PREVIEW: Go to the Theatre!
A list of Spring theatre offerings
The calendar says it’s spring. Cleveland area theatres assume that eventually the weather will get nice and people will leave the warm safety of their warm homes and go forth. They have their offerings scheduled! Here’s a partial list of what’s on the boards:
PLAYHOUSE SQUARE
Fri 4/1 and Sat 4/2 @ 14th Street Theatre
LAST CALL CLEVELAND brings the company’s unique mix of live and taped sketches, songs and audience interaction to PlayhouseSquare for the first time.
Tue 4/5 – Sun 4/17 @ Palace Theatre
LES MISERABLES is in its new 25th anniversary production with new staging and spectacular re-imagined scenery. Part of the Key Bank Broadway Series.
Wed 4/6 – Sun 4/17 @ 14th Street Theatre AN EVENING WITH LUCILLE BALL: THANK YOU FOR ASKING is a touching, funny one-woman play directed by Ball’s daughter.
Wed 4/27 – Sun 5/1
A JEW GROWS IN BROOKLYN is a funny multimedia musical comedy which takes the audience from the Catskills to a family’s survival of the holocaust.
Sun 4/29 – Sun 5/1 @ State Theatre
PASSING STRANGE Baldwin-Wallace students perform a musical about a young bohemian who charts a course for a world of sex, drugs and rock and roll.
Tue 5/3 – Sun 5/15 @ Palace Theatre
WEST SIDE STORY, the musical that changed theater forever. Experience the songs and lines in English and Spanish. Part of the Key Bank Broadway Series.
Wed 5/11 – Sun 5/22 @ 14th Street Theatre
GIRLS NIGHT: THE MUSICAL is a “tell-it-like-it-is” that looks at five female friends with songs like, “I Will Survive” and “We Are Family.”
For PlayhouseSquare tickets go to http://PlayhouseSquare.org, call 216-241-6000 or go to the box office in the lobby of the State Theatre (M-Sun, 11 am-6pm).
GREAT LAKES THEATER FESTIVAL
Fri 4/8 – Sat 4/23 @ Hanna Theatre
THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA is a comic Shakespearean epic which tests friendship between two males when a woman enters into their lives.
For tickets go to http://GreatLakesTheater.org, call 216-241-6000 or go to the PlayhouseSquare box office in the lobby of the State Theatre (M-Sun, 11 am-6pm).
CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE
Fri 4/8 – Sun 5/1
LEGACY OF LIGHT is a time-traveling comedy that contrasts two female scientists in their forties, one in the age of Enlightenment, one in the present.
Thu 4/14 – Sun 4/17
MARIGOLD WARS fuses together sculpture, puppetry, music and multiple forms of dance to examine the struggle to find reason, peace and beauty.
To obtain tickets for MARIGOLD WARS and obtain a list of other FUSION FEST offerings go to http://ClevelandPlayHouse.com or call 216-795-7000.
DOBAMA
Thu 4/22 – Sun 5/15
CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION follows five Vermonters as they take an acting class with self and other revealing effects. For tickets call 216-932-3396 or go to http://Dobama.org
ACTORS’ SUMMIT
Thu 4/21 – Sun 5/22
SOME ENCHANTED EVENING—THE SONGS OF RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN features the classic showstoppers from the R & H repertoire. For tickets call 330-374-7568 or go to http://ActorsSummit.org
BECK CENTER
Fri 4/1 – Sat 4/23
THE UNDERPANTS is Steve Martin’s comedy about a puritanical bureaucrat and his wife, who becomes a celebrity when her underpants fall down. For tickets: http://www.BeckCenter.org or call 216-521-2540
CLEVELAND PUBLIC THEATRE
Thu 4/7 – Sat 4/23
FEVER/DREAM asks the question: If someone made you CEO of your father’s multinational corporation for a day, would you go crazy?
Thu 4/7 – Sat 4/23
I HATE THIS AND THEN YOU DIE is a performance of two solo shows featuring David Hanson about loss and recovery and obsession and victory.
Thu 4/21 – Sat 5/7
INSOMNIA: THE WAKING OF HERSELVES is a new work about a woman on the brink of some kind of change—death, mental collapse or self-discovery.
Thu 5/12 – Sat 5/28
MY BARKING DOG is Clevelander Eric Coble’s play about two lonely people whose lives change when a starving coyote starts appearing at their doorsteps.
Thu 5/26 – Sat 6/4
CUT TO PIECES is a haunting multimedia solo show which begins as a classic “who done it” and turns into a deep dive into a woman’s psyche. For tickets to CPT shows call 216-631-2727 or go to http://CPTonline.org
FAIRMOUNT PERFORMING ARTS CONSERVATORY (FPAC)
Thu 4/28 – Sun 5/15
COMPANY, Stephen Schwartz’s musical about a commitment-phobic bachelor and his married friends. Songs include “The Ladies Who Lunch” and “Being Alive.” For tickets call 440-338-3171 or go to http://www.FairmountCenter.org
ENSEMBLE THEATRE
Fri 5/6 – Sun 5/29
HUCK AND HOLDEN, a coming-of-age tale of an immigrant Indian student who meets an alluring African American woman, by Rejiv Joseph, a Cleveland playwright who is nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Studio One, Cleveland Play House For tickets call 216-321-2930
CONVERGENCE CONTINUUM
Fri 3/18 – Sat 4/16
VALPARAISO is a dark and comic probe into media celebrity in our tell-all culture. The Litmus, 2440 Scranton Road, Cleveland
Fri 5/13 – Sat 6/4
THE MUSEUM PLAY is an absurdist romp about what happens when the mastodons escape and a friend steps in who has the wonderful bones. For tickets call 216-687-0074 or go to http://Convergence-Continuum.org
From Cool Cleveland contributor Roy Berko. Berko’s blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2011, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at http://RoyBerko.info. His reviews can also be found on NeOHIOpal and CoolCleveland.com.
Roy Berko, who is a life-long Clevelander, is a Renaissance man. Believing the line in Robert Frost’s poem “Road Not Taken,” each time he comes to a fork in the road, he has taken the path less traveled. He holds degrees, thought the doctorate from Kent State, University of Michigan and The Pennsylvania State University. His present roles, besides husband and grandfather, are professor, crisis counselor, author and entertainment reviewer… Read Roy Berko’s complete bio here