Gene Frankel News

Wheelhouse Theater Company presents a special return engagement of Kurt Vonnegut's rarely produced play HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WANDA JUNE at The Duke on 42nd Street, a NEW 42ND STREET project, 229 West 42nd Street in Manhattan.

59E59 Theaters (Val Day, Artistic Director; Brian Beirne, Managing Director) presents the world premiere of BITTER GREENS, written by Clea DeCrane and directed by Kevin Kittle. Produced by Station 26 Productions, BITTER GREENS begins performances on Friday, December 7 for a limited engagement through Sunday, December 23. Press Opening is Friday, December 14 at 7:30 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Saturday at 7:30 PM; and Sunday at 2:30 PM. Please note: there is an added performance on Saturday, December 8 at 2:30 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison). Single tickets are $25 ($20 for 59E59 Members). Tickets are available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or by visiting www.59e59.org. Please note: After October 28, 59E59 Theaters will transition to a new ticketing system. Beginning October 29, patrons should call the 59E59 Box Office direct: 646-892-7999.

29th Street Playwrights Collective New Work Series presents a staged reading of TOM & TED GO TO THE RACES, written and directed by Edgar Chisholm, on Monday, November 5, at the Bernie Wohl Center, 647 Columbus Ave, at 7:30pm. The reading is free and open to the public.

Wheelhouse Theater Company and its Founding Members Matt Harrington, David Kenner, Michael Schantz, and Jeffrey Wise announced today that due to popular demand, the company will stage a special return engagement of Kurt Vonnegut's rarely produced play HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WANDA JUNE October 18th - November 29th at The Duke on 42nd Street, a NEW 42ND STREET project, 229 West 42nd Street in Manhattan. The New York Times Critics' Pick production, which garnered unanimous rave reviews this past Spring at the Gene Frankel Theatre, offers up dynamic and often hilarious insight into a capitalist society's attempts to make socio-cultural progress in a world polarized by its moral and political outrage…or lack thereof. Jeffrey Wise will direct the production that will run through Today, November 29th. The official opening is set for Tuesday, October 23rd. For more information, visit http://www.wheelhousetheater.org

Wheelhouse Theater Company's special return engagement of Kurt Vonnegut's rarely produced play HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WANDA JUNE begins performances this week on, Thursday, October 18th at The Duke on 42nd Street, a NEW 42ND STREET project, 229 West 42nd Street in Manhattan. The New York Times Critics' Pick production, which garnered unanimous rave reviews this past Spring at the Gene Frankel Theatre, takes a searing look at toxic masculinity, gun violence, the relationship between men and women and cultural change. Jeffrey Wise directs the production that will run through Thursday, November 29th. The official opening is set for Tuesday, October 23rd.  For more information, visit http://www.wheelhousetheater.org

Wheelhouse Theater Company will stage a special return engagement of Kurt Vonnegut's rarely produced play HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WANDA JUNE October 18th - November 29th at The Duke on 42nd Street, a NEW 42ND STREET project, 229 West 42nd Street in Manhattan. The cast held a party at Bond 45 last night and BroadwayWorld was there! Check out the photos below!

The Drama Club, NYC will present a one night only staged reading of Douglas Carter Beane's Tony Award winning play, The Little Dog Laughed. The play will be presented on Monday October 22nd at The Gene Frankel Theatre, in celebration of National Coming Out Day.

Radial Theater Project and 18th & Union will present the West Coast premiere of Hostages, a play by Seattle-based playwright Yussef El Guindi.

Atlantic for Kids presents the world premiere production of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, featuring words and music by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul and a book by Timothy Allen McDonald to kick off their season.

SlashR is a taught and sexy thriller set in the traumatized New York of November 2016. What starts as a mundane murder investigation (of a young man prone to using dating apps) soon exposes a conspiracy for world domination skewering the entire two-party system, celebrity worship and the tendency for the US to find the shallowest and easiest solutions. In the course of the investigation, Detective Oakley comes up against evil PACs, a manipulative media, and serial killers. With the help of an outlaw hacker named Reeta and her mid-to-low-tech comrade The Exterminator, Oakley uncovers a connection between The Great Bed Bug Panic of 2010, the 2016 election, the worldwide spread of fascism and the scary clowns.

Wheelhouse Theater Company and its Founding Members Matt Harrington, David Kenner, Michael Schantz, and Jeffrey Wise announced today that due to popular demand, the company will stage a special return engagement of Kurt Vonnegut's rarely produced play HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WANDA JUNE October 18th - November 29th at The Duke on 42nd Street, a NEW 42ND STREET project, 229 West 42nd Street in Manhattan. The New York Times Critics' Pick production, which garnered unanimous rave reviews this past Spring at the Gene Frankel Theatre, offers up dynamic and often hilarious insight into a capitalist society's attempts to make socio-cultural progress in a world polarized by its moral and political outrage…or lack thereof. Jeffrey Wise will direct the production that will run through Thursday, November 29th. The official opening is set for Tuesday, October 23rd. For more information, visit http://www.wheelhousetheater.org

Good morning BroadwayWorld! Today's top stories: Be More Chill gets a Broadway upgrade, the cast has been announced for the national tour of A Bronx Tale, and more!

In our current political climate, comedians and satirists have fertile ground to cover. Entering this fray is an outrageous new theater production calculated to provoke, offend and get you thinking - no matter what your political affiliation is!

SlashR, a tongue in cheek satire written & directed by Tony Stinkmetal and centered around the fractured culture in the wake of the last national election and inventively staged in the style of the 1970s slasher movies of Dario Argento and John Carpenter, will make its world premiere September 5 - 15th at the Gene Frankel Theatre. The production is intended to convince Americans to liberate themselves from our two party political system.

Looking for a little rest and time to herself, Betty rents a summer share at the beach. But Betty's luck turns to delicious lunacy when this sensible Everywoman gets drawn into the chaotic world of some very unsavory housemates - her friend Trudy who talks too much; the lewd, seminaked Buck, who tries to have sex with everyone; and Keith, a possible serial killer who hides in his room with a mysterious hat box. With sand between her toes, walking a thin line between sanity and survival, poor Betty will leave her summer vacation more terrorized than tan.

From August 27 to September 4, August Strindberg Rep will perform Strindberg's 'Creditors' in a new translation by Robert Greer as part of the Dream Up Festival at Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave.  This masterpiece from Strindberg's naturalist period is rarely excelled in its unity of construction, dramatic tension and acute psychological analysis, but it is far less performed and anthologized than 'The Father' or 'Miss Julie.' During an afternoon in a lounge at a seaside resort, a revenge is played out as a credulous artist has his mind poisoned against his wife by her former husband. Translator Robert Greer directs.

'Glitched,' written and directed by Melissa Maney, is a dark fantasy horror story in which a woman faces a phobia on a carnival ride but finds more to fear than she'd bargained for.  Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival will present the play's world premiere August 26 to September 4.

SlashR, a tongue in cheek satire written & directed by Tony Stinkmetal and centered around the fractured culture in the wake of the last national election and inventively staged in the style of the 1970s slasher movies of Dario Argento and John Carpenter, will make its world premiere September 5 - 15th at the Gene Frankel Theatre. The production is intended to convince Americans to liberate themselves from our two party political system.

In our current political climate, comedians and satirists have fertile ground to cover. Entering this fray is an outrageous new theater production calculated to provoke, offend and get you thinking - no matter what your political affiliation is!