Michael Gravois News

Playhouse on the Square, in partnership with Grayson Smith Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning and super sponsor, Dr. Thomas Ratliff, bring the multi-award winning story, originally produced at the Royal National Theatre in London, to the Mid-South.

Playhouse on the Square, in partnership with Grayson Smith Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning and super sponsor, Dr. Thomas Ratliff, bring the multi-award winning story, originally produced at the Royal National Theatre in London, to the Mid-South.

Playhouse on the Square presents the regional premier of the 2014 Tony Award Winner for Best Musical.

Playhouse on the Square, in partnership with the Jerry & Nina Patton Family Foundation, Monogram Foods, and super sponsor Dr. Thomas Ratliff, is proud to present the regional premier of the 2014 Tony Award Winner for Best Musical.

Based on Neil Simon's experiences as a junior writer for "Your Show of Shows," Laughter on the 23rd Floor follows the star/host of a weekly comedy-variety show, Max Prince, along with his staff of writers. Join Prince and his team as they take us on a trip inside the writer's room to witness the wacky antics and crazy arguments that happen on the 23rd floor.

KING CHARLES III closed on Broadway earlier this year. And though it won an Olivier Award, I suspect this regional premiere will be a rare opportunity to see this show -- or at least a quality production of it. Done right, as it is by Playhouse on the Square, it's an absorbing and memorable evening of theatre. Anything less could spell disaster because bringing this plausible alternate world to life is quite a feat.

The Regional Premiere of King Charles III opens September 23 at Playhouse on the Square.

The Regional Premiere of King Charles III opens September 23 at Playhouse on the Square.

The actors in this Circuit Playhouse production, directed by Bob Hetherington, are uniformly excellent, if overly energized.

Best described as a grownup's prequel to Peter Pan, Peter and the Starcatcher begins when young starcatcher-in-training, Molly, meets an orphan boy longing for a home of his own. Together, the duo embarks on the adventure of a lifetime. Join them as they discover how the captain got that famous hook, how a young boy named Peter became the boy who wouldn't grow up, and how one courageous young woman can change the fate of the world. A dozen talented actors play over 100 different characters in this Tony Award-winning play with music that is sure to have you leaving the theatre grinning from ear-to-ear.

Bucolic setting are wonderful . . . until it rains and everyone is wall-to-wall unpacking their baggage, airing their dirty laundry, calling each other on the carpet, and climbing the walls. At least that's what happens in THE COUNTRY HOUSE by Donald Marguiles. It's an explicit homage to Chekhov -- sort of an UNCLE VANYA and THE SEAGULL mashup. I wasn't knocked out by the script. The setup is simple, the plot predictable, the conflicts obvious. The actors have to bring a lot to this show to make is worth watching. Fortunately, Director, David Landis, had an exceptional cast.wisecracks into heated discussions simply to hear them sizzle.

In THE COUNTRY HOUSE, what The New York Times calls 'a valentine to the artists of the stage,' a group of famous and would-be-famous creative artists have come to their summer home during the Williamstown Theatre Festival. The weekend takes an unexpected turn, and everyone is forced to come to terms with the roles they play in each other's lives. Scroll down for a first look at The Circuit Playhouse's production below!

?In what The New York Times calls "a valentine to the artists of the stage," a group of famous and would-be-famous creative artists have come to their summer home during the Williamstown Theatre Festival. The weekend takes an unexpected turn, and everyone is forced to come to terms with the roles they play in each other's lives.

What happened all around our Broadway World this week?  We're featuring the best stories in Raleigh, Sacramento, China, and more. Check out our top 10 list, which includes NCT's GREASE, HAIRSPRAY in Sacramento, and STUPID F***ING BIRD in Albuquerque, just to name a few.

Throughout Sunday's matinee of Sharr White's intensely watchable THE OTHER PLACE at Circuit, for some reason I kept thinking of Edgar Allan Poe's 'A Dream Within a Dream' and, particularly, of these lines: 'All that we see or seem / Is but a dream within a dream. / I stand amid the roar / Of a surf-tormented shore, / And I hold within my hand / Grains of the golden sand -- / How few! yet how they creep / Through my fingers to the deep, / While I weep -- while I weep.' THE OTHER PLACE, ably directed by the always dependable Dave Landis, is somewhat constructed like a Chinese puzzle box. Like the main character, a drug company scientist named 'Juliana Smithton' (who, in turn, is married to 'Ian,' an oncologist), the audience is continually challenged with questions of what is real and what is not.

?Playhouse on the Square presents the regional premiere of Sharr White's haunting drama, The Other Place. Juliana Smithon, a successful drug company scientist, finds her life falling to pieces. Her husband is filing for divorce, her daughter has eloped with a much older man, and her own health hangs in a dangerous limbo. Piece by piece, the mystery around Juliana unravels as fact blurs with fiction, and the past and the present collide with devastating results.

Interestingly, Playhouse on the Square has opted to produce Thornton Wilder's THE MATCHMAKER rather than HELLO, DOLLY, the legendary musical that it spawned - and therein lies both the blessing and the curse: There are so many lines here that served as song cues that the specter of Jerry Herman's 'ear-candied' score keeps hovering over the play. To add to the dilemma, the ever-arranging 'matchmaker' herself is none other than that talented musical performer Ann Sharp (surprisingly making her theatre debut at Playhouse): Because she doesn't have the opportunity to use that particular talent, and because those darned Herman songs keep popping up in the mind, THE MATCHMAKER might prove frustrating for those familiar with its melodic offspring. That's too bad, as Herman's score is rather like some pushy first grader who breaks in line; without it, the audience is left with . . . a fine romantic comedy, filled with mistaken identities and matches and mismatches - and more than just a touch of Wilder's warm , incisive writing.

Playhouse on the Square is proud to present the classic American comedy, TheMatchmaker. The Matchmaker follows the exploits of Dolly Levi, a widow who arranges marriages for New Yorkers at the turn of the 20th century. Hired by a local merchant to find a wife, Dolly sets her sights on the eligible bachelor herself! Slapstick, mistaken identity, and secret rendezvous ensue in this uproarious comedy from the Pulitzer-prize winning playwright, Thornton Wilder. 

Playhouse on the Square is proud to present the classic American comedy, The Matchmaker. The Matchmaker follows the exploits of Dolly Levi, a widow who arranges marriages for New Yorkers at the turn of the 20th century. Hired by a local merchant to find a wife, Dolly sets her sights on the eligible bachelor herself! Slapstick, mistaken identity, and secret rendezvous ensue in this uproarious comedy from the Pulitzer-prize winning playwright, Thornton Wilder. 

Playhouse on the Square's 38th Annual Original Art Auction will take place today, April 25. With over 150 Artists contributing one-of-a-kind pieces for a live and silent auction, the PARTY is happening at Playhouse on the Square on April 25.