Alley Theatre's 2020-21 Season to Include CLUE, Duncan Sheik's NOIR, and More!

The Alley Theatre has announced its 74th season for 2020-21, which includes the previously announced Clue, the world premiere of Duncan Sheik's new show, Noir, and more!

The previously announced Clue will become the season opener and will be part of the subscription season, as opposed to the originally scheduled ExxonMobil Summer Chills play. Clue will now run from September 18 - October 25, 2020 in the Hubbard Theatre.

In February 2020, the Alley announced four shows of the 2020-21 season: the world-premiere of Duncan Sheik and Kyle Jarrow's musical Noir; the hilarious whodunit, Clue; the world-premiere of Born with Teeth by Liz Duffy Adams; and Ken Ludwig's Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery. All four of these shows will still be part of the 2020-21 season.

Adding to the four previously announced productions, Alley Theatre brings back two previously canceled productions, welcomes a world premiere holiday play, and will have a co-production with Dallas Theater Center.

Amerikin by Chisa Hutchinson, originally slated for the 2019-20 season but canceled due to ongoing public health precautions, will now have its world premiere during the 2020-21 season. The play was developed in the 2019 Alley All New Festival and will be directed by James Black, who directed the reading in the Festival. Amerikin will now run October 9 - November 8, 2020 in the Neuhaus Theatre.

The off-the-wall comedy Dead Man's Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl returns after being canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Directed by Associate Producer & Casting Director Brandon Weinbrenner, Dead Man's Cell Phone plays April 30 - May 23, 2021 in the Hubbard Theatre.

Closing out the Neuhaus season will be the absurdist classic masterpiece Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Directed by Artistic Director Rob Melrose, Waiting for Godot runs May 21 - June 20, 2021 in the Neuhaus Theatre.

After being developed in the 2020 Alley All New Festival, High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest by Texan playwright Vichet Chum will be a co-world premiere with Dallas Theater Center directed by Houston native Tiffany Nichole Greene. High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest runs June 11 - July 4, 2021 in the Hubbard Theatre following a run at Dallas Theater Center.

In addition to the Alley's annual holiday tradition of A Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story of Christmas, the Theatre is producing the world-premiere of What-A-Christmas!, an Alley Theatre commission by Isaac Gómez, as an additional holiday add-on. Directed by the Alley's Associate Producer & Casting Director Brandon Weinbrenner, What-A-Christmas! is a one-woman holiday comedy that runs December 1 - December 27, 2020 the Neuhaus Theatre.

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CLUE

September 18 - October 25, 2020 in the Hubbard Theatre

Based on the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn
Written by Sandy Rustin
Additional Material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price
Based on the Paramount Pictures Motion Picture
Based on the Hasbro board game CLUE
Directed by Brandon Weinbrenner

It's a dark and stormy night, and you've been invited to a dinner party. Murder and blackmail are on the menu when six guests assemble at Boddy Manor for a night they'll never forget... if they make it out alive. Was it Mrs. Peacock in the study with the knife? Or Colonel Mustard in the library with the wrench? Based on the cult movie and the classic board game, Clue is the ultimate whodunit that will leave you dying of laughter and keep you guessing until the final twist.

NOIR

January 21 - February 21, 2021 in the Hubbard Theatre

Music by Duncan Sheik
Book by Kyle Jarrow
Lyrics by Kyle Jarrow and Duncan Sheik
Directed by Darko Tresnjak

By Special Arrangement with Robert Cole, Mary Beth O'Connor, and Carl Moellenberg

A heartbroken man never leaves his apartment, finding his only solace in the music on the radio. Then a couple moves in next door. Eavesdropping becomes his new entertainment - and his new obsession. Soon he finds himself drawn into a web of love, lies, deceit, and danger. Inspired by early radio plays and classic film noir, this new musical is written by Broadway artists Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening) and Kyle Jarrow (The SpongeBob Musical) and directed by Darko Tresnjak (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder).

Ken Ludwig's BASKERVILLE: A SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY

March 12 - April 4, 2021 in the Hubbard Theatre

By Ken Ludwig
Directed by Eleanor Holdridge

Get your deerstalker cap on-the play's afoot! Comedic genius Ken Ludwig (The Three Musketeers, Murder on the Orient Express) transforms Arthur Conan Doyle's classic The Hound of the Baskervilles into a murderously funny adventure. The male heirs of the Baskerville line are being dispatched one by one, but Sherlock Holmes is on the case! To find the killer, Holmes and Watson must brave the desolate moors before a family curse dooms its newest heir. Our intrepid investigators try to escape a dizzying web of deceit, silly accents, and disguises, as five actors portray more than forty characters. Join the fun and see how far from elementary the truth can be.

DEAD MAN'S CELL PHONE

April 30 - May 23, 2021 in the Hubbard Theatre

By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Brandon Weinbrenner

An incessantly ringing cell phone in a quiet café. A stranger at the next table who has had enough. And a dead man. So begins Dead Man's Cell Phone, a wildly imaginative comedy by Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House, Euridyce). An off-the-wall play about the odyssey of a woman forced to confront her own assumptions about morality, redemption, and the need to connect in a technologically obsessed world.

HIGH SCHOOL PLAY: A NOSTALGIA FEST

June 11 - July 4, 2021 in the Hubbard Theatre

By Vichet Chum
Directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene

It's senior year in Carrollton, Texas, and Riverside High School's competitive theatre troupe is climbing back to the top from last year's unprecedented loss. Dara is trying to rally his teammates, while new kid Paul disrupts Dara's complete understanding of himself and his small-town suburban life. When Coaches Dirkson and Blow make a bold choice for the one-act play competition and the community takes issue, friends and rivals duke it out and find themselves in this uniquely Texan and thoroughly universal coming of age comedy by Texan playwright Vichet Chum, directed by Houston native Tiffany Nichole Greene. Developed in the 2020 Alley All New Festival. Co-world premiere with Dallas Theater Center.

AMERIKIN

October 9 - November 8, 2020 in the Neuhaus Theatre

By Chisa Hutchinson
Directed by James Black

Developed as part of the 2019 Alley All New Festival. Jeff Browning, a new father desperate for community, casually follows his buddy's advice and tries to join a white supremacist group...but the results of his ancestry test prove surprising. Amerikin follows Jeff as serious consequences come knocking and the line between "us" and "them" gets incredibly blurry.

BORN WITH TEETH

April 2 - May 2, 2021 in the Neuhaus Theatre

By Liz Duffy Adams
Directed by Rob Melrose

An aging authoritarian ruler, a violent police state, a restless polarized people seething with paranoia: it's a dangerous time for poets. Two of them-the great Kit Marlowe and the up-and-comer Will Shakespeare-meet in the back room of a pub to collaborate on a history play cycle, navigate the perils of art under a totalitarian regime, and flirt like young men with everything to lose. One of them may well be the death of the other. Developed in the Alley All New Reading Series.

WAITING FOR GODOT

May 21 - June 20, 2021 in the Neuhaus Theatre

By Samuel Beckett
Directed by Rob Melrose

Considered one of the most significant plays of the 20th century, Waiting for Godot is Nobel Prize-winning playwright Samuel Beckett's masterpiece. In this wickedly funny, frequently moving existential play, two men, Didi and Gogo, meet near a tree to wait for the arrival of the mysterious Godot, who never seems to come. They discuss their philosophies, debate their lots in life, and question why they were put on earth. Then they encounter Lucky, Pozzo, and a messenger boy, who engage in enlightening conversations about the human condition and uproarious physical comedy as they wait...and wait...and wait for Godot.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL - A GHOST STORY OF CHRISTMAS

November 19 - December 30, 2020 in the Hubbard Theatre

By Charles Dickens
Adapted and Originally Directed by Michael Wilson
Directed by James Black

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Alley premiere of Michael Wilson's adaptation. A Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story of Christmas is a thrilling, family-friendly re-telling of Charles Dickens' classic story, which follows Ebenezer Scrooge's journey with the three ghostly spirits who visit him on Christmas Eve. A Christmas Carol instills a powerful message about redemption and the spirit of the holiday season.

WHAT-A-CHRISTMAS!

December 1 - December 27, 2020 in the Neuhaus Theatre

By Isaac Gómez
Directed by Brandon Weinbrenner

Meet Margot, a 30-something Tejana who works at a beloved what-a-sized Texas burger joint. The Christmas Eve overnight shift is her personal tradition-even if that means spending the holiday dealing with grumpy drive-thru customers and an equally grumpy robotic Santa. But when her dead best friend Jackie Marley drops by to warn her of impending late-night visits by spirits, Margot has no choice but to roll with the punches and confront the very Scrooge she's become. It's a Christmas Eve like none other in this brand-new holiday show filled with humor and heart set right here in H-town by Texan playwright Isaac Gómez.