martin
SMART PEOPLE
1m, 5f | 90 minutes | Comedy
by Lydia R. Diamond 2m, 2f | More than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
It is the eve of Obama’s first election. Four of Harvard University’s brightest— a surgeon, an actress, a psychologist, and a neuro-psychiatrist are all interested in different aspects of the brain, particularly how it responds to race. But like all smart people, they are also searching for love, success, and identity in their own lives. Lydia Diamond brings these characters together in this sharp, witty play about social and sexual politics.
108
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
You think want to be famous? So did teen idol and “shark-movie” star Sheena Keener, the darling of the press and obsession of the paparazzi. Now she can’t stand to be looked at and her agent is on the warpath. When Sheena ends up on naive Loli’s doorstep, it’s a wild ride on the road to fame. Sheena is a somebody who wants to be a nobody. Loli is a nobody desperate to be a somebody. A play that takes dead aim at our culture of celebrity.
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109
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
2m, 2f | 105 Minutes | Comedy, Romantic Comedy
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
This touching and satiric musical follows the intrigue and exploits onstage and off as Santa Rosa, California plays host to the Young American Miss Pageant.
SOMETHING’S AFOOT
book, music & lyrics by James McDonald, David Vos, and Robert Gerlach; additional music by Ed Linderman 6m, 4f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Mystery/Thriller Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Classic Broadway
SPOILS OF WAR by Michael Weller
3m, 3f | Full Length Play | Drama
SONG OF EXTINCTION
SPREADING IT AROUND
5m, 1f | 90 minutes | Drama
3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy
Max is failing Biology. But his mother Lily is dying of cancer, and school is the last thing on his mind. His father, Ellery, a biologist obsessed with saving a rare Bolivian insect, is incapable of dealing with his wife’s death or his son’s distress. Max’s biology teacher, Khim Phan, tries to help and in doing so is pushed into a magical journey of his own — from the Cambodian fields of his youth into the undiscovered country beyond.
Angela Drayton, a wealthy widow living in an up-scale retirement community, is tired of handing out money to her unappreciative children. So, she starts the “S.I.N. (Spending It Now) Foundation,” to give to those truly in need. This terrifies her greedy son, driving him to devise a plan to have her committed.
by Londos D’Arrigo
by EM Lewis
SQUABBLES (AKA YOUR PLACE OR MINE) by Marshall Karp
SORDID LIVES by Del Shores
4m, 3f | Full Length Play | Comedy
6m, 6f | Full Length Play | Dark Comedy
A black comedy about white trash. When Peggy, a good Christian woman, hits her head on the sink and bleeds to death after tripping over her lover’s wooden legs in a motel room, chaos erupts in Winters, Texas.
THE SPARKLEY CLEAN FUNERAL SINGERS
Jerry is a successful jingles writer married to an equally successful lawyer. Living with the happy couple is the not so happy Abe, Jerry’s curmudgeon of a father-in-law. The situation is exacerbated when Jerry’s mother Mildred needs a place to stay. Abe and Mildred can’t stand each other. This play is one hilarious confrontation after another until the heart warming finale in which the oldsters discover that, really, each is not so bad.
book by Lori Fischer, music & lyrics by Lori Fischer and Don Chaffer
STAGE KISS
2m, 2f | 105 Minutes | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Country/Western, Folk
4m, 3f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Romantic Comedy
June has inherited the responsibility of caring for her aging father and her sister, just back from rehab. When all June wants is to achieve her dream to become a country star, an opportunity comes her way via the local church. She has been offered the chance to sing parting songs for the recently deceased. A musical about family, loss, and the ways life gives you exactly what you need.
Art imitates Life. Life imitates Art. When two actors with a history are thrown together as romantic leads in a forgotten 1930s melodrama, they quickly lose touch with reality as the story onstage follows them offstage. A charming tale about what happens when lovers share a stage kiss, or when actors share a real one.
STEPPING OUT
THE SPITFIRE GRILL
music & book by James Valcq, lyrics & book by Fred Alley, based on the film by Lee David Zlotoff 3m, 4f | Full Length Musical | Drama, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Folk
A feisty parolee follows her dreams, based on a page from an old travel book, to a small town in Wisconsin and finds a place for herself working at Hannah’s Spitfire Grill. It is for sale, but there are no takers for the only eatery in the depressed town, so newcomer Percy suggests to Hannah that she raffle it off. Entry fees are $100, and the best essay on why you want the grill wins. Soon, mail is arriving by the wheelbarrow-full and things are definitely cookin’.
by Richard Harris 1m, 9f | More than 120 minutes | Comedy
A rollicking comedy about the attempts of some working class amateurs to overcome their inhibitions and left feet in a low-rent dance studio in North London. Mavis, a former professional chorus girl tries her hardest to teach the bumbling amateurs some terpsichorean skills for an upcoming recital. But before the dancing begins Mavis must mediate the minor dramas that erupt among this motley but loveable crew on their way to triumph at their recital.
STORM IN A FLOWER VASE by Anton Burge
SPLITTING HEIRS
1m, 5f | Full Length Play | Drama, Biography
Freyda Thomas
4m, 3f | 120 minutes | Farce, Adaptation
Eraste is in love with Isabelle. The only way Isabelle’s mother will let them marry is if Eraste’s Uncle Geronte names him heir to his fortune, which the miserly old man is doubtful to do. It’s up to two servants Lisette and Crispin, to dawn disguises and scheme those around them to wed the young lovers, and even have a chance to find love themselves. A modern spin on a lesser known French farce from the 18th Century.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
by Sarah Ruhl
110
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
Set in London in the 1930s, the play explores the early career of Constance Spry, founder of the celebrated business Floral Decorations that supplied floral arrangements to the upper ranks of society including the artist Gluck and interior decorator Syrie Maugham. Spry’s unconventional relationships, professional ambition and the conflicting demands of career and domestic duties reveal the complex internal life of the woman later famed as a cook and inventor of the dish Coronation Chicken. A powerful and moving piece examining themes of class, gender, and sexuality.
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111
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
A zany musical that satirically pokes at Agatha Christie mysteries and the musical styles of 1930s English musical halls. Ten people are stranded in an isolated English country house. One by one they’re picked off. As the bodies pile up in the library, the survivors race to uncover the identity and motive of the cunning culprit.
The events of the 1950s are explored through the eyes of Martin’s parents, radicals who have chosen very different ways to cope with the changed and changing times. Elise is still a rebel without a cause who wants to live for something more than survival. Andrew has dropped back into the system and accepted the conventionality of day-to-day existence. Caught between these irreconcilables, Martin is unable to bring his parents back together but must find and follow his own life path.
STORY THEATRE
TALKING WITH...
5m, 3f | Full Length Play | Fantasy
11f, | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
Originally on Broadway in the 1970s, here you’ll meet Henny Penny, the Golden Goose, Venus and the Cat, the Fisherman and His Wife, The Robber Baron, the Bremen Town Musicians, and other favorites. The fables require talented actors with expressive bodies. Both family friendly and top-drawer adult theatre.
These extraordinary monologues received a standing ovation at Louisville’s Actors Theatre. Idiosyncratic characters amuse, move, and frighten, always speaking from the depths of their souls. They include a baton twirler, a fundamentalist snake handler, an ex rodeo rider, and an actress willing to go to any length to get a job
adapted for the stage by Paul Sills, from stories by the Grimm Brothers and in Aesop’s Fables
THE STRANGER
by Agatha Christie
by Jane Martin
THE TAP DANCE KID
book by Charles Blackwell, music by Henry Krieger, lyrics by Robert Lorick
Enid rejects her fiancé for newcomer Gerald and moves to a remote country cottage with him – where a dark and terrible climax takes place.
5m, 6f | Full Length Musical | Dramatic Comedy, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Large Orchestra | Classic Broadway, Jazz, Contemporary Broadway
THE SUGAR WITCH by Nathan Sanders
3m, 3f | Full Length Play | Drama
The Bean family in Sugar Bean, Florida live under an ancient family curse. The surviving members of the town’s founding family have reached the end of their rope. Just when things can’t possibly get any worse, tragedy strikes as a mysterious and brutal murder takes place in the Bean family home. The crime places Moses and Sisser in grave danger as Annabelle, the last in a long-line of so-called “Sugar Witches,” attempts to end the curse placed on their heads.
TABLE SETTINGS by James Lapine
3m, 3f, 1g, 1b | 90 minutes | Comedy
A wildly funny comedy about three generations of a Jewish family. All the fast-paced action takes place around an all-purpose dining table, sometimes a restaurant table, and other times the dining table of the Jewish mother to end all Jewish mothers. This highly acclaimed and long-running Off-Broadway success is an hysterical look at an American family.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES THE MUSICAL
book, music & lyrics by Jill Santoriello, based on the novel by Charles Dickens
A wonderful cornucopia of music, drama, comedy and above all, tap dancing. The story concerns a 10-year-old African American child named Willie who doesn’t want to be a lawyer like his stern father. He wants to dance like his uncle, an aspiring Broadway choreographer, who acts as Willie’s mentor.
THE TAXI CABARET
book, music & lyrics by Peter Mills, conceived by Cara Reichel 3m, 3f | Full Length Musical | Drama Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Cabaret
A modern musical following a group of friends in their twenties during their first year in New York City. Scott, an aspiring novelist, discovers that you do not have to suffer to write. Mark and Sara test their relationship when they move in together. Zach lives safely in the closet, while the eternally unlucky but optimistic Karen falls for him. C.C. is an actress/temp who longs for something in her life that will last more than 16 bars.
THAT WHICH ISN’T by Matthew Freeman
2m, 1f, Flexible Casting | 105 minutes | Drama
Helen meets with James in a quiet field somewhere far from the city. Years later, she meets with Marcus in a crowded restaurant in Los Angeles. These two goodbyes explore the process of losing the people we love, and how we remember the people we don’t.
7m, 3f, 1g, 8m or f | More than 120 minutes | Drama, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Large Orchestra | Classic Broadway, Operetta
THEY’RE PLAYING OUR SONG
Two men in love with the same woman. Two cities swept up in revolution. One last chance for a man to redeem his wasted life and change the world. Based on Charles Dickens’ masterpiece, A Tale of Two Cities is a musical that focuses on the love triangle between young beauty Lucie Manette, French aristocrat Charles Darnay, and drunken English cynic Sydney Carton — all caught in the clutches of the bloody French Revolution.
1m, 1f | 105 Minutes | Comedy, Romantic Comedy Moderate Vocals | Large Orchestra | Classic Broadway
book by Neil Simon, music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager
THE TALES OF CUSTARD THE DRAGON
book adapted by Mary Hall Surface, music by Brad Ross, lyrics by Danny Whitman
America’s premier funny man and the Tony Award-winning composer of A Chorus Line collaborated on this hit musical, a funny, romantic show about an established composer and his relationship with an aspiring young female lyricist, not unlike Carole Bayer Sager. Professionally, their relationship works beautifully-but ultimately leads to conflict on the home front. Of course, there’s a happy ending.
4m, 2f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Comedy, Theatre for Young Audiences Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Children’s Music
THINGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME
Based on the children’s classic of the same name by Ogden Nash. Join Custard the Dragon and his friends as they embark on a musical journey in which a most unlikely hero finds true courage. This musical tale follows the exploits of young Belinda and her three boastfully brave pets, Mustard the Dog, Ink the Cat, and Blink the Mouse, and one not-so-brave dragon, Custard. Yet when Belinda is confronted first by a fearsome pirate and then a wicked knight, it’s Cowardly Custard who comes to the rescue.
3m, 3f, 1m or f | 90 minutes | Romantic Comedy
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
112
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
by Katherine DiSavino
Olivia and Gabe are moving across the country to Chicago and into their first apartment together. Their moving day doesn’t go exactly as planned, when all of their parents show up to help! Can a two-bedroom apartment contain all the love, laughs, worry and wisdom that’s about to happen? A generational look at relationships, and how parents pass their best lessons to their children, without even meaning to.
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113
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
2m, 4f | 90 minutes | Drama, Mystery Thriller
THREE ONE-ACT PLAYS ABOUT THE ELDERLY
TOO OLD FOR THE CHORUS, BUT NOT TOO OLD TO BE A STAR
1m, 5f | Short Play Collection | Comedy
3m, 2f | 75 Minutes | Comedy Moderate Vocals | Medium Orchestra | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock
by Elyse Nass
book, music, & lyrics by Marie Cain, Mark Winkler, and Shelly Markham
An upbeat collection with excellent roles for older actors. In Admit One, 75-year-old man places a personal ad for the companionship of a younger woman. The Cat Connection features two older women who have little in common except for their love of the same stray cat. In Second Chance, a widow has decided to begin a new life while her married neighbor tries to put a damper on her aspirations.
THREE SISTERS
by Anton Chekhov, a new version by Sarah Ruhl
A smart, funny musical revue about men and women who find themselves suddenly 50! Set in their neighborhood retro coffee shop, five characters express the gamut of their frustrations and joys — from troublesome relations to finding delight in second careers (and second chances), and learning that “age is just a number.” Celebration of life, finding fulfillment and being appreciated, all while getting a senior discount.
TOP GIRLS
by Caryl Churchill
Transplanted from their beloved Moscow to a provincial Russian town, three sisters—school teacher Olga, unhappily married Masha, idealistic Irina — yearn for the city of their childhood, where they imagine their lives will be transformed and fulfilled. Three Sisters is the portrait of a family grappling with the bittersweet distance between reality and dreams.
7f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
THROUGH THE NIGHT by Daniel Beaty
Marlene is celebrating her promotion with a lavish luncheon. The symbolic meal is attended by women from legend or history who offer perspectives on maternity and ambition. In a time warp, these ladies are also her co-workers, clients, and relatives. Marlene, like her guests, has had to pay a price to ascend from proletarian roots seemingly becoming the male oppressor and coaching female clients to adopt odious male traits.
TOWARDS ZERO
1m, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
by Agatha Christie and Gerald Verner
A timely and inspiring story of possibility and hope, weaving together a unique blend of humor, poetry, music, and drama. It portrays a community of people who experience an unexpected epiphany on the same evening that changes their lives forever. Can be performed as a solo piece or with an ensemble cast.
7m, 4f | 120 minutes | Drama, Mystery/Thriller
TINY TIM’S CHRISTMAS CAROL
Also available:
5m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 40 minutes | Holiday, Theatre For Young Audiences
by Agatha Christie (A version of this story set entirely in the outdoors)
Tiny Tim hatches a plan to get his father home for Christmas Day. With the help of some kindly sellers at the market and his friend Charlotte, Tiny Tim stages a spectacle filled with ghosts and Christmas cheer to convince Scrooge to give his father the day off. It all seems to be going according to plan until a little bit of real Christmas magic catches everyone by surprise.
TREY PARKER’S CANNIBAL THE MUSICAL
by Ken Ludwig and Jack Ludwig
When a house party gathers at Gull’s Point, the seaside home of Lady Tressilian, Neville Strange finds himself caught between his old wife Audrey and his new flame Kay. A nail-biting thriller that probes the psychology of jealousy in the shadow of a savage and brutal murder.
TOWARDS ZERO (OUTDOOR) (8m, 5f)
TONY N’ TINA’S WEDDING
by Artificial Intelligence, conceived by Nancy Cassaro 15m, 11f, | Full Length Play | Comedy
This delightful evening gives new meaning to the phrase, “And now for something completely different!” Audience members are the guests at the nuptial celebration of Tony Nunzio and Valentina Vitale in all its tacky and hilarious glory. Following the church service is a reception where the audience joins the wedding party and their bickering families for a pasta dinner, champagne toasts, wedding cake and dancing to a five piece band.
book, music & lyrics by The New Cannibal Society 10m, 2f, Flexible Casting | 105 Minutes | Comedy, Action & Adventure, Parody Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Country/Western
The true story of the only person convicted of cannibalism in America, Alferd Packer. The sole survivor of an ill-fated trip to the Colorado Territory, he tells his side of the harrowing tale to news reporter Polly Pry as he awaits his execution. And his story goes like this: While searching for gold and love in the Colorado Territory, he and his companions lost their way and resorted to unthinkable horrors, including toe-tapping songs!
TRIANGLES FOR TWO by David Wiltse
1m, 1f | Collection/Full Length Play | Comedy
TOO MANY COOKS
Three witty one acts about the difficulties of relationships. A clumsy man struggles with a marriage proposal in Otis Proposes. In To Wit and to Whom a husband suspects his wife has a lover. Triangles for Two introduces a couple dressing for a black tie affair. He has a disdainful view of women while she doesn’t think much of men.
by Marcia Kash and Douglas E. Hughes 6m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Farce
It’s 1932 in Niagara Falls, Canada, where the rum-running business is at its peak. Irving Bubbalowe and his daughter Honey, have risked everything they have to open a new restaurant. When their star — the renowned singing chef François LaPlouffe — fails to appear, Honey persuades unemployed chef Frank Plunkett to masquerade as the missing LaPlouffe. When a couple of gansters show up, Bubbalowe and the others must try everything to save the restaurant — and themselves.
THE TRIBUTE ARTIST by Charles Busch
2m, 4f | 120 minutes | Comedy, Farce
When his elderly landlady dies in her sleep, an out-of-work female impersonator takes on her identity in order to hang onto her valuable Greenwich Village townhouse. This “perfect” scheme goes awry and leads to a wild path of twists and reversals plotted by an eccentric rogues’ gallery of outrageous schemers.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
114
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
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115
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
9m, 5f | More than 120 minutes | Drama, Adaptation
THE TRIP BACK DOWN
UNCLE PIRATE
by John Bishop
book by Ben H. Winters, music & lyrics by Drew Fornarola, based on the book Uncle Pirate by Douglas Rees
9m, 6f | Full Length Play | Drama
Bobby Horvath, stock car racer, had visions of being the greatest, but he has returned home knowing he isn’t and never will be. Racing brought him excitement and glamour, and escape from the drudgery of a factory job. The action moves in and out of the past, as Bobby comes to terms with his family and himself. A sobering and touching portrait of a man and his blue-collar town stuck in the deadening routines of daily life.
TRUDY BLUE
by Marsha Norman
3m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 60 minutes | Comedy, Action & Adventure, Theatre for Young Audiences Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock
Wilson is just your average kid. Then one day he finds out his uncle is a pirate... like, a REAL pirate! With help from Uncle Pirate and his faithful talking penguin, maybe, just maybe, Wilson can survive the fourth grade. Grab yer eye patches and pirate hats, mateys! The adventure begins now!
THE UNDERPANTS
by Carl Sternheim, adapted by Steve Martin
This engaging play stars a popular author who has grown disillusioned with her family life. She has retreated into conversations with her alter ego, Trudy Blue, who is the heroine of her novels. When a medical scare leads to a terminal diagnosis, her imaginary companion and her fear threaten her grip on reality.
5m, 2f | Full Length Play | Comedy
TRUE WEST
by Sam Shepard 3m, 1f | Full Length Play | Comedy
This American classic explores alternatives that might spring from the demented terrain of the California landscape. Sons of a desert-dwelling alcoholic and a suburban wanderer clash over a film script. Austin, the achiever, is working on a script he has sold to producer Sal Kimmer when Lee, a demented petty thief, drops in. He pitches his own idea for a movie to Kimmer, who then wants Austin to junk his bleak, modern love story and write Lee’s trashy Western tale.
A TUNA CHRISTMAS
by Ed Howard, Joe Sears, Jaston Williams
A wild satire adapted from the classic German play. Louise and Theo Markes’s conservative existence is shattered when Louise’s bloomers fall down in public. Louise’s momentary display does not result in the feared public scandal but it does attract two infatuated men, each of whom wants to rent the spare room in the Markes’ home. Oblivious of their amorous objectives, Theo splits the room between them, happy to collect rent from both the foppish poet and the whiny hypochondriac.
THE UNREMARKABLE DEATH OF MARILYN MONROE by Elton Townend Jones 1f, | Monologue | Drama
A look behind the make-up to reveal a Marilyn never before seen. Alone in only her dressing gown; no glitz, no glamour. Overdosed on pills, the woman behind the icon drifts back through her life and the memories of those she loved the most. Revealing a frustrated intelligence, she exposes the truth about her legend.
VANITIES
2m, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Comedy, Holiday
by Jack Heifner
In this hilarious sequel, it’s Christmas in the third smallest town in Texas. Radio station DJs Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie report on various Yuletide activities, including hot competition in the annual lawn display contest and Joe Bob Lipsey’s production of A Christmas Carol. A total delight for all seasons, whether performed by two quick changing comedians or by a cast of twenty.
3f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
TUNA DOES VEGAS
by Ed Howard, Joe Sears, Jaston Williams
An astute, snapshot sharp chronicle of the lives of three Texas girls. In 1963, Joanne, Kathy, and Mary are aggressively vivacious cheerleaders. Five years later in their college sorority house, they are confronting their futures with nervous jauntiness. In 1974, they reunite briefly in New York. Their attempts at honest conversation only show how much their lives have diverged.
VERITÉ
2m, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Comedy
Nick Jones
The citizens of the “third smallest town in Texas” are reunited as they take a rambling romp to Sin City. The hilarity begins when oddball radio host Arles Struvie announces on air that he and his wife Bertha Bumiller are heading to Vegas to renew their wedding vows, and everyone in Tuna, Texas goes along for the ride!
4m, 2f, 1b | 90 minutes | Dark Comedy
TWO ON THE AISLE, THREE IN A VAN by Mary Lynn Dobson
THE VERTICAL HOUR
6m, 4f | 120 minutes | Comedy
Welcome to another season at the Neighborhood Actors Summerfun Repertory Theatre, where, due to a lack of wing space, the company spends their downtime in the parking lot. Those looking for refuge on the asphalt oasis include the stressed-out artistic director grappling for funding, a diva realizing her ingénue expiration date has passed, and the “I’m no chorus boy” chorus boy who thinks every show needs a kick line. A lighthearted look at community theatre that proves the old adage: somehow, the show must go on. Just not always as planned.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
Struggling writer Jo has been given the opportunity to write her own memoir. Her publishers explicitly ask only that she write about her life truthfully and that it be as exciting as possible. Forced to re-examine her rather dull life, strange events begin to occur, and Jo has to decide if her life is worth writing about or worth living.
116
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
by David Hare
3m, 2f | More than 120 minutes | Drama
A thought-provoking exploration of how the political can sometimes intersect, collide with, and ultimately dismantle the personal. The play addresses the relationship of characters with opposing views on the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and reveals the psychological tension between public and private lives.
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117
Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
5m, 6f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy
WASP
WHAT THE BUTLER SAW
3m, 3f | Short Play | Comedy
4m, 2f | Full Length Play | Comedy
In the fractured landscape of 50s suburbia, a prototypical white protestant family exists in a dark limbo of expectation and routine. Mom is surrounded by people but deeply alone, dad speaks in delicious platitudes, and the children fear anything new. The play vibrates with satire and dark lyrical irony as the family meanders blindly toward catastrophe.
Dr. Prentice interviews (and seduces) an attractive would-be secretary, Geraldine. Unwittingly surprised by his wife, he hides the girl. Meanwhile Mrs. Prentice, being seduced and blackmailed by young bellhop Nicholas, has promised him the secretarial post. When a government inspector arrives, chaos, underpants, and crossdressing lead the charge.
THE WAVERLY GALLERY
WHERE DO LITTLE BIRDS GO?
3m, 2f | More than 120 minutes | Comedy
1f | Monologues | Drama
Gladys, the elderly matriarch of the Green family, has run an art gallery in a small Greenwich Village hotel for many years. The management wants to replace her less-than-thriving gallery with a coffee shop. Always irascible but now increasingly erratic, Gladys is a cause of concern to her daughter, her son-in-law, and her grandson, from whose point of view this poignant memory play is told. A wacky and heartrending look at the effect of senility on a family.
It’s 1966. Lucy Fuller is 18 years old, and loves musicals, make up, and her job at Winston’s Nightclub. One night Lucy is kidnapped by the Kray Twins and locked in a flat with an escaped murderer. This is the terrifying story of Lucy’s time with Ronnie, Reggie and Frank “The Mad Axeman” Mitchell. A colorful and poignant tale of crime, kidnapping, and lost innocence in the heart of the 1960s East End.
by Steve Martin
by Joe Orton
by Kenneth Lonergan
by Camilla Whitehill
by David L. Kimple
by Ron Osborne
2m, 2f, 1m or f, | 120 minutes | Farce, Romantic Comedy
1m, 5f | 120 minutes | Comedy
After a fire that resulted in the death of the church’s beloved pastor, the sanctuary has been renovated and a new pastor has been called. There to welcome him are the ladies of the congregation. The third installment of the “First Baptist” trilogy. A poignant look at colorful characters who share laughs, love and forgiveness.
WELFAREWELL by Cat Delaney
Amidst the late-night din of St. Patrick’s Day in New York City, Donna comes home to find a highly intoxicated man named Theo dressed like a leprechaun in her apartment. Mistaking him for her roommate Jamie’s sublet, Donna puts him into the empty room only to learn that Jamie is still home. With no explanation of how he got in, Donna and her roommates must figure out where Theo came from and how to get him out of the apartment. But Theo’s undeniable charm and seemingly magical habits, aren’t making it easy.
THE WILDEST!!! HIP, COOL AND SWINGING!
1m, 7f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy
conceived & written by Randy Johnson, Thomas Porras, Luanne Prima, and Toni Elizabeth Prime
Esmerelda is 80, sound of mind but her body is beginning to “come unglued.” She’s facing the fact that her government pension is insufficient to support her. When arrested for attempting to bury her dead cat, she discovers that there is some sense of community, not to mention free room and board, within the prison system. Discovering the relative comforts of incarceration, can Esmerelda convince the legal system she should be locked up for life?
4m, 4f | Full Length Musical | Dramatic Comedy Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Pop/Rock,Jazz
WHAT IS SUSAN’S SECRET?
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
3m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy
25 m or f, | Full Length Musical | Comedy Easy Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway
by Michael Parker and Susan Parker
by Alan Bennett, adapted from the book by Kenneth Grahame
The Cider Mill Inn is an old, rustic and somewhat rundown inn owned by elderly couple, Michael and Susan Edwards. At first they appear to be bordering on senility but we quickly learn however that they are clever con artists. In this delightful comedy, guests at the inn are duped into signing work contracts and end up doing various repairs and improvements for the old couple around the inn.
This ingenious adaptation of the classic children’s novel created a sensation at the National Theatre of Great Britain. Here are Badger, Rat, Mole and Toad of Toad Hall in the familiar tale with a contemporary slant.
THE WITCH IN 204
WHENEVER
by Barbara Pease Weber
by Alan Ayckbourn and Denis King
2m, 6f | 105 Minutes | Comedy
5m, 4f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Comedy Easy Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway
Beginning in 1886, this historical-futuristic musical finds Emily’s good Uncle Martin inventing a time-machine that wicked Uncle Lucas wants to get his hands on. So Emily must journey to the end of time to ensure evil does not prevail. Emily picks up three traveling companions from various eras (1940, 2010) along the way — a chipper Cockney, a sensitive android, and a friendly Yeti.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
The Wildest!!! arrives at a moment when Louis Prima, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and other Las Vegas icons are being idolized as musical heroes. Capturing the nightclub years of the late 50s and early 60s, this lively musical is a journey to the past that is sure to evoke cherished memories and lead some to new discoveries.
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RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
Latch your windows! Bolt your door! Beware of the Witch in 204! You know your property value has plummeted when a witch moves in next door. Sylvie Goldberg’s hopes of living happily-ever-after with Eugene, the “otherworldly” gentleman of her dreams, soon dissipate when the witch next door, Bella, turns out to be Eugene’s former paramour. A modern day fairytale for grownups with fond memories of being both thrilled and terrified by wicked witches, genies, wizards, ghosts and goblins in the fables of our youth.
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Play and Musical Listings
LISTINGS
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THE WIZ
book by William F. Brown, music & lyrics by Charlie Smalls 6m, 5f, 4m or f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy, Dramatic Comedy, Adaptation Difficult Vocals | Large Orchestra | Pop/Rock, Jazz
L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is infused with a dazzling mix of rock, gospel, and soul. This timeless tale of Dorothy’s adventures through the Land of Oz is a fun, family-friendly, modern musical. A magical, high-energy show, appropriate for all theaters.
WONDERFUL TENNESSEE by Brian Friel
3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Drama
A haunting play by this celebrated Irish writer finds three couples on a deserted pier in Ballybeg, Ireland. There to celebrate Terry’s birthday, they are waiting for a boat that will take them to a mystical island, rumored to be the site of sacrificial rituals, which Terry claims to have bought. Drunken hilarity gives way to reflection as the couples play games, tell stories, and sing songs to pass the time.
WONDERLAND WIVES by Buddy Thomas
1m, 5f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Comedy, Parody
A show for mature audiences with very immature tastes. Prince Charming is serving ten years in the pen, Belle’s house is overrun with little beasts, and Snow White’s husband has shacked up with the three little pigs. These desperate housewives of the magical kingdom are forced to grapple with princely infidelity and poison apples in this fractured fairy tale about keeping the Ever After going when Happily fades away.
TITLE AND AUTHOR INDEXES
WRITER’S BLOCK by Woody Allen
6m, 4f | Full Length Play (Two One Act Plays) | Comedy
In Riverside Drive, a homicidal, paranoid-schizophrenic ex-copywriter has been stalking a screenwriter convinced that his prey stole his idea to create a successful movie plot. In Old Saybrooke, an orthodontist is hosting her sister and golf-mad brother-in-law at her grand suburban house. When a couple who once owned the house stops by, they spark an old fashioned sex farce full of verve and cunning.
YO, VIKINGS!
book & lyrics by Marcus Stevens, music by Sam Wilmott, based on the book by Judith Byron Schachner 7m, 6f, 1b, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Comedy, Action & Adventure, Adaptation Moderate Vocals | Piano Only | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock
The mini-saga of ten-year-old Emma, the fiercest Viking in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and her quest for real adventure. Yo, Vikings! combines sweeping melodies, thrilling Viking chants and funky rock‘n’roll with a beautiful, heartfelt story to engage and excite every member of the family.
ZOMBIE PROM
music by Dana P. Rowe, book & lyrics by John Dempsey, based on a story by John Dempsey and Hugh Murphy 5m, 5f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Romantic Comedy, Science Fiction Moderate Vocals | Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway,Pop/Rock, Contemporary Broadway
This girl-loves-ghoul rock musical is set in the atomic 1950s at Enrico Fermi High, ruled by a zany, tyrannical principal. Senior Toffee has fallen for the class bad boy, Johnny. Family pressure forces her to end the romance, and Johnny charges off on his motorcycle to the nuclear waste dump. He returns glowing, determined to reclaim Toffee’s heart. He still wants to graduate, but most of all he wants to take Toffee to the prom.
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
120
RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY TO CERTAIN TITLES
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INDEX OF PLAYS Boeing Boeing — 54 Books — 54 Brighton Beach Memoirs — 55 brownsville song (b-side for tray) — 55 Bullets for Broadway — 55 Bulrusher — 55 Calendar Girls — 56 Captain’s Tiger, The — 56 Cemetery Club, The — 56 Changing Room, The — 56 Charles Busch’s Cleopatra — 56 Charley’s Aunt — 56 Chasing Manet — 57 China Doll — 57 Christmas Carol, A — 57 City of Conversation, The — 58 Clarence Darrow — 58 Coastal Disturbances — 58 Collapse — 58 Comedy of Tenors, Ken Ludwig’s A — 58 Company of Wayward Saints, A — 59 Couple of Blaguards, A — 59 Cover of Life, The — 59 Crossing Jerusalem — 59 Cuba and His Teddy Bear — 59 Dancing in the End-Zone — 60 Dark of the Moon — 60 David and Lisa — 60 Days are as Grass, The — 60 Dead Accounts — 60 Death by Design — 60 Detroit ‘67 — 61 Devil Boys from Beyond — 61 Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency — 61 Diviners, The — 61 Distant Country Called Youth, A — 61 Doctor in Wonderland, The — 62 Doll’s House, A — 62 Don’t Dress for Dinner — 62 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — 63 Dracula — 64 Dram of Drummhicit, A — 64 Dusty and the Big Bad World — 64 Dying Gaul, The — 64 Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology — 64 Edith in the Dark — 64 Educating Rita — 65 Eight: Reindeer Monologues, The — 65 Election Day — 65
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
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Elephant Man, The — 65 End of the Day, The — 65 Engaging Shaw — 65 Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End — 66 Evelyn in Purgatory — 66 Everythings Turning Into Beautiful — 66 Facility for Living, A — 66 Faculty Room, The — 66 Fall — 66 Fall of Heaven, The — 67 Fantastic Mr. Fox — 67 Far from the Madding Crowd — 67 Feminine Ending, A — 67 Few, The — 67 Fiction — 67 Final Toast, The — 68 First Baptist of Ivy Gap — 68 Fixing Gwen — 68 Flamingo Court — 68 Flick, The — 68 Foolish Fishgirls and the Pearl — 69 Fools — 69 For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf — 69 Force of Change, The — 69 Forsooth, My Lovely — 69 From Door to Door — 70 Funny Money — 70 Game’s Afoot, The — 70 Gates of Gold — 70 General from America, The — 70 George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead Live — 70 Gift of Time, A — 71 Glorious!: The True Story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the Worst Singer in the World — 71 Go Back to Where You Are — 71 God Game, The — 71 God’s Heart — 71 Golda — 72 Good Old Fashioned Red Neck Country Christmas, A — 72 Good Old Fashioned Red Neck Country Wedding, A — 72 Graduate, The — 72 Grand Concourse — 72 Grandchild of Kings — 73 Great Wilderness, A — 73 Greater Tuna — 73 Ground — 73 Grounded — 74
Indexes
Melancholy Play: a contemporary farce — 85 Middletown — 86 Miracle Worker, The — 86 Mnemonist of Dutchess County, The — 86 Mom’s Gift — 86 MOMologues, The — 86 Money Matters — 87 Moon for the Misbegotten, A — 87 Moon Over Buffalo, Ken Ludwig’s — 87 Morcambe — 87 Most Deserving, The — 87 Mousetrap, The — 88 Mundy Scheme, The — 88 Murder at Cafe Noir — 88 Murder Inn — 88 Murder, Margaret and Me — 88 Murder On the Nile — 88 My Big Italian Funeral — 89 My Big Gay Italian Mid-Life Crisis — 89 My Big Gay Italian Wedding — 89 My Deah — 89 My First Time — 89 My Wonderful Day — 90 Mystery of Miz Arnette, The — 90 Nana’s Naughty Knickers — 90 Native Son — 90 Nice Family Christmas, A — 91 Nice Family Gathering, A — 91 Night Hank Williams Died, The — 91 Night in Provence, A — 91 No Exit — 91 No Sex Please, We’re British — 92 Noir Pointblank — 92 Noir Suspicions — 92 Noises Off — 92 Not About Nightingales — 92 Novelist, The — 93 Occupant, Edward Albee’s — 93 Odd Couple, The — 94 Odd Couple (Female Version), The — 94 Old Money — 94 Old Neighborhood, The — 94 Olive and the Bitter Herbs — 95 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest — 95 One Shoe Off — 95 OOHRAH! — 95 Our Town — 95 Out of the City — 95 Passion Play — 96 Peccadillo — 96 Penitent, The — 96 Perfect Arrangement — 96
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Piano Lesson, August Wilson's The — 97 Picasso at the Lapin Agile — 97 Picture of Dorian Gray, The — 97 Picture Ourselves in Latvia —98 Piece of My Heart, A — 98 Plant that Ate Dirty Socks, The (Play) — 98 Play On! — 98 Pocatello — 98 Poirot Double Bill, A — 98 Poor Richard — 98 Poorly-Written Play Festival, The — 99 Power Plays — 99 Precious Sons — 99 Private Lives — 99 Private Peaceful Ensemble — 99 Private Peaceful Solo — 99 Project Murder — 99 Quality of Life, The — 100 Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie — 100 Raisin in the Sun, A — 100 Realistic Joneses, The — 100 Red Velvet — 101 Red, White and Tuna — 101 Rest — 101 Rocket City, Alabam’ — 102 Romance Language — 103 Rose — 103 Rose’s Dilemma — 103 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead — 103 Rumors — 103 Run for Your Wife — 103 Same Time, Next Year — 104 Saturday Night at Old Smokey — 104 Seasonal Allergies — 105 Second Coming of Joan of Arc, The — 105 Secrets of the Trade — 105 See How They Run — 105 See You in Bells — 106 Seminar — 106 Seniors of the Sahara — 106 Seven Interviews — 106 Shakespeare for My Father — 106 Shakespeare’s Sister — 107 Shirley Valentine — 107 Showtime at First Baptist — 107 Sick — 107 Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks — 108 Skin Deep — 108 Skin Of Our Teeth, The — 108 Sleuth — 108 Smart People — 108
Indexes
INDEXES
39 Steps, The — 44 3C — 44 4 Beekman — 44 4000 Days — 44 4000 Miles — 45 Seconds from Broadway — 44 Abstract Expression — 45 Acting: The First Six Lessons — 45 Adult Entertainment — 45 Advise and Consent — 46 Afterlife — 46 Agnes of God — 46 Airswimming — 46 Altos, The — 46 Al’s Business Cards — 46 Albatross 3rd & Main, The — 46 All This Intimacy — 47 Amadeus — 47 Amelia — 47 Anarchist, The — 47 Anatomy of Gray — 48 And Then There Were None — 48 Any Body for Tea? — 48 Any Given Day — 48 Apostasy — 48 Arcadia — 48 As the Beast Sleeps — 49 Awesome 80s Prom, The — 49 Back Back Back — 49 Ballad of Soapy Smith, The — 49 Barefoot in the Park — 49 Barrio Hollywood — 50 Barrymore — 50 Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Ken Ludwig’s — 50 Battle Hymn — 50 Be My Baby — 50 Beachwood Drive — 50 BecauseHeCan — 51 Beethoven’s Tenth — 51 Belles — 51 Belles: The Reunion — 51 Bells, The — 51 Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The — 51 Better Late — 52 Beyond Therapy — 52 Big Meal, The — 52 Biloxi Blues — 53 Birds of a Feather — 53 Birth and After Birth — 53 Black Coffee — 53 Blanche and Beyond — 53 Blithe Spirit — 54 Blood At The Root — 54 Blood Brothers — 54
Gulf, The — 74 H2O — 74 Happy Ones, The — 74 Hatmaker’s Wife, The — 75 Hay Fever — 75 Healing, The — 75 Herd, The — 75 Holy Terror, The — 76 House of Blue Leaves, The — 76 Hurlyburly — 76 If I Were You — 77 If Memory Serves — 77 In the Next Room, or the vibrator play — 77 In-Laws, Outlaws, and Other People (That Should Be Shot) — 77 Informed Consent — 78 Inspecting Carol — 78 It’s Only Murder — 78 Jack of Diamonds — 78 James and the Giant Peach — 78 Jewtopia — 79 Jitney, August Wilson’s — 79 John Ball’s In the Heat of the Night — 79 Judas Kiss, The — 79 Keep Your Pantheon — 80 Kitchen Witches, The — 80 Lady in the Van, The — 80 Last Dance — 81 Last Schwartz, The — 81 Late, A Cowboy Song — 81 Leading Ladies, Ken Ludwig’s — 81 Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The — 81 Lend Me a Tenor, Ken Ludwig’s — 82 Leveling Up — 82 Lifetime Burning, A — 82 Lion in Winter, The — 82 Lost in Yonkers — 82 Love and Information — 83 Love List, The — 83 Love, Lies & the Doctor’s Dilemma — 83 Love, Sex and the I.R.S. — 83 Lucky Me — 84 Lunch with Mrs. Baskin — 84 Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, August Wilson's — 84 Magic Finger, The — 84 Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The — 85 Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam and Eve — 85 Masterpiece of Comic Timing!, A — 85 Matchmaker, The — 85 Maytag Virgin — 85
Smoke and Mirrors — 109 Social Security — 109 Somebody/Nobody — 109 Song Of Extinction — 110 Sordid Lives — 110 Splitting Heirs — 110 Spoils of War — 111 Spreading It Around — 111 Squabbles — 111 Stage Kiss — 111 Stepping Out — 111 Storm in a Flower Vase — 111 Story Theatre — 112 Stranger, The — 112 Sugar Witch, The — 112 Table Settings — 112 Talking With... — 113 That Which Isn’t — 113 Things My Mother Taught
Me — 113 Three One-Act Plays About the Elderly — 114 Three Sisters — 114 Through the Night — 114 Tiny Tim’s Christmas Carol — 114 Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding — 114 Too Many Cooks — 114 Top Girls — 115 Towards Zero — 115 Towards Zero (outdoors) — 115 Triangles for Two — 115 Tribute Artist, The — 115 Trip Back Down, The — 116 Trudy Blue — 116 True West — 116 Tuna Christmas, A — 116 Tuna Does Vegas — 116 Two on the Aisle, Three in a
Van — 116 Underpants, The — 117 Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe, The — 117 Vanities — 117 Verité — 117 Vertical Hour, The — 117 Wasp — 117 Waverly Gallery, The — 118 Welcome Back to Ivy Gap — 118 Welfarewell — 118 What is Susan’s Secret? — 118 Where Do Little Birds Go? — 118 Who Is Theo? — 119 Witch in 204, The — 119 Wonderful Tennessee — 120 Wonderland Wives — 120 Writer’s Block — 120
INDEX OF MUSICALS Hands on a Hardbody — 74 Happy Days - A New Musical — 74 Heathers The Musical — 75 Henry, Sweet Henry — 75 High School Reunion: The Musical — 76 How to Eat Like a Child — 76 Hunchback of Notre Dame, The — 76 I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road — 77 Imaginary Friends — 77 Jack’s Holiday — 78 Jasper in Deadland — 79 Judge Jackie: Disorder In The Court — 79 Kiss of the Spider Woman — 80 Kudzu: A Southern Musical — 80 La Cage Aux Folles — 80 Last Smoker in America, The — 81 Love Songs: A Musical — 83 LUCK! A Musical — 83 Lust — 84 Lust ‘n’ Rust: The Trailer Park Musical — 84 Melancholy Play: a chamber musical — 85 Merrily We Dance and Sing — 86 Monster Makers — 87 Musical of Musicals! The Musical — 89 Neil Simon’s Musical Fools — 90 New Brain, A — 90 Nine — 91 No Way to Treat A Lady — 92 Nunsense — 93
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
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Nunsense A-Men! — 93 Nunsense: The Mega-Musical Version — 93 Nutty Nutcracker Christmas, A — 93 Nymph Errant — 93 Oedipus For Kids! — 94 Oh! My Giddy Aunt or Himalayan Madness — 94 Paint! — 96 People vs. Mona, The — 96 Perfect Harmony — 96 Phantom — 97 Plant that Ate Dirty Socks, The —98 Pump Boys and Dinettes — 100 Really Rosie — 101 Redheaded Robbie’s Christmas Story — 101 Return to the Forbidden Planet — 101 Revenge of Sherlock Holmes, The — 101 ReWrite — 102 Rise of David Levinsky, The — 102 Rock of Ages — 102 Rocky Horror Show, The — 102 Ruthless! — 104 Sanders Family Christmas — 104 Savin’ Up For Saturday Night: The Honky-Tonk Musical — 104 Scrooge! — 104 Secret Garden, The — 105 See Rock City and Other Destinations — 105 Sex Please, We’re Sixty: The
Indexes
Spitfire Grill, The — 110 Tale of Two Cities the Musical, A — 112 Tales of Custard the Dragon, The — 112 Tap Dance Kid, The — 113 Taxi Cabaret, The — 113 They’re Playing Our Song — 113 Too Old for The Chorus, But Not Too Old to be a Star — 115 Trey Parker’s Cannibal The
Musical — 115 Uncle Pirate — 117 Whenever — 118 Wildest!!! Hip, Cool and Swinging!, The — 119 Wind in the Willows, The — 119 Wiz, The — 120 Yo, Vikings! — 120 Zombie Prom — 120
INDEX OF AUTHORS Abbot, Rick — 98 Acito, Marc — 53 Adams, Douglas — 61 Adjmi, David — 44 Aidman, Charles — 64 Albee, Edward — 93 Alda, Alan — 100 Alexander, Brad — 105 Alfieri, Richard — 108 Allen, Woody — 120 Alley, Fred — 110 Almond, Todd — 85 Alton, Ed — 86 Anastasio, Trey — 74 Anderson, Jane — 100 Anderson, Roger — 107 Arkin, Alan — 99 Artificial Intelligence — 114 Ashman, Howard — 109 Ayckbourn, Alan — 77, 90, 117 Ayvazian, Leslie — 95 Bailey, Alan — 90, 104, 108 Baitz, Jon Robin — 65 Baker, Annie — 68 Barkan, Mark — 59 Balderston, John L. — 64 Barker, Wayne — 58 Barlow, Patrick — 44, 57 Bauske, Brent — 72 Bauske, Kris — 72 Baxindine, John — 59 Beaty, Daniel — 114 Belke, David — 69 Bennett, Alan — 80, 119 Bennett, Mark — 76 Bergman, Andrew — 109 Berney, William — 60 Birney, David — 854 Bishop, John — 116 Blackwell, Charles — 112 Blum, Galen — 58 Bobrick, Sam — 68, 78, 84 Bock, Jerry — 54 Bogart, Joanne — 89
Bond, Christopher — 70 Bowles, Paul — 91 Boyer, Dale — 70 Bradbeer, Suzanne — 71 Brader, Robert — 106 Brant, George — 74 Bricusse, Leslie — 102, 104 Bridges, Beau — 45 Bridges, Emily — 45 Brochu, Jim — 52 Brown, William F. — 120 Brunstetter, Bekah — 95 Burge, Anton — 111 Burrows, Abe — 68 Busch, Charles — 56, 73, 94, 115 Cagan, Steve — 83 Cahn, Sammy — 108 Cain, Marie — 105 Caisley, Robert — 84, 85 Camoletti, Marc — 54, 62 Carlton, Bob — 101 Carnelia, Craig — 77 Carpenter, Bridget —66 Casey, Warren — 73 Cassaro, Nancy — 114 Cefaly, Audrey — 74, 85 Chaffer, Don — 110 Chakrabarti, Lolita — 101 Chekhov, Anton — 114 Chiodo, Tom — 58 Christie, Agatha — 48, 53, 88, 98, 112, 115 Churchill, Caryl — 83, 115 Claire, Edie — 106 Clark, Ron — 44 Cloutier, Stefanie — 86 Cohen, Douglas J. — 57, 71, 92 Comden, Betty — 62 Compton, Jethro — 85 Connolly, Will — 69 Cooney, Ray — 70, 103 Courts, Randy — 78 Covert, Ralph — 93 Covington, Dennis — 55
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Coward, Noel — 54, 75, 99 Cram, Cusi — 64, 82 Craver, Mike — 109 Creatore, Luigi — 68 Cross, Beverly — 54 Cryer, Gretchen — 77 D’Arienzo, Chris — 102 D’Arrigo, Londos — 111 Dahl, Roald — 67, 778, 84 Davenport, Ken — 44, 89 David, Arvind Ethan — 61 Davies, Andrew — 103 Davis, Bill C. — 60 Davis, Eisa — 55 Deane, Hamilton — 64 DeBoy, David — 62 DeGregorio, Nick — 76 Delaney, Cat — 118 Dempsey, John — 120 DePietro, Peter — 58 DeTurk, Scott — 55 Diamond, Lydia R. — 108 Dietz, Steven — 67 Dillman, Lisa — 73 Dilorio, Gino — 48 Dimond, Christopher — 79 DiSavino, Katherine — 90, 105, 113 Dobson, Mary Lynn — 116 Dohrn, Zayd — 107 Dolginoff, Stephen — 87 Dudley, Anton — 64 Dunn, Mark — 51, 106 Durang, Christopher — 45, 52 Ebb, Fred — 45, 57, 80 Eden, Simon David — 46 Edwards, Ronnie Claire — 90 Ekstrom, Peter — 62 Elliott, Ken — 61 Engel, Allison — 66 Engel, Margaret — 66 Eno, Will — 86, 100 Ephron, Delia — 76 Ephron, Nora — 77 Epperson, John — 89
Indexes
INDEXES
70, Girls, 70 — 45 Adding Machine: A Musical — 45 Adrift in Macao — 45 American Tales — 47 Barbara’s Blue Kitchen — 49 Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The — 52 Big Nate — 52 Big Voice: God or Merman?, The —52 Bingo! The Winning Musical — 53 Body Beautiful, The — 54 Boy Called Lizard, A — 55 Bridge to Terabithia — 55 Chicago — 57 Children’s Letters to God — 57 Cinderella’s Mice — 57 Clue: The Musical — 58 Cougar: The Musical — 59 Death Takes a Holiday — 61 Doctor! Doctor! — 622 Doll’s Life, A — 62 Don’t Hug Me — 62 Don’t Hug Me Christmas, A — 63 Don’t Hug Me County Fair — 63 Don’t Hug Me I’m Pregnant — 63 Don’t Hug Me We’re Married — 63 Doonesbury — 63 First Impressions — 68 Fly By Night — 69 Gig, The — 71 Good Old Fashioned Red Neck Country Christmas, The Musical, A — 72 Grease — 73 Green Heart, The — 73
Musical — 106 Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical — 107 Skyscraper — 108 Smile — 109 Smoke on the Mountain — 109 Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming — 109 Something’s Afoot — 110 Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers, The — 110
Hawdon, Robin — 62, 91 Heather Brothers, The — 84 Heifner, Jack — 117 Heimbuch, John — 81 Heitzman, Michael — 53 Henry, Buck — 72 Herman, George — 59 Herman, Jerry — 80 Herrera, Anthony — 109 Herrick, Jack — 80 Herzog, Amy — 44 Holcenberg, David — 53 Holland, Merlin — 97 Howard, Ed — 73, 101, 116 Howard, Ross — 97 Howe, Tina — 53, 57, 58, 95 Hughes, Douglas E. — 78, 114 Hunter, Samuel D. — 67, 73, 75, 98, 101 Ibsen, Henrik — 62 Iconis, Joe — 98, 102 Jacobs, Jim — 73 James, Jimmie — 66 Johnson, Nunnally — 75 Johnson, Randy — 119 Johnson, Terry — 72 Jones, Charlotte — 46 Jones, Elton Townend — 117 Jones, Nick — 117 Joseph, Rajiv — 47 Kahan, Judith — 76 Kaminsky, Stuart — 54, 68 Kander, John — 45, 57, 80 Kanin, Garson — 71, 96 Kaplan, Van — 79 Karp, Marshall — 111 Kash, Marcia — 78, 114 Kayden, Mildred — 94 Kelley, Nambi E. — 90 Kerr, Jean — 98 Killer Tracks — 55 Kimball, Carol — 84 Kimple, David L. — 119 King, Carole — 101 King, Denis — 118 King, Larry L. — 52, 91 King, Philip — 105 Kinnear, Rory — 75 Koenigsberg, Josh — 46, 86 Kooman, Michael — 79 Kopit, Arthur — 51, 64, 91, 97 Krieger, Henry — 113 Laird, Marvin — 104 Landau, David — 47, 55, 88, 92 Lapine, James — 90, 112 Laufer, Deborah Zoe — 78, 81, 82 Lauro, Shirley — 98 Lawson, Steve — 53, 61 Lee, Kimber — 55 Lefferts, Seth — 59
PLAYS AND MUSICALS FOR COMMUNITY THEATERS
126
LeFranc, Dan — 52 Leonard, Jr., Jim — 48, 50, 61 Leppard, Meryl — 59 Levinson, Richard — 104 Lewis, Em — 110 Liebman, Steve — 55 Linderman, Ed — 110 Loewith, Jason — 45, 52 Lonergan, Ken — 118 Lonoff, Jon — 108 Lorick, Robert — 113 Lucas, Craig — 64, 71 Luce, William — 50 Ludwig, Jack — 50, 114 Ludwig, Ken — 50, 58, 70, 81, 82, 87, 114 Luttrell, Bill — 101 Luttrell, Carol — 101 Mackes, Steve — 93 Magee, Rusty — 74 Mamet, David — 47, 57, 80, 94, 96 Mandel, Loring — 46 Marhsall, Garry — 74 Markham, Shelly — 115 Marlette, Doug — 80 Marriott, Anthony — 92 Martin, Jane — 74, 109, 113 Martin, Norma L. — 45 Martin, Steve — 97, 117, 118 Martin, Trevor — 70 Martucci, Vince — 58 Masteroff, Joe — 55 Masterson, Peter — 52 Mathias, Adan — 105 May, Elaine — 45, 98 McArthur, Nancy — 98 McCourt, Frank — 59 McCourt, Malachy — 59 McDonald, James — 110 McGregor, Keith — 88 McGuinness, Frank — 70 McNally, Terrence — 80 Mead, Kevin — 105 Meehan, Thomas — 61 Meeks, Philip — 64, 88 Mellon, James J. — 55 Melnick, Peter — 45, 80 Menchell, Ivan — 56 Merrill, Bob — 75 Miller, Patricia —96 Mills, G. Rile — 93 Mills, Peter — 113 Milmore, Jane — 83, 76, 86 Mitchell, Gary — 49, 69 Mitnick, Michael — 69 Monk, Debra — 100 Moore, Allison — 58 Moore, Donna — 59 Moran, Michael Patrick — 94 Morgan, Cass — 100
Indexes
Morisseau, Dominique — 54, 61 Morogiello, John — 65 Morpurgo, Michael — 99 Morris, Steven Leigh — 50 Morss, Ben — 57 Moses, Itamar — 49 Mosley, Walter — 67 Murphy, Hugh — 120 Murphy, Kevin — 75 Myatt, Julie Marie — 74 Nass, Elyse — 114 Nelson, Richard — 70 New Cannibal Society — 115 Norman, Marsha — 81, 105, 116 O’Brien, Richard — 102 O’Connor, John — 97 O’Keefe, Laurence — 75 O’Neill, Eugene — 87 Oliver, Ryan Scott — 79 Olson, Paul — 62, 63 Olson, Phil — 62, 63, 86, 91 Orton, Joe — 81, 119 Osbourne, Ron — 68, 104, 107, 118 Osbourne, Will —109 Osterman, Georg — 63 Paley, Joel — 104 Parker, Michael — 83, 86, 106, 118 Parker, Susan — 83, 86, 106, 118 Parnell, Peter — 103 Pascal, Julia — 59 Paterson, Katherine — 55 Patterson, Kimberly — 93 Pattison, Phil — 70 Paul, Bobby — 102 Paxton, Glenn — 68 Payne, Topher — 66, 96 Peirce, Lincoln — 52 Pelfrey, Matt — 79 Perry, Eleanor — 60 Pielmeier, John — 46 Pomerance, Bernard — 65 Porras, Thomas — 119 Porter, Cole — 93 Povod, Reinaldo — 59 Powell, Jan — 47 Prima, Luanne — 119 Prime, Toni Elizabeth — 119 Prince, Harold — 73 Quilter, Peter — 44, 71 Quinton, Everett — 76 Rabe, David — 76 Rafferty, Lisa — 86 Ray, Connie — 104 Reach, James — 60 Reade, Simon — 99 Rebeck, Theresa — 45, 51, 60, 93, 106 Redgrave, Lynn — 106 Rees, Douglas — 117 Reichel, Cara — 113
Reid, Ilene — 53 Richardson, Howard — 60 Rintels, David — 58 Robinson, Barbara — 51 Robinson, R. T. — 59 Rockwell, Eric — 89 Romero, Elaine — 50 Rosenfeld, Seth Zvi — 66 Rosenstock, Kim — 69 Ross, Brad — 83, 110 Rowe, Dana P. — 120 Rubin, Theodore Isaac — 60 Ruhl, Sarah — 77, 81, 85, 96, 111, 114 Russell, Bill — 81 Russell, Willy — 54, 65, 107 Saferstein, Robert J. — 94 Sager, Carole Bayer — 113 Saltzman, Mark — 102 Sanders, Nathan — 112 Santoriello, Jill — 112 Sartre, Jean-Paul — 91 Schalchlin, Steve — 52 Schimmel, John — 100 Schmidt, Joshua — 100 Schreck, Heidi — 72 Sears, Joe — 93, 101, 116 Seff, Richard — 107 Seidman, Robin — 96 Sendak, Maurice — 101 Shaffer, Anthony — 108 Shaffer, Peter — 47 Shange, Ntozake — 69 Sheffer, Isaiah — 102 Shepard, Sam — 116 Sherman, James — 70 Shores, Del — 110 Sills, Paul — 112 Simon, Lucy — 105 Simon, Neil — 44, 49, 53, 55, 69, 82, 90, 92, 103, 113 Simpson, Bland — 80 Slade, Bernard — 104 Smalls, Charlie — 120 Smith, Caroline — 80 St. Germain, Mark — 78 Stein, Joseph — 54 Stephens, Spencer — 96 Stern, Nikki — 47, 88, 92 Sternheim, Carl — 117 Stevens, Marcus — 120 Stone, Ken — 47 Stone, Peter — 61, 108 Stoppard, Tom — 48, 103 Storey, David — 56 Stratton, Dave — 84 Sullivan, Daniel — 78 Surface, Mary Hall — 110 Swados, Elizabeth — 63 Swale, Jessica — 67
127
Swann, Phil — 90 Thomas, Brandon — 56 Thomas, Buddy — 61, 120 Thomas, Freyda — 110 Thompson, David — 45 Tobiessen, Josh — 77, 105 Tolan, Stephanie S. — 55 Tolins, Jonathan — 77, 105 Treem, Sarah — 67 Trieschmann, Catherine — 87 Trudeau, Garry — 63 Urbinati, Rob — 60 Ustinov, Peter — 51 Valcq, James — 110 Van Heusen, James — 108 Van Zandt, Billy — 76, 83, 86 Varod, Gil — 94 Verner, Gerald — 115 Voland, Howard — 88 Vos, David — 110 Waldrop, Mark — 83 Wann, Jim — 96, 100 Warner, Justin — 57 Wasserman, Dale — 95 Wasserstein, Wendy — 94 Webb, Alex — 47 Weber, Barbara Pease — 69, 106, 119 Weiss, George — 68 Weller, Michael — 49, 111 West, Ron — 90 Whaley, Michael — 93 Whipday, Emma — 107 Whitehall, Camilla — 119 Whitman, Danny — 110 Whitnall, Tim — 87 Wilde, Oscar — 97 Wilder, Thornton — 62, 85, 95, 108 Wilkinson, Anthony — 89 Williams, Jaston — 73, 101, 116 Williams, Paul — 74 Williams, Tennessee — 92 Willingham, Calder — 72 Wilmott, Sam — 120 Wilson, August — 79, 84, 97 Wiltse, David — 115 Winker, Mark — 115 Winters, Ben H. — 117 Wolfson, Sam — 79 Wood, David — 67, 78, 84 Wright, Doug — 74 Yee, Lauren — 75 Yeston, Maury — 61, 91, 97 Youstra, Chris — 52 Zlotoff, Lee David — 110 Zolidis, Don — 62, 99
Indexes
INDEXES
Eppolito, Sheila — 86 Essentials, The — 97 Evans, David — 57 Evans, Francis — 54 Fagin, Gary — 104 Ferguson, Jon — 81 Fierstein, Harvey — 80 Finn, William — 90 Firth, Tim — 56 Fischer, Lori — 49, 110 Fogel, Brian — 79 Foley, John — 100, 104 Foot, Alistair — 92 Ford, Nancy — 77 Forgette, Katie — 66 Fornarola, Drew — 117 Forster, John — 76 Fosse, Bob — 57 Foster, Hunter — 79 Foster, Norm — 83 Franco, Steve — 77 Fratti, Mario — 91 Frayn, Michael — 46, 92 Freeman, Matthew — 113 Friel, Brian — 88, 120 Fugard, Athol — 56 Furth, George — 99 Gage, Carolyn — 99, 205 Gelbart, Larry — 52 Gerlach, Robert — 110 Giardina, Anthony — 58 Gibson, William — 72, 86 Gilford, C.B. — 48 Gilroy, Frank D. —48 Glickman, Will — 54 Goggin, Dan — 93 Goldman, James — 82 Goldman, Robert — 68 Goldsmith, Lee — 107 Goode, Jeff — 65, 104 Goss, James — 61 Gray, Simon — 76 Green, Adolph — 62 Green, Amanda — 74 Greenspan, David — 71 Gross, Arnie — 59 Grossman, Larry — 62 Grosso, Andrew — 97 Guare, John — 76 Hall, Carol — 52, 60 Hamlisch, Marvin — 77, 108, 113 Hample, Stuart — 57 Haney, Frank — 84 Hansberry, Lorraine — 100 Hardwick, Mark — 100, 109 Hardy, Thomas — 67 Hare, David — 79, 117 Harnick, Sheldon — 54 Harris, Richard — 111 Harrison, Christopher — 70
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ABOUT SAMUEL FRENCH Samuel French is the world’s leading publisher and licensor of plays and musicals. The company’s catalog features some of the most acclaimed work ever written for the stage and titles by writers at the forefront of contemporary drama. Samuel French is proud to serve as a leader in theatrical publishing and licensing, and is committed to the future by championing playwrights, innovating the industry, and celebrating all those who make theatre happen around the world. Plays and Musicals For Community Theaters, Published June 2017.
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ABOUT SAMUEL FRENCH Samuel French is the world’s leading publisher and licensor of plays and musicals. The company’s catalog features some of the most acclaimed work ever written for the stage and titles by writers at the forefront of contemporary drama. Samuel French is proud to serve as a leader in theatrical publishing and licensing, and is committed to the future by championing playwrights, innovating the industry, and celebrating all those who make theatre happen around the world.
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