Here’s a list of some of the offerings of local theatres through the winter and spring seasons (January-May). SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL THEATRES!
You can track my reviews on http://www.royberko.info/, or contact me to get on my direct review list. You can see a synopsis of the local reviewers’ comments about the plays at http://www.clevelandtheaterreviews.com/
BECK CENTER 216-521-2540 or http://www.beckcenter.org
8 p.m. evenings, 3 p.m. matinees
BRING IT ON THE MUSICAL—February 10-26, 2017
This movie-based musical examines the complexities of friendship and what it takes to win a national championship in cheerleading.
A GREAT WILDERNESS—March 3-April 9, 2017
Regional premiere of Samuel Hunter's acclaimed drama which centers around a gay conversion therapy camp in the remote Idaho woods.
Regional premiere of Samuel Hunter's acclaimed drama which centers around a gay conversion therapy camp in the remote Idaho woods.
BLANK CANVAS 440-941-0458 or http://www.blankcanvastheatre.com
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Thursday, Friday and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 7 pm
FLOYD COLLINS—March 10-25, 2017
Musical by Richard Rodgers grandson, Adam Guettel, based on
a true story of how a Kentucky young man getting trapped in a cave caused it to
become a tourist attraction.
PICASSO AT THE LAPINE AGILE—June 9-24, 2017
Comedian Steve Martin’s tale of an imagined conversation between
Einstein and Picasso.
EQUUS—August 11-26, 2017
A psychiatrist confronts a boy who has blinded six horses in
a violent fit of passion. (Contains full
frontal nudity.)
2017 BLANK CANVAS THEATRE BENEFIT—September 2
A concert to raise money for Blank Canvas. Hors d’oeuvres and music from 7-7:50 pm
followed by an 8 pm performance by some of Cleveland’s most talented
actor-singers!
THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW—October 6-28, 2017
The classic 1950s sci-fi rock musical.
URINETOWN—December 1-16, 2017
A musical which tells the tale of a terrible water shortage,
caused by a 20-year drought, has led to a government-enforced ban on private
toilets.
CESEAR’S FORUM
216-241-6000 or go to http://www.playhousesquare.org
TBA
CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE 216-241-6000 or go to http://www.clevelandplayhouse.com
7:30 Wednesday-Saturday, 2:30 Saturday and Sunday
KEN LUDWIG’S BASKERVILLE--January 21-February 12, 2017
Five actors play nearly 50 roles in this comic transformation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes classic mystery.
HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE—March 4-26, 2017
Pulitzer Prize winner follows Li’l Big as she takes a no-holds-barred trip back in time to her adolescence in 1960s Maryland and her relationship with an older man.
BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY—April 1-23, 2017
A darkly comic tale of truth, family and pride finds an ex-cop risking his family’s apartment because of a racially charged lawsuit.
FREAKY FRIDAY—April 15-May 14, 2017
A transformation of an American cult classic into a contemporary musical based on a mother and daughter swapping bodies for a day.
CLEVELAND PUBLIC THEATRE 216-631-2727 or go on line to http://www.cptonline.org
I CALL MY BROTHERS—February 9-March 4 (7:00 PM)
A car. An explosion. A city is paralyzed with fear. A 24-hour journey inside a young man’s head.
BARBECUE—February 16-March 11, 2017 (7:30 PM)
An open-air intervention becomes raucous and unpredictable as familial stereotypes collide with realities and racial politics.
TEATRO PUBLICO DE CLEVELAND—March, 2017
Details TBA
STATION HOPE—April 29 (5:30 PM)
200 artists from across Northeast Ohio inhabit historic St. John’s Episcopal Church to celebrate hope and address many of the important issues of our time. FREE
RED ASH MOSAIC—May 25-June 17, 2017 (7:30 PM)
An experiment in theatrical form with interwoven and contradictory narrative threads, powerful physical action, chanting and poetic texts.
convergence continuum
convergence-continiuum.org or 216-687-0074
Thursday-Saturday @ 8
HARM’S
WAY – March 24-April 15
Major Jonathan Fredericks, a career army prosecutor charged with
investigating soldiers for war crimes. His son was recently killed in
Afghanistan. Bianca, tortured by her brother's sudden death, now makes it her
mission to protect the boys her father is charged with prosecuting.
MASSACURE
(SING TO YOUR CHILDREN) – May 19-June 10
José Rivera’s darkly comic play is one of those difficult
Rorschach Tests-of-a-play whose narrative loopiness, supernatural meanings and
political allegory will haunt and confound each audience member in a different
way.
DOBAMA 216-932-3396 or http://www.dobama.org
check the theatre’s blog for performance times
THE NIGHT ALIVE—January 20-February 12, 2017
In Dublin, Tommy defends a destitute woman against a violent attack, and a fragile glimmer of hope appears for him.
THE FLICK—March 3-26, 2017
In a run-down movie theatre in central Massachusetts, three underpaid employees attend to one of the last 35-millimeter film projectors in the state. 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
HAND TO GOD—April 21-May 21, 2017
Best play Tony winner is a comedy that teaches that the urges that drive a person to give in to their darkest desires can fit like a glove.
ENSEMBLE THEATRE 216-321-2930 or http://www.ensemble-theatre.com
Fridays and Saturdays @ 8, Sundays @ 2
THE PHANTOM TOLL BOOTH—JANUARY 13-22, 2017 (Friday and Saturdays @ 7, Saturdays @3, Sundays @2
A tale of Milo’s adventures in the Land of Wisdom force him to think about many new things.
RADIO GOLF! — February 3-26, 2017 (Fridays and Saturdays @ 8, Sundays @ 2)
August Wilson’s final installment on his ten-play Pittsburgh cycle. Set in 1990s, it’s the story of a successful entrepreneur who aspires to become the city’s first black mayor.
THIS IS OUR YOUTH—February 9-19, 2017 (Fridays and Saturdays @ 8, Sundays @ 2)
Follows forty-eight hours in the lives of three very lost young souls at the dawn of the Reagan Era.
OCCUPATION DAD—March 17-April 2 (Fridays and Saturdays @ 8, Sundays @ 2)
Jason’s kid won’t walk. His mother won’t help. His older brother’s a jerk-off. His sister’s kids are already perfect. The Playground moms are psychotic. Everything is just hunky-dory.
THE NORTH POOL—April 28-May 21, 2017 (Fridays and Saturdays @ 8, Sundays @ 2)
A psychological thriller in which a high-school vice principal and a Middle Eastern-born transfer student engage in a politically and emotionally charged game of cat and mouse, with dangerous consequences.
GREAT LAKES THEATER http://www.greatlakestheater.org or 216-241-6000
Wednesday-Saturday @ 7:30, Saturdays @ 1:30, Sundays @ 3
WAIT UNTIL DARK—February 17-March 12, 2017
A 1960s Greenwich Village apartment is the scene for a deadly game of cat and mouse when con-men terrorize an unsuspecting blind women. What you can’t see can hurt you!
HAMLET—March 31-April 15, 2017
The world’s most famous tragedy!
FOREVER PLAID—May 5-21, 2017
A pitch-perfect jukebox musical with pop hits of the 1950s, directed by Victoria Bussert.
INTERPLAY JEWISH THEATRE interplayjewishtheatre@gmail.com or 216-393-PLAY
(Play readings at Dobama are free, but reservations are required. Presentations at the Maltz Museum are fee based)
NOW CIRCA THEN--APRIL 30 or MAY 2, both at 7 p.m. @ Dobama. Set in a tenement museum on
Manhattan's Lower East Side, a 20-something immigrant couple, circa 1890, as
interpreted by a pair of curiously cast contemporary reenactors whose role-play
dredges up the anxieties in their own lives.
KARAMU HOUSE 216-795-707) or www.karamuhouse.org
(Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday)
REPAIRING A NATION—February 9-26, 2017
It's 2001 and the Davis family gathers for a typical holiday celebration in their native Tulsa, Oklahoma. Things go awry when Lois insists the family join a lawsuit seeking reparations for the Tulsa Race Riots that devastated the family 80 years ago.
YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU—April 20-May 7, 2017
The 1937 Pulitzer Prize winner for Drama centering on Grandpa, an eccentric old man who has never paid his income taxes. Family members and assorted guests write sex-filled melodramas, make candy delivered with subversive notices, paint pictures of nudes, make fireworks in the basement which explode. The FBI invades and chaos runs wild.
LAKELAND CIVIC THEATRE 440-525-7134 or http://lakelandcc.edu/academic/arts/theatre/index.asp
BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (the musical) -- February 3-5, 10-12 and 17-19, 2017
Based on the book of the same name, BMC centers on Francesca Johnson, an Italian war bride living in Winterset, Iowa, in 1965, who has had an unfulfilling farm life. One day Robert Kincaid, a photographer comes to photograph the famous covered bridges of Madison County, stops to ask directions, and Francesca’s life changes. (My Broadway review: http://royberkinfo.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-briddges-of-madison-county-well.html
NEAR WEST THEATRE 216-961-6391 or nearwestheatre.org
THE WIZ—February 10-19, 2017
(Youth Cast, ages 9-15)
Infuses THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ with a mix of rock, gospel and soul music to create a funky sing along journey down the yellow brick road.
RISE! — MARCH 4, 2017 (6:30-10:30 PM)
(INTERGENERATIONAL CAST, AGES 7+)
Annual benefit party…food, drink, silent auction and musical performance.
MARY POPPINS—May 5-21, 2017
(Intergenerational Cast, 7+)
An imaginative convergence of the classic film musical and the children’s book combine to make a new script about the Nanny who can do no wrong: It’s Supercalifragilisticexpalidocious!!!
none-too-fragile theatre 330-671-4563 or http://www.nonetoofragile.com
THE WHALE—February 3018, 2017
Award winning play about a six-hundred-pound recluse, who hiding away from the world and slowly eating himself to death, is given one last chance at redemption.
A SKULL IN CONNEMARA—March 17-April 1, 2017
The last play of the “Leenane Trilogy,” which included The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” is a funny whodunit concerning Mick Dowd who is hired to disinter bones in sections of his local cemetery to make way for the new arrivals. As the time approaches for him to dig up the bones of his own late wife, rumors about his possible involvement in her sudden death resurface.
SALVAGE—May 5-20, 2017
Danny’s sister and mother have just laid him to rest and now find themselves racing against time to rescue his prized possessions from the family basement before a flood hits. Enter Danny’s high-school sweetheart to lend a hand. Is she here to pay her last respects or to keep Danny alive forever?
OHIO SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL www.ohioshakespearefestival.com
(Winter and Spring Home: Greystone Hall, Akron)
LONE STAR—February 10, 12, 16, 18, 2017
In the backyard of a small-town Texas bar we find a macho Vietnam vet who cherishes three things above all: his country, his sexy wife and his 1959 pink Thunderbird.
THE UPSTART CROW—February 9, 11, 17, 19, 2017
Vincint Dowling’s tale of Susanna, Shakespeare’s daughter, who comes to the Globe Theatre after her father’s death. She discovers life, love and comes to terms with the loss of the Bard.
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS—April 14-30, 2017
Shakespeare’s comedy about what happens when two sets of twins find themselves in the same city, on the same day, resulting in a web of mistaken identities and confused lovers
PLAYHOUSESQUARE 216-241-6000 or go to www.playhousesquare.org
See the website for specific dates and times
INTO THE WOODS—January 10-29, 2017
A musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine which intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault fairy tales, exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests.
THE KING AND I—FEBRUARY 7-26, 2017
The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical which relates the experiences of Anna, a British schoolteacher hired as part of the King's drive to modernize his country.
CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME—March 21-April 9, 2017
Staged with numerous electronic media effects, the insightful script opens a window into the mind of an autistic. (My Broadway review: http://royberkinfo.blogspot.com/2014/11/mesmerizing-curious-incident-of-dog-in.html
SOMETHING ROTTEN! — April 25-May 14, 2017
A clever musical, set in 1595, that follows the Bottom brothers, who struggle to find success in the theatrical world as they compete with the wild popularity of their contemporary William Shakespeare and wind up inventing a new theatrical form…the musical. (My Broadway review: http://royberkinfo.blogspot.com/2015/05/farcical-something-rotten-very-new.html
THE MUSICAL THEATER PROJECT
http://www.MusicalTheaterProject.org or 216-529-9411 for tickets and information
(productions staged in review format with narration)
HEY, BIG SPENDER! THE CY COLEMAN SONGBOOK—January 28, 2017 (9 PM) and January 29 (2 PM)—performed at the Hanna Theatre, Playhouse Square
Spotlight on Cy Coleman, the writer of such musicals as SWEET CHARITY, BARNUM, THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES and CITY OF ANGELS, performed by Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, the Joe Hunter Trio, Vince Mastro and Treva Offutt.
HELLUVA TOWN: A New York Soundtrack
April 21, 2017 @ The Hunt Club
Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano make their Cleveland debut with this witty and exhilarating show which celebrates a love/hate relationship.
BEHIND THE MUSICAL ANNIE
April 29, 2017 (7 PM) @ Stocker Arts Center/Lorain County Community College and April 30, 2017 (3 PM) @ Chagrin Falls Performing Arts Center
It’s been 40 years since the red-headed orphan debuted on Broadway. Martin Charnin and Charles Strouse’s score will be performed by Sheri Gross, Gilgamesh Taggett and Lexi Cowan.
