Oscar Wilde News

Cue Zero Theatre Company, NH Magazine's Best of NH 2019 'Best 'New' Theatre', continues its mission of supporting local artists and creating challenging theatrical endeavors by announcing an ambitious second season. Their 2019/2020 plans include three main stage productions, a continuation of their ever popular Guerrilla Shakespeare Series, and some fun new side projects, including an attempt to earn a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records!

Walnut Street Theatre opens its 211th season with Mel Brooks' hilarious musical comedy, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN THE MUSICAL. Previews on September 3, opens September 11, and continues through October 20.

GBS is often decried for his didacticism, but in SAINT JOAN, he allowed the story to carry him away from his usual soapbox. With some judicious pruning and an infusion of lively swordplay, Free Reign Theatre has made this masterwork even more agreeable and accessible.

Following the success in London's West End, Classic Spring's A Woman of No Importance will embark on a major UK tour this Autumn. The show heads to Theatre Royal Brighton from Monday 23 a?" Saturday 28 September.

Promethean Theatre Ensemble will open its new season with the Chicago premiere of BLUE STOCKINGS a?" a drama of the first female students to seek degrees at Britain's Cambridge University in 1896 and the obstacles they faced in that pursuit.

ActorsNET launches its 24th season in September with Oscar Wilde's comedy, An Ideal Husband -- adapted and updated by director Maryalice Rubins-Topoleski and Charlotte Kirkby.

Producers of OSCAR at The Crown announced today the release of the original concept album featuring the music of the wildly popular immersive nightclub musical now playing at 3 Dollar Bill (260 Meserole Street, Brooklyn, NY). The album, which was produced by and features music and lyrics by Andrew Barret Cox, is now available on all digital music providers.

An earnest young American woman, a louche English lord and an innocent young chap join a house party of fin de siècle fools and grotesques. Nearby a woman lives, cradling a long-buried secret. In A Woman of No Importance, Oscar Wilde's marriage of glittering wit and Ibsenite drama created a vivid new theatrical voice.

This production with the new translation is notably fresh and remarkably relevant. To WTF's Artistic Director, Mandy Greenfield's credit it is another excellent inclusion in a rich and diverse season. The language is contemporary and easy to follow, understand, and relate to. The subject matter, which includes religion, venereal disease, incest, and euthanasia, questions accepted social practices and norms. Possibly surprising the audience and most definitely stirring up debate. Where most regular tragedies deal mainly with the unhappy consequences of breaking the moral code, GHOSTS deals with the consequences of not breaking it. The parallels between the material written 138 years ago and events currently playing out in the US and across the world are stunning and undeniable.

Adapte from the 1994 film, A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE centers around Alfie Byrne, a down on his luck bus conductor and theater director whose latest theatrical production leads to a powerful journey of self-discovery.

The Acting Company (Founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley; Ian Belknap, Artistic Director; Elisa Spencer-Kaplan, Executive Director) today announced casting for the final reading in the 23rd John McDonald Salon Reading Series, Letters from Prison, a curated evening from adapter Dakin Matthews (To Kill a Mockingbird) that collects the original letters of acclaimed literary and historic figures to explore the nature of justice and imprisonment, from the Bible to the present day. The reading will take place on Tuesday, August 13 at 7 PM at the Duke on 42nd Street (229 W. 42nd Street, New York, NY). Tickets are available now online at www.theactingcompany.org or by phone at (212) 258-3111. The reading will be followed by a complimentary reception with the cast.

Due to audience demand, Florida Studio Theatre (FST) announces the extension of its Summer Mainstage production, The Cottage by Sandy Rustin, a fast-paced comedy of manners inspired by Noël Coward and Oscar Wilde.

David Suchet will be making his eagerly-awaited return to Australian stages in POIROT AND MORE: A RETROSPECTIVE in early 2020. The tour will travel across the country in January and February allowing audiences in Perth, Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Newcastle and Adelaide to experience this rare opportunity with one of the world's most celebrated and fascinating actors of our time.

Pride Films and Plays will stage the first Chicago production in more than a decade of A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, the heartwarming musical created by Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, and Terrence McNally, the team that wrote RAGTIME and ANASTASIA. A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE is based on a 1994 film starring Albert Finney as a Dublin bus conductor and features a gorgeous Irish-influenced score. Donterrio Johnson, the Jeff award-winning actor who directed PFP's BUYER AND CELLAR earlier this year and is currently appearing in THE SPITFIRE GRILL with American Blues Theater, will direct. Music direction is by Robert Ollis, who most recently music directed SOUTHERN COMFORT for Pride Films and Plays and was a 2019 Jeff nominee for his music direction of HAYMARKET: A NEW FOLK MUSICAL. Ollis was Music Director for the 2008 production of A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, which earned five Jeff Award nominations for Bailiwick Repertory.

A bold new adaptation of three of Shakespeare's most blood soaked plays. Exploring mental illness, toxic masculinity and the events that led to Richard III becoming literature's most infamous villain. Take an in depth look at the little known aspects of the War of The Roses Saga, the original Game of Thrones! 

Theatre of NOTE continues its 2019 season with the world premiere of DRIVING WILDE by Jacqueline Wright, directed by Bart DeLorenzo.  DRIVING WILDE will preview Friday and Saturday, August 16 and August 17 at 8pm, and will open on August 22 at 8pm and run through September 21 at Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N Cahuenga Blvd (just north of Sunset) in Hollywood.    

Florida Studio Theatre (FST) presents the regional premiere of Sandy Rustin's The Cottage, a ridiculous-and potentially murderous-comedy about the ins and outs of marriage and infidelity.

MY OTHER SELF: THE EVOLUTION OF SHAKESPEARE'S RICHARD III comes to The Cockpit Theatre, Monday 19th - Friday 23rd August at 7pm.

Pear Theatre's 2019-20 season opens in August with 'An Ideal Husband,' a searing comedy of virtue and moral inflexibility. Directed by Jenny Hollingworth, 'An Ideal Husband' previews on August 22, with press and Opening Night on Friday, August 23, followed by a champagne gala. The show runs Thursdays through Sundays through September 15. All performances are held at the Pear Theatre, 1110 La Avenida St., Mountain View. Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.thepear.org or calling (650) 254-1148.

The ongoing alternate-history podcast BRASS premieres its third season this month. Recorded in Seattle, Washington and featuring a veteran cast of Pacific Northwest talent, the series follows the adventures of a quartet of Victorian science geniuses and their ongoing battle against a criminal mastermind known only as the Crime Minister.