High Society

Walnut Street Theatre, located at 825 Walnut Street, is presenting High Society on its main stage. Based on the play, The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and additional lyrics by Susan Birkenhead., this high energy musical will appear through October 25. Megan Nicole Arnoldy gives an excellent performance as New York Socialite Tracy Lord who is preparing for her upcoming weekend wedding. Her mannerisms are kittenish and her voice is solid and strong.  Jon Reinhold portrays George Kittredge, Tracy’s fiancé. Paul Schaeffer portrays Dexter C.K. Haven, Tracy’s ex and Ben Dibble portrays Macaulay “Mike” Connor, a reporter sent to cover the wedding. All three would like to be the one to exchange wedding vows with Tracy and all three have an opportunity to express themselves in song.  Many foolish side plots take place during the course of weekend. Grace Gonglewski is delightful as Margaret Lord, Tracy's mother. Alexis Gwynn and Cambria Klein share the role of Dinah Lord, Tracy's younger sister. Both young ladies are already accomplished actors. A very talented ensemble cast of maids and man-servants sing and dance their way throughout the weekend-long celebration. It is Jenny Lee Stern as Liz Imbrie, secret society reporter, who steals the show, however.  She is a showcase of talent. Her facial expressions are uproarious; her voice can knock down the rafters; and her body language would make a mime envious. If all of this weren’t enough to have you flock to the theatre to see the show, the scenic design by Robert Andrew Kovach is extraordinary.  This is certainly a production you won’t want to miss. For more information or tickets, call 215-574-3550, 800-982-2787, or visit online at www.walnutstreettheatre.org or Ticketmaster..

Lantern Theater Season Preview

The Lantern Theater, located in St. Stephen’s Church, 10th and Ludlow Streets, recently had a lovely season preview event featuring the theater’s education director and the directors of each of the season’s upcoming plays as well as some of the actors in these plays. Education Director Craig Getting enthusiastically described the education programs in the city serving 3000 students, many in the form of in-school residencies.  The programs help students to tell classic stories in their own ways to better understand the original version. Teachers are also being trained and given tools to teach these theater units on their own.

Photograph 51 was presented by director Kathryn MacMillan and actors Geneviève Perrier and Harry Smith. The director informed the audience that she had been in touch with the playwright daily. The show has just opened in London and the playwright has made some changes but MacMillan felt those changes were not suitable for the Lantern. The Lantern’s production will be unique. The main character, Rosalind, is a Jewish female scientist in a man’s world. She is responsible for the discovery of the helix of DNA.  Geneviève Perrier dedicates her performance to her Jewish grandmother who was a dentist in France. Smith portrays Morris Wilkins, an incredibly intelligent young man who is socially inept and doesn’t understand how people work.

Underneath the Lintel- will also be directed by Kathryn MacMillan and Peter DeLaurier will reprise his Barrymore award winning performance.  DeLaurier’s character is a librarian who “dances on the edge of personality disorders.”

Oscar Wilde: From the Depths- Director Craig Getting interviewed playwright Charles McMahon.  McMahon mentioned that in writing The Importance of Being Ernest, Oscar Wilde was writing about his own life.  Wilde also went to prison as a result of a libel suit which he knew to be erroneous.  The question is why?  Perhaps McMahon answers that question and others in his play.

As You Like It- Charles McMahon is the director and J Hernandez the represented actor. McMahon described Shakespeare’s play as one with a lot of jokes and as series of reversals. Consider the  two main characters.  One sees the world as it is and it liberates him.  The other sees the world as it is and it depresses him.

36 Views – by playwright Naomi lizuka, Director Peter DeLaurier and designer Jorge Cousineau. This is a study of what’s true and what’s false.  It uses the metaphor, what is true Asian art? What do we value? What happens when a person whose habitual response to relationships is avoidance finds himself in love? This has been described as a “profoundly unusual play.”

The preview was fascinating. All five shows are bound to be intriguing. For more information, visit online at www.lanterntheater.org or call 215-829-0395.

Bullets Over Broadway

BULLETS OVER BROADWAY

WILL LAUNCH  2015-2016

BROADWAY PHILADELPHIA

THEATRE SEASON

      NATIONAL TOUR MAKES PHILADELPHIA PREMIERE

           OCT 27- NOV 1 AT ACADEMY OF MUSIC

                        Tickets On Sale Now! 

The national tour of Woody Allen’s musical comedy,  BULLETS OVER BROADWAY will make its Philadelphia premiere, kicking off the new Broadway Philadelphia  season from Oct 27 – Nov 1 at the Academy of Music.  Broadway Philadelphia is presented collaboratively by the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and the Shubert Organization. BULLETS OVER BROADWAY premiered last season on Broadway and received six Tony-Award nominations, including Best Book  of a Musical and Best Choreography.  The tour is under the direction of Jeff Whiting who worked on the Broadway production. Original choreography will be replicated. 

The production, set in  the 1920’s, tells the tale of a playwright who needs someone to back his next show and a mobster who is looking for some way to please his less than talented showgirl girlfriend. BULLETS OVER BROADWAY features existing music of the period including “Let’s Misbehave” and “I’m Sitting On Top Of  The World.”

Tickets are available beginning September 4 by calling 215-731-3333, visiting online at kimmelcenter.org/broadway, at the Kimmel Center box office, Broad and Spruce Sts.(open daily 10 am to 6 pm) or at The Academy of Music box office, Broad and Locust Sts. (open during performances only). Orders for groups of 10 or more may be placed by calling 215-790-5883 or 866-276-2947.  Performances are Tuesday through Thursday evenings at 7:30 pm. Friday & Saturday evenings at 8:00 pm; Sunday evenings at 6:30 pm; matinees Saturday at 2:00 pm and Sunday at 1:00 pm.

In addition to Bullets over Broadway, the new 2015-2016 season of Broadway Philadelphia will include Matilda The Musical (Nov. 17- 29, 2015;  Pippin (Feb 23 – 28, 2016); The Sound of Music (March 15 – 20, 2016); Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Mar. 22 – Apr 3, 2016); If/Then (Jun 21 – 26, 2016), all at The Academy of Music. Additional productions will include The Book of Morman (Nov 24 – Dec. 27,2015) at the Forrest Theatre; Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical (Dec.15- 20 ); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Dec. 29, 2015 – Jan 3, 2016), both at the Merriam Theater; and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (Feb 16 – 21).

The Shoplifters

Mary Martello, Johnnie Hobbs Jr.,
Daniel Fredrick & Marla Burkholder

1812 Productions, Philadelphia’s all comedy theatre company, is presenting the Philadelphia premiere of Morris Panych’s The Shoplifters. This engaging and hysterically funny comedy can be seen through September 20 on Arden Theatre’s Arcadia Stage, 40 N. 2^nd Street. Veteran actor and multiple Barrymore Awards winner Mary Martello has to face off with the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Barrymore Award recipient, Johnnie Hobbs Jr. in the back room of a supermarket and the sparks fly.  She, a practiced shoplifter who has some acerbic insights into corporate America, can easily hold her own against him, an aging security guard who is about to receive the boot.   Marla Burkholder, new to the 1812 stage and new to the shoplifting experience is hilarious in her naiveté.  Her facial expressions are priceless and her body language speaks volumes without her uttering a word. But utter words she does, too many, in fact and to the wrong person - the over zealous security guard-in-training portrayed by Daniel Fredrick. .Panych’s latest comedy is comprised of a series of short scenes or vignettes with the cast of characters always rotating. Whether the interaction is between the two security guards (Otto and Dom); the two shoplifters (Alma and Phyllis); Otto and Alma; Dom and Phyllis or all four together, laughter is guaranteed to be the outcome. One would expect nothing less in a production directed by 1812 Productions’ Producing Artistic Director, Jennifer Childs.  In the words of playwright Morris Panych, ”Life is a supermarket.  We wander it - sometimes shopping, sometimes pilfering - gathering what pleasure, necessities, hope and joys can fill up our basket before we head, as eventually we must, to the check out.”  For an evening of pithy humor that’s both thought provoking and fall-out-of-your-seat hilarious, get your tickets now by calling 215-592-9560 or visiting online at www.1812productions.org.

Defending The Caveman

Broadway’s Popular Comedy

Defending the Caveman

                 Extended by Popular Demand

            Now Playing Through September 13

                  At Penn’s Landing Playhouse

      The Longest Running Solo Play in Broadway History

          Stars Philadelphia Native Vince Valentine

Written by comedian Rob Becker, Defending the Caveman has been a hit in over 45 countries as well as in more than 60 cities in North America. It is an uproarious play about the differences between the sexes and has frequently been recommended by marriage counselors and therapists; many couples walk out of the show and finally “get it”. Starting his career in comedy clubs, Vince Valentine has been performing in Defending the Caveman since 2004. Explaining  that many of the differences between men and women began at the time of the caveman when men were the hunters and women were the gatherers, Vince has never been funnier. I have seen him perform three times and his act today is fresh with sidesplitting humor. The two week extension gives you an opportunity to purchase tickets if you’ve missed the opportunity to see him perform in this show recently.  Don’t wait any longer. Call 855-HIT SHOW (855-448-7469), visit online at plplayhouse.com or go to the Penn’s Landing Playhouse box office. The theatre is located inside the Independence Seaport Museum at 211 S. Columbus Blvd (at Walnut St.).

Menopause The Musical

NATIONAL TOUR OF

MENOPAUSE THE MUSICAL

PLAYS PHILADELPHIA

Now opening September 30 at

 Penn’s Landing Playhouse

                               Tickets On Sale Now!

G Four Productions are bringing the international hit show Menopause The Musical to Penn’s Landing Playhouse in Philadelphia from September 30 through November 22.  Set in a department store, four women meet while shopping for a black lace bra. In this hysterical musical comedy, they joke about their hot flashes, mood swings, weight gains and wrinkles which have accompanied their menopause. Inspired by a hot flash and a bottle of wine, Monopause the Musical was created as a celebration of women who find themselves at any stage of “The Change.”  This fun-filled production gets everyone singing along to parodies of pop songs from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 7:00 pm., Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 pm, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 pm. Tickets can be purchased by calling 855-HIT SHOW (448-7469), visiting online at www.plplayhouse.com. , or at the Penn’s Landing Playhouse box office.  Group discounts are available by calling 888-264-1788.  Penn’s Landing Playhouse is located at 211 S. Columbus Blvd (at Walnut Street). The theatre is inside the Independence Seaport Museum. Discounted parking is available in the Open Air/City of Phila. lot adjacent to the museum.  For more information, visit www.plplayhouse.com or  www.menopausethemusical.com. 

Cirque du Soleil

TORUK--The First Flight 

Inspired by

James Cameron’s

AVATAR

The new Cirque du  Soleil touring show

                    will be presented at the PPL Center in Allentown

                              December 4-6 2015

                       Public tickets go on sale starting August 7

TORUK- the first flight, a live cirque du soleil experience, inspired by Avatar, envisions a world thousands of years before the events in the film. The word Toruk in the Na’vi language refers to the mighty red and orange predator that rules the sky. It is about to be ridden for the first time by a Na’vi. Cirque Club members can purchase presale sale tickets on August 3.  The general public can begin to purchase tickets on August 7 at https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/toruk. TORUK -The First Flight is presented by Visa Signature.