Bickford Theatre Announces Their 16th Season, Kicks Off 9/23

Eric Hafen, Artistic Director of the Bickford Theatre at the Morris Museum, 6 Normandy Heights Road in Morristown, NJ, is proud to unveil the Bickford Theatre's 2010-2011 Season

of "Stage & Screen," featuring four thrillingly-exciting works that explore and celebrate the magical worlds of Broadway and Hollywood.

The Bickford's 16th Season opens September 23 with the wildly beloved yet rarely seen musical Mack & Mabel. "To begin this season of ‘Stage and Screen,' what is there left to say about the great film maker Mack Sennett and his daffy heroine, movie star Mabel Normand, coupled with Jerry Herman's favorite score? Lights, camera, action!" said Eric Hafen, Bickford's Artistic Director.

"We continue our movie theme with a sequel (of sorts!) with Moonlight and Magnolias, the untold but disputed conflagration of three movie geniuses struggling to work together to bring to the screen one of the greatest films ever made," said Hafen. "We welcome 2011 with The Little Dog Laughed, one of the best written plays I have ever read, and a Tony winner to boot, and we close our Season with I Hate Hamlet, an honest and wildly hilarious look at someone who really, truly hates the Bard. No matter which you prefer, the Great White Way or the Silver Screen, there's something for everyone this Season at the Bickford!"

From the Tony Award-winning composer of Hello, Dolly! and La Cage Aux Folles comes the 8-time, Tony-nominatEd Mack & Mabel, running Sept. 23 through Oct. 17, 2010, a rollicking and romantic musical about legendary silent movie director Mack Sennett's pie-in-the face, Keystone Kops, and Bathing Beauties Hollywood--and Mack's even wilder love affair with his greatest leading lady, comedienne Mabel Normand. Mack & Mabel will take you on a musically-thrilling roller coaster ride through Jerry Herman's best score including such blockbuster classics as "Tap Your Troubles Away," "I Wanna Make the World Laugh," "Movies Were Movies," "I Won't Send Roses," and "Time Heals Everything." We promise you a toe-tapping good time-and a happy ending!

The Bickford Theatre continues its Season with Moonlight and Magnolias by Ron Hutchinson, running November 11 through December 5, 2010, a wildly funny and illuminating behind-the-scenes tale of the business of movie making during the golden age of Hollywood.

1939 Hollywood is abuzz! Legendary producer David O. Selznick has shut down the filming of his newest epic, Gone with the Wind, just three weeks into production. The screenplay, you see, just isn't working. So what's an all-powerful movie mogul to do? Fire the director, pull Victor Fleming off The Wizard of Oz, and lock himself, Fleming, and script doctor Ben Hecht in his office for five days until they have a screenplay. Subsisting on a diet of bananas and peanuts, they spend five days working through and acting out Margaret Mitchell's bestseller and in the process make movie history by fashioning a screenplay for one of the most successful and beloved films of all time.

The Bickford rings in the New Year with Douglas Carter Beane's Tony Award-nominated hit, The Little Dog Laughed, running January 20 through February 13, 2011. Rising film star, Mitchell Green, is every girl's fantasy and soon to become a household name, thanks to his devilish agent Diane. With Mitchell on the brink of superstardom, Diane encounters one teensy weensy obstacle - -she can't seem to stop her leading man from coming out of the closet! With Mitchell spending days and nights with his new "friend" Alex, and Alex's beautiful girlfriend Ellen causing a drama of her own, what lengths will Mitchell go to play the part? Douglas Carter Beane's Tony award-nominated comedy hilariously satirizes the superficial world of show-business and the game-playing of the movie industry.

The Season comes to a swash-buckling end with Paul Rudnick's hit comedy, I Hate Hamlet, running April 28 through May 22, 2011.

Actor Andrew Rally seems to have it all: fame from his starring role in a hit TV series; a rich, beautiful girlfriend; the perfect New York apartment; and the chance to play the greatest role of all time: Hamlet in Central Park! There are, however, a couple of glitches in paradise: Andrew's series has been cancelled, his 29-year-old girlfriend is clinging to her virginity; and he absolutely HATES Hamlet!

A botched séance produces the ghost of the greatest of all Hamlets--John Barrymore. Fortified by champagne, ego, and a cod piece, he tries to convince Andrew to accept the part and fulfill his actor's destiny. The laughs come fast and furious as Andrew wrestles with his conscience, Barrymore, his sword, and his own codpiece in this Drama Desk and Tony Award-nominated screwball comedy, full of big laughs, romantic entanglements and even a duel!

In addition, the Bickford Theatre will once again be offering its popular "A La Carte Series" of concerts and variety performances. This Season's exciting line-up opens Sunday, March 6 with three-time MAC Award-winner Richard Skipper starring in Carol Channing in Concert, followed on Sunday, March 13, by The David Leonhardt Jazz Group and the Shelly Oliver Tap Dancers returning to the Bickford in A Tribute to Gershwin, and ending Sunday, March 20, with the fascinating Before the Crash: America in the 1920's, brought to you by the collaborators of the Bickford's wildly-successful A La Carte Series presentation After The Ball, director Daniel P. Quinn and choreographer Heather Johdos.

Main Stage Series performances are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m, with select Thursday Matinees at 2 p.m. Subscriptions are now on sale. Individual tickets go on sale September 1, 2010. The Bickford Theatre is conveniently located within the Morris Museum and offers free parking and full accessibility. To purchase a Bickford subscription or for further information, please contact the Box Office at 973.971.3706 or visit us 24/7 at www.bickfordtheatre.org.