Wit's End News

Florida Rep announces its 2016-2017 Season! 

Artistic Director Blake Robison announced the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's 2016-17 season today with a richly layered collection of world premieres, a joyously entertaining musical, adaptations of beloved novels, a comedy-tinged detective caper, new and classic dramas, a salute to a bestselling Ohio author and the return of The Second City with a holiday-themed revue. The Playhouse is celebrating its 57th season as the region's preeminent professional theatre and Robison's fifth season as artistic director.

On Thursday, April 7, 2016, MY MOTHER, MY SISTER & ME, Sherri Heller's world-class comedy about an indestructible working-class Jewish family in the Bronx, valiantly surviving the Sixties Cultural Revolution, will have its World Premiere at the Bickford Theatre at the Morris Museum (6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown, NJ).

Arts on the Horizon, the DC metro area's only theatre company dedicated exclusively to creating original work for children ages 0-6, presents its world-premiere production of SPACE-BOP, running today, February 10, through February 26, 2016 at The Athenaeum in Alexandria, Virginia, and March 5-12, 2016 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, DC as part of the 2016 INTERSECTIONS Festival.

Arts on the Horizon, the DC metro area's only theatre company dedicated exclusively to creating original work for children ages 0-6, presents its world-premiere production of SPACE-BOP, running February 10-26, 2016 at The Athenaeum in Alexandria, Virginia, and March 5-12, 2016 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, DC as part of the 2016 INTERSECTIONS Festival.

Porchlight Music Theatre and Artistic Director Michael Weber are proud to present the Chicago premiere of Far From Heaven, book by Richard Greenberg, music by Scott Frankel and lyrics by Michael Korie and starring multi-Jeff Award-winner Summer Naomi Smart with Brandon Springman and Evan Tyrone Martin. The production is directed by Porchlight Artistic Associate Rob Lindley, music directed by Chuck Larkin and choreographed by William Carlos Angulo, February 5 - March 13, 2016. Previews are Friday, Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 7 at 2 p.m. and Monday, Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m. and opening night is Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. The regular performance times are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., with the exception of no performances February 11 or March 3 and an added performance Thursday, March 3 at 1:30 p.m. Single tickets may be purchased at porchlightmusictheatre.org or 773.327.5252. Groups of ten or more may receive discounts on tickets purchased via Group Theater Tix at 312.423.6612 or grouptheatertix.com.

A disgruntled elf at Christmas time? Well,  I'm sure everyone remembers Hermey, the wanna be dentist elf featured in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, who was unsatisfied with his elfin duties. But another elf story has become a holiday tradition on NPR and in regional theatres across the US. Humorist David Sedaris' THE SANTALAND DIARIES is playing  at Roadless Traveled Theatre and making quite an impression on holiday theatre goers.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Arena Stage puts beloved columnist, author and women's advocate Erma Bombeck front and center in a show that, while full of wit and memories, needs a more fulfilling script.

'If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?' Erma Bombeck, the award-winning humorist and syndicated columnist known for her wry and humorous take on family life, is the subject of the newest project from twin-sister journalists and playwrights Allison Engel and Margaret Engel -- the world-premiere drama ERMA BOMBECK: AT WIT'S END debuting at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. The Engels reunite with director David Esbjornson (Arena Stage's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) following their collaboration on the smash hit Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, which starred Kathleen Turner in its celebrated 2012 run at Arena Stage. ERMA BOMBECK: AT WIT'S END now through November 8, 2015 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle. Scroll down for photos from the opening night festivities!

With King Kreon in exile, the birds of Thebes had their fill. The air was bitter with the stench of unburied corpses lying on the battlefield. Two of those peck-eaten bodies were brothers who killed each other for their father's throne.

Out of 65 productions in the NY THEISPIS Theater Festival, Brush Strokes, a new musical, has been selected for one of the six Encore Production.  This special showing will be next Monday, September 28th at 8:30 pm at the Hudson Guild Theater, 411 West 26th street (between 9th & 10thAvenues), NYC. The cast for the new musical is Joy Franz, Chuck Muckle and Hannah Seusy. The musical is written by Stephen Chinlund & Jim Semmelman; with music by Bert Draesel; and lyrics by Jim Semmelman.  It is directed by  Kathleen O'Neill, with set design by April Bartlet, lighting designer by  Dan Henry, and the musical director is  Kenneth Gartman.  The hit musical closed this weekend with a Sold Out show and people turned away.

'If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?' Erma Bombeck, the award-winning humorist and syndicated columnist known for her wry and humorous take on family life, is the subject of the newest project from twin-sister journalists and playwrights Allison Engel and Margaret Engel -- the world-premiere drama ERMA BOMBECK: AT WIT'S END debuting at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. The Engels reunite with director David Esbjornson (Arena Stage's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) following their collaboration on the smash hit Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, which starred Kathleen Turner in its celebrated 2012 run at Arena Stage. ERMA BOMBECK: AT WIT'S END October 9-November 8, 2015 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle. Scroll down for a sneak peek at the cast!

Brush Strokes is a new musical that has been selected for the NY THEISPIS Theater Festival. Performances are at the Hudson Guild Theater, 411 West 26th street (between 9th & 10th Avenues), NYC. The cast for the new musical us Joy Franz, Chuck Muckle and Hanah Seusy. The musical is written by Stephen Chinlund & Jim Semmelman; with music by Bert Draesel; and lyrics by Jim Semmelman. It is directed by Kathleen O'Neill, with set design by April Bartlet, lighting designer by Dan Henry, and the musical director is Kenneth Gartman.

"If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?" Erma Bombeck, the award-winning humorist and syndicated columnist known for her wry and humorous take on family life, is the subject of the newest project from twin-sister journalists and playwrights Allison Engel and Margaret Engel-the world-premiere drama Erma Bombeck: At Wit's End debuting at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. The Engels reunite with director David Esbjornson (Arena Stage's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) following their collaboration on the smash hit Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, which starred Kathleen Turner in its celebrated 2012 run at Arena Stage.

On a Wisconsin evening that resembed a humid New Orleans's summer, Tennessee Wiilliams' Pultizer-Prize winning play A Streetcar Named Desire produced a humbling reverence for the Southern drama on stage at American Players Theatre (APT). Two people traveled from Maryland to see family working at APT, and had already attended several productions at both theatres. Accustomed to East Coat entertainment, which included New York, the couple concluded APT's weekend performance of Streetcar,  'Amazing.. We've never seen a good one [production].'

Women's Voices Theater Festival organizers today announced that First Lady of the United States of America Michelle Obama will serve as Honorary Chair of the Women's Voices Theater Festival, which unites more than 50 professional theater companies in the nation's capital region, September through October 2015. She joins a prestigious group of theater artists and advocates on the Honorary Committee supporting the Festival's mission to celebrate the work of women in theater. Additionally, eight ancillary events sponsored by The Washington Post have been announced during the Festival, to be hosted by the seven originating theaters-Arena Stage, Ford's Theatre, Round House Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, Studio Theatre and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company-along with Festival participant Theater J.

VILLA NOVA E RESTAURANT in Pelham, presents Kimberly Faye Greenberg in Fabulous Fanny: The Songs and Stories of Fanny Brice. In this intimate 'Fanny Brice' solo show, Kimberly shares her extensive research not as another tribute, but to personally reveal Fanny's heart and humor, soul and song. Look into the life and relationships of the legendary Fanny Brice, greatest Jewish singing comedienne of her time and inspiration for the musical "Funny Girl."

It happens faster than one can fathom. A child acts out in a public space - one automatically looks to the parent's reaction. A slew of questions arise: does that happen often? What are you going to do about this? Why aren't you more upset? Why did you even bring your child here?

Hard to find words after 60 minutes like that. Quite literally ripped from today's headlines, Shonda Rhimes dives head first into one of today's most controversial topics with no holds barred. Regardless of politics, that was one of the best episodes of SCANDAL ever.