Definitely not keepin it real. Without the fakers of the world, we would never appreciate the beauty of authenticity! Fakers. is comprised of some of the best sketches from The Second City resident stages and performed in Hollywood. Second City is the world's premiere comedy theatre and largest school of improvisation and sketch comedy.
Lorenz (Larry) Hart was one of Broadway's all-time greats, the brilliant lyricist who penned "My Funny Valentine," "Blue Moon," "Manhattan," "Falling in Love With Love," "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," "Where or When," and countless other classics. As half of the legendary team of Rodgers and Hart, he lived a life of dizzying heights and crushing lows. Now Mark Saltzman (author of The Colony's smash hit Clutter: The True Story of the Collyer Brothers Who Never Threw Anything Out) captures them all in an intimate look at the life and times of this lyrical genius, a brand new musical developed by The Colony featuring some of the most memorable songs of the 20th Century.
A carnival midway of magic, mischief and theatrical thrills! Amanda Dehnert, celebrated throughout the American theatre for re-imagining classics, has added a multitude of visual delights and fantastical illusions to the original charm and beautiful ballads (like the haunting "Try to Remember") of The Fantasticks. When two scheming fathers conspire with the mysterious El Gallo to keep their daughter and son apart (to be sure they'll fall in love!) the dewy-eyed lovers venture into the real world. But as fantasy turns to reality, El Gallo is there to remind them that "without the hurt, the heart is hollow" in one of the most popular musicals of all time, which the Washington Post calls, "Fresh and alive again."
In “Fool For Love” (1983), Eddie, a rodeo stuntman, has hunted down May,- his “forever connection,” and found her in a motel in the Mojave Desert. She’s as drawn to him as he is to her , but if it were that simple, this wouldn’t be a Sam Shepard play. They’re together, then they’re apart, they’re together, and the fire and obsession and possession never abates. Eddie can’t leave other women alone and he can’t leave May alone and now there’s a Countess, elusive, dangerous and obsessed with Eddie (but Shepard leaves her outside in her Mercedes Benz during the play).
Eddie and May have an unhinged yearning and raw sexuality that goes beyond usual aspects of attraction, and there’s a secret that is revealed. It is “Rashomon,” with each one having a different view of their shared history. There is also an Old Man who is ever present in the play, and he has another version of the story. The Old Man supplies mysteries and answers. And the “gentleman caller” Martin arrives to give May a way to be released from Eddie---maybe. Fool For Love is about romantic obsession, although that may be redundant: Romance IS obsessive. It is feisty, muscular and sexually charged.
FRED GARBO got paid for doing a card trick in 1974, and has been a professional performer ever since. On Sesame Street, he was the acrobat inside Barkley the Dog. On Broadway, he was the chief juggler in the musical Barnum. He toured Europe, Hong Kong and Australia with the Obie Award-winning Foolsfire, with Bob Berky and Michael Moschen. Whether tumbling for the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center or dancing with MOMIX in Brazil, Fred brings a gymnast's timing and an actor's presence to his Inflatable Theater Co. He even was featured on David Letterman's Late Night. Fred Garbo continues to astound
and tickle audiences with his pop-action inflatables and hilarious stage presence. For more than two decades he has been inventing inflatables with artist/builder George York. Fred has trained and performed with the Master of Illusion: Tony Montanaro.
An original dream play that links the world of women in Toulouse Lautrec's paintings to the men who loved them. Through words, movement and love the divine feminine of the past gains strength as a surreal absinthe night of drinking opens up a world that will enchant, challenge, frighten and inspire. Join an in-house group of Bootleg artists as we explore the art, performance, love, life and the women who played roles throughout it all.
Have you ever wondered what actually happened with Hansel and Gretel in that candy house? What really took place between the Little Mermaid and the Handsome Prince under the sea? What does "Kamikakushi (gasp!)" really mean? Wonder no more as Actors' Repertory Theatre unveils the real experiences of Hansel & Gretel, The Little Mermaid and the Japanese legend of Kamikakushi - all rolled into one joyous world premiere musical comedy that takes audiences on a truly theatrical journey, rooted in traditional story-telling and exploding into a multi-media event of epic proportions as the troupe of seven actors portray dozens of separate characters, spaces and places. The audience becomes part of the adventure, along the way offering a thumbs down to selfishness, gluttony, pollution and waste, and assuring that the stories reach their deserved happily-ever-afters.
In this hilarious and moving new comedy/drama, Rochelle, a middle-aged Jewish woman struggling with a crisis of faith, is convinced to join a flamenco class for out of shape women – and her life is changed forever.
HOT CAT is an original play created with the unique talents of Theatre Movement Bazaar, featuring performers from Theatre of NOTE’s ensemble, using a synthesis of dance and theatre, a mixture of comedy and philosophy to create an original and proactive theatrical experience.
I’m Not Rappaport (1985) is set in New York’s Central Park, where Midge, an African American man and Nat, a Jewish man, both elderly, meet and slowly develop a friendship. Midge has been a custodian in his building for many, many years and may face the prospect of soon losing his job. Nat, an old-school leftist who manipulates people by changing identities and affiliations as casually as most people change their clothes, decides to do something about it, despite Midge’s reservations. They’re not alone in the park. There’s a lovely young artist, Laurie, whom the men befriend. There’s Gilley, a kid with a knife running a protection racket. And there’s a far more dangerous character, The Cowboy, the drug connection to whom Laurie is deeply in debt and who plans to do Laurie great bodily harm if she can’t pay her bill. When Nat and Midge attempt to intercede on Laurie’s behalf, they are placing themselves in deadly danger. Can Nat and Midge, so very different, ever really become close friends? Who is Nat, really? (Who he says he is keeps changing.) Will Midge be evicted? Will Laurie, Nat and Midge get themselves killed?
Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad directs Joe Turner's Come and Gone from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. Part of Wilson's 10-play cycle chronicling the experience of African-Americans in the 20th century, Joe Turner's Come and Gone was a Tony nominee for Best Play in 1988. Set in the dawning days of a century without slavery, this historical drama finds Herald Loomis -- haunted by seven years on a chain gang -- in Pittsburgh searching for his wife and a new life.
KILL ME examines the fuzzy lines between belief and reality. After a horrific car accident, a young woman emerges from a coma convinced that beings from another dimension have made her immortal. Her sister and lover think she is suffering from mental illness… until the same beings start affecting them as well. Have they opened the gates of Hell upon themselves, or is it all a product of the mind? And ultimately, is there a difference?
In 1998, the brutal murder of a gay college student, Matthew Shepard, made the town of Laramie, Wyoming the focus of an international news story. The Laramie Project, adapted from a collection of real-life interviews, is a cultural pulse-taking that examines the events of the murder and its aftermath while asking the question ‘Could this be our town?’
10 years later, the same team traveled back to Laramie to investigate the long-term effects of this event. This powerful sequel reveals a range of views from regret to denial, and includes first-time interviews with Shepard’s murderers as well as his mother. The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later explores how the town has changed in the last 10 years and how we measure that change. This powerful companion piece asks us to look at a town -- and a nation -- wrestling with its legacy and its place in history.
You’re about to see scenes from both pieces – First, with the attack on Matthew Shepard very recent, residents of Laramie speak about being gay in small town America. Then we fast-forward to the 10 year anniversary of the attack, when a local newspaper editorial sheds light on the community’s conflicting views of history.
Lonesome Traveler, a musical event that takes audiences on a journey down the rivers and streams of American Folk Music -- from the hills of Appalachia to the nightclubs of San Francisco and New York; from the 1920s to the 1960s.
A bright and witty story about mid-life dating, with characteristic angst and comedic drama, this story is a hilarious romp through the world of the temporarily unattached. The story begins with two pairs of friends about to meet on a blind double date. Ever unsure about what to expect and how to impress, the four stumble around romance like hapless teenagers.
Helen's entire life has been dictated to her. She she does what society
expects of her, however resistant she may feel. She marries her boss,
whom she finds repulsive and has a baby with him. Followed by an affair
with a younger man who fuels her lust for life, she is driven to murder her
husband. She is found guilty and is executed in an electric chair. Inspired
by the real life case of executed murderess Ruth Snyder. Its 1928
Broadway premiere is considered one of the high-points of American
Expressionist theatre.
Tara Grammy is at the Whitefire Theatre for a limited run of her award-winning one-woman show, Mahmoud. A winner at both the New York and Toronto Fringe Festivals, this irreverent and capriciously clever performance sees Grammy slipping into the personas of an aging Iranian engineer-cum-taxi driver, a fabulously gay Spaniard and a young Iranian-Canadian girl, all trying to get through the daily grind in the big city. Over the course of an hour, their stories come together, and themes of displacement, immigration, home, and culture are explored through the connections formed with the audience and between each character.
