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Playhouse on the Square Presents the World Premiere of GREATER ILLINOIS
by A.A. Cristi - Dec 6, 2023

Discover the latest news from BroadwayWorld in the Greater Illinois Press Release. Stay updated on the latest entertainment happenings and events in the region.

CLYDE'S Takes The Circuit Playhouse Stage
by Stephi Wild - Apr 26, 2023

In this new comedy by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, a truck-stop sandwich shop in Reading, PA becomes a place of employment and redemption for the formerly incarcerated kitchen staff.

Playhouse On The Square Announces National Playwriting Finalists
by A.A. Cristi - Nov 30, 2022

Playhouse on the Square, in partnership with Reading Series Sponsor Jeffrey Mayhew and Super Sponsor Dr. Thomas Ratliff, is proud to announce the staged readings for the 2022 NewWorks@TheWorks competition. Presented in-person and streaming live via Showtix4U.com, the four readings will take place on the Playhouse on the Square main stage, December 4th, 6th,11th, and 13th at 7:00 pm. 

Playhouse On The Square Announces National Playwriting Finalists
by Stephi Wild - Nov 30, 2022

Playhouse on the Square, in partnership with Reading Series Sponsor Jeffrey Mayhew and Super Sponsor Dr. Thomas Ratliff, has announced the staged readings for the 2022 NewWorks@TheWorks competition.

The Circuit Playhouse Opens Season 54 With Riveting PASS/OVER
by A.A. Cristi - Aug 25, 2022

Playhouse on the Square, in partnership with An Anonymous Company and super sponsor Dr. Thomas Ratliff, is excited to present the Regional Premiere of PASS OVER by Antoinette Nwandu. Running September 16 – October 19, 2022 at The Circuit Playhouse.

RAGTIME to Close Out Theatre Memphis' Historic 100th Season
by Stephi Wild - May 17, 2022

Ragtime, The Musical is the highlight of the end of the 100th anniversary season at Theatre Memphis in the Lohrey Theatre, June 3 - 26, 2022. Emotional and inspiring, the show is set at the dawn of a new era in the volatile melting pot of turn-of-the-20th-century New York. Everything is changing and anything is possible. Three distinctly American tales are woven together … a stifled upper-class wife, a determined Jewish immigrant and a daring young Harlem musician. United by their courage, compassion and belief, together they confront timeless contradictions of wealth and poverty, freedom and prejudice, hope and despair … and what it means to live in America.

Peterborough Players Inaugurate New Outdoor Stage With BEEHIVE: THE 60'S MUSICAL
by A.A. Cristi - Aug 12, 2021

The sounds, sights, and moves of the powerhouse female vocalists of the 1960's will bring the Players' new outdoor Elsewhere Stage roaring to life in Beehive: The 60's Musical! 

Playhouse On The Square Has Plans For Your Valentine's Day
by A.A. Cristi - Jan 29, 2021

Playhouse on the Square, a 501 3(c) non-profit organization, has made Valentine's Day easy this year!  A $100 ticket package will include ONE bottle of Champagne, FOUR cupcakes from Macaronagerie Memphis, ONE $25 Gift Card to Pugh's Flowers, and of course, an hour long digital cabaret featuring musical theatre love songs performed by Playhouse on the Square Resident and Associate Company Members! Serenade your sweetie with music from Rent, Memphis, Hairspray, and more!

MAMMIA MIA! Set to Open Playhouse on the Square's 48th Season
by Nora Dominick - Jul 13, 2016

On August 12th, Playhouse on the Square's 48th season opens with the smash-hit musical Mamma Mia!

Playhouse on the Square to Present SISTER ACT, 6/17-7/10
by Tyler Peterson - May 26, 2016

?The final musical in the Playhouse on the Square 2015 - 2016 season is Sister Act! When disco diva Deloris Van Cartier witnesses a murder, she is put into protective custody in a convent! The New York Times cries "when the wimples start quivering, the pinched mouths break into sunbeam smiles, and the nuns start rocking to raise the gothic rafters, all's right in the kingdom of musical comedy." Based on the hit 1992 film of the same name, Sister Act is filled with powerful gospel music, outrageous dancing, and a truly moving story.

BWW Review: Playhouse Stages a Large Scale ALL THE WAY
by Joseph Baker - Mar 7, 2016

'I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er,' says Macbeth in William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name. I have always felt that these lines could have described President Lyndon Johnson as he doggedly followed his disastrous course in Vietnam. Now, certainly, Johnson was no villain as such; however, to countless Americans, his term in office will be forever marred by his hubristic determination to succeed. For some families touched by tragedy, his very name will be forever reviled. However, in recent years, many historians (such as Doris Kearns Goodwin) have tried to see 'the forest' beyond 'the trees' and have lauded Johnson for effecting legislation that culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and in voting rights for Blacks. Playhouse on the Square's current production of Robert Schenkkan's ALL THE WAY (recalling LBJ's campaign slogan 'All the way with LBJ') focuses on Johnson's political maneuvers in that arena -- especially as they factor in his desire to be elected as something more than an 'accidental President.'

Playhouse on the Square to Stage Tony-Winning ALL THE WAY
by Tyler Peterson - Feb 5, 2016

Playhouse on the Square presents the regional premiere of Robert Schenkkan's political drama All The Way. The winner of the 2014 Tony Award for Best Play, All The Way takes us to November 1963. An assassin's bullet has just catapulted Lyndon Baines Johnson into the presidency. A man with a towering ambition and appetite, LBJ finds himself embroiled in passing the Civil Rights Act as he campaigns for re-election, and searches for the recognition he so desperately wants.

BWW Reviews: Playhouse's GOSPEL AT COLONUS Finds Sophocles 'Holy Rollin'
by Joseph Baker - Jun 21, 2015

While watching THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS, the African-American version of Sophocles' OEDIPUS AT COLONUS as created by Lee Breuer (with music by Bob Telson), I was reminded of the reimagining of the Old Testament by Marc Connelly in the 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning THE GREEN PASTURES. Like GOSPEL, THE GREEN PASTURES serves up time-honored material by transposing it to a religious setting;. PASTURES relates the Old Testament as envisioned by a young Afro-American boy; thus, Heaven is one big fish fry. When I first saw the 1936 film version (which Connelly, a white man, scripted for Warners' director William Keighley), I found it a special experience -- a wonderful all-black cast was an anomaly for a young viewer in the late 1950's and early i60's; now, with the passage of time (and legislation), I can understand why modern audiences would find it politically incorrect (though that cast is still peopled with some amazing talent). Interestingly, Mr. Breuer eschews following Connelly's suit, and though he utilizes a Black minister and church service to tell his tale, he focuses instead on an ancient Greek tragedy rather than the Old -- or New -- Testament.

Playhouse on the Square to Present THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS
by Tyler Peterson - Jun 5, 2015

Based on Sophocles' Greek myth Oedipus and set in a contemporary African-American gospel church service, this production will move and thrill you with electrifying vocals. Scorned and aged, Oedipus arrives at Colonus where he will die as fate foretold. But before his demise, he must tell his side of events. His journey toward truth, self-understanding, and forgiveness comes with soaring songs and an ending to lift the soul.

Playhouse on the Square to Present THE GOSPEL OF COLONUS
by Tyler Peterson - May 14, 2015

Based on Sophocles' Greek myth Oedipus and set in a contemporary African-American gospel church service, this production will move and thrill you with electrifying vocals. Scorned and aged, Oedipus arrives at Colonus where he will die as fate foretold. But before his demise, he must tell his side of events. His journey toward truth, self-understanding, and forgiveness comes with soaring songs and an ending to lift the soul.

BWW Reviews: Playhouse 'Brushes Up' KISS ME, KATE
by Joseph Baker - May 11, 2015

For its spring musical, Playhouse on the Square has reached several decades back and produced -- not an 'old warhorse of a musical' (sorry, Rodgers and Hammerstein) -- but a true thoroughbred, Cole Porter's sparkling, innovative (at the time) KISS ME, KATE. Just as Shakespeare himself created enduring plays by utilizing the best plots and characters of other works, so did Porter and his collaborators, Bella and Samuel Spewack -- they went right to the Bard himself, and in building their own superb entertainment around the rollicking THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, they created such a witty, enjoyable romp that would cause even the immortal Shakespeare to set aside his pen, smile, and snap his garters.

BWW Reviews: BEST OF ENEMIES Enlightens as It Entertains
by Joseph Baker - Sep 2, 2014

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Circuit Playhouse's production of Mark St. Germain's BEST OF ENEMIES - a civics lesson or an evening at the theatre. As I settled into my seat and gazed at the essentially bare set (a few platforms and chairs), I listened to bits and snatches of speeches and recollections by the likes of Barry Goldwater, Lyndon Johnson, Martin Luther King, and 'ordinary' people affected by the changes wrought by Civil Rights legislation and, in particular, the desegregation of schools. While waiting for the play to begin, I recalled just having seen MARY POPPINS last weekend at Playhouse on the Square; I thought of 'Just a Spoonful of Sugar' making the medicine go down - and considered Playhouse's crowd-pleasing musical version of John Waters' HAIRSPRAY, which drew theatre-hungry crowds just a few weeks ago. Waters, I thought, had the right idea: The seriousness of racial injustice was made delightfully palatable by the sweetness and humor of the songs in that show. I dreaded what was to follow. However, like the main characters of the play I was about to see, I had my own misconceptions, for BEST OF ENEMIES held many surprises for me - and all of them good.

The Circuit Playhouse Presents the Regional Premiere of THE BEST OF ENEMIES, 8/22-9/14
by Laura Meltzer - Aug 12, 2014

The Circuit Playhouse to debut the regional premiere of The Best of Enemies from August 22-September 24th.

Playhouse on the Square Presents HAIRSPRAY, Now thru 7/13
by BWW News Desk - Jun 20, 2014

It's 1962, the '50s are out, and change is in the air. Baltimore's Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart, has only one passion - to dance. She wins a spot on the local TV dance program, 'The Corny Collins Show' and, overnight, is transformed from outsider to irrepressible teen celebrity. But can a trendsetter in dance and fashion vanquish the program's reigning princess, win the heart of heartthrob Link Larkin, and integrate a television show without denting her 'do? Only in Hairspray!

Playhouse on the Square to Present HAIRSPRAY, 6/20-7/13
by Tyler Peterson - May 21, 2014

It's 1962, the '50s are out, and change is in the air. Baltimore's Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart, has only one passion - to dance. She wins a spot on the local TV dance program, 'The Corny Collins Show' and, overnight, is transformed from outsider to irrepressible teen celebrity. But can a trendsetter in dance and fashion vanquish the program's reigning princess, win the heart of heartthrob Link Larkin, and integrate a television show without denting her 'do? Only in Hairspray!

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