Authors and Stars of a New Musical Take the Bucks County Playhouse Stage at Oscar Hammerstein Festival

Bucks County Playhouse will present a special presentation of a new Broadway musical, "Female Troubles," at the sixth Oscar Hammerstein Festival on Saturday, June 18 at 7:30 pm. The presentation, which is part concert, part insider's preview, is open to the public. Tickets are $35.

At the Saturday night event, current Tony-nominee lyricist Amanda Green ("Mr. Saturday Night" on Broadway) and composer Curtis Moore (Emmy nominated for his music on Amazon Prime's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel") will lead a concert featuring cast members including Olivier Award winner Lesli Margherita (BCP's Miss Adelaide from "Guys and Dolls").

"We are very excited that the Playhouse is playing an integral part in developing this very funny and timely musical. And its writing team is at the top of their game," says Playhouse Executive Producer Robyn Goodman, who will also interview Green and Moore about the process of developing a new musical for Broadway.

With a book by Jennifer Crittenden ("Seinfeld") and Gabrielle Allan (HBO's Emmy-winning "Veep"), "Female Troubles" takes on a headline grabbing topic in a blazingly funny way.

The evening recalls the famous backers' auditions that Green's Tony-winning father Adolph Green and his writing partner Betty Comden ("Singing in the Rain," "The Will Rogers Follies," "On the Town") performed in the 1950's and 1960's to find investors for their upcoming shows.

The Saturday event was one of the details about the sixth Oscar Hammerstein Festival announced by Producing Director Alexander Fraser and Producer Josh Fiedler. The Festival is an annual celebration of the importance of lyrics in the creation of new musicals.

Elinor Benton and her Lady's Maid, both find themselves surprisingly and undeniably knocked up! Since they are unmarried and it is England in the 19th century, they have a big problem. They set off on a hilarious carriage trip to London to find a solution to their "female troubles." This uproarious comedy takes a clear-eyed view of the present through the lens of 1810.

Bucks County Playhouse's Oscar Hammerstein Festival is named in honor of the master writer whose countless accomplishments during his illustrious career have included mentoring a young Stephen Sondheim at Hammerstein's Highland Farm in Bucks County. The weekend of events is part of a year-long program that offers expert mentorship to early career composers and lyricists.

Also scheduled for this year's festival is a private presentation by composers and lyricists working in Roundabout Theatre Company's Space Jam Program. For the third year, Bucks County Playhouse is partnering with Roundabout Theatre Company by offering two teams of composers and lyricists an artistic retreat in Bucks County. Space Jam is a playwright-support initiative designed to give writers the time and space to work through various types of solo and group writing retreats. This year, Oscar Hammerstein Festival will preview works by the two teams at a presentation reserved for Bucks County Playhouse subscribers.

How to Get Tickets

Single tickets for the Saturday night benefit presentation of "Female Troubles" are $35. To purchase tickets or for more information on Bucks County Playhouse visit buckscountyplayhouse.org or call the box office at (215) 862-2121.

ABOUT BUCKS COUNTY PLAYHOUSE

Steeped in a theatrical history that stems back to its founding in 1939 by a roster of theatrical royalty, Bucks County Playhouse is celebrating the tenth anniversary of its 2012 re-opening and restoration. With more than 75,000 patrons walking through its doors every year, the Playhouse is leading the economic resurgence of New Hope and the surrounding community. In 2014, Tony Award-winning producers Alexander Fraser, Robyn Goodman and Josh Fiedler took the helm of the Playhouse, reclaiming its reputation of attracting Broadway and Hollywood artists. Playhouse productions of "Company" starring Justin Guarini, and William Finn's "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" were named by Wall Street Journal to its "Best of Theatre" list for 2015. In 2018, the Wall Street Journal again hailed the Playhouse and Artistic Associate Hunter Foster in its Best of the Year listings for its production of "42nd Street" and in 2019 labeled the Playhouse "one of the best regional theaters on the East coast." Box office records have been repeatedly broken by Signature Productions of "Steel Magnolias" directed by Marsha Mason, "Mamma Mia!" directed by John Tartaglia and "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story," "Million Dollar Quartet," "42nd Street," and "Guys & Dolls" (all directed by Hunter Foster). In 2021, the team developed and presented Candace Bushnell's "Is There Still Sex in the City," which the Playhouse then partnered to move to New York. The creative teams who come to create new productions at the Playhouse are among the most talented artists working in the professional theatre today and relish the opportunity to work on the historic stage where Grace Kelly, Robert Redford, and Jessica Walter began their careers.

To post a comment, you must register and login.