Kentwood Players Upcoming Shows
Onstage in Los Angeles
July 12 – August 17, 2013
by Ken Ludwig
Directed by Gail Bernardi
Produced by Susan Goldman Weisbarth
Lend Me a Tenor is a hilarious comedy/farce taking place in a Cleveland, Ohio hotel suite in 1934. The Cleveland Opera Company has booked the renowned tenor Tito Merelli, known to his fans as “Il Stupendo,” to sing the lead in Otello at their gala fundraiser. Unfortunately, even before the star leaves his hotel room, everything begins to unravel. Chaos ensues when Merelli's wife, who has mistaken an autograph-seeker hidden in his closet for a secret lover, leaves him and the distraught tenor accidentally is given a double dose of tranquilizers to calm him and passes out. Saunders, the opera company’s General Manager, is determined that the show will go on, so he asks his assistant Max to impersonate the opera star. What follows is a chain-reaction of mistaken identity, plot twists, farcical double entendres, innuendos, and constant entrances and exits through many doors leading from one comical situation to another!
Produced by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.
September 13 – October 19, 2013
Book by Howard Ashman
Music by Alan Menken
Lyrics by Howard Ashman
Based on the film by Roger Corman, screenplay by Charles Griffith
Directed by Michael-Anthony Nozzi
Produced by Sheridan Cole Crawford and Shari Barrett
Little Shop of Horrors is a comedy rock musical based on the 1960 science-fiction comedy film by Roger Corman about a hapless florist shop worker named Seymour who raises a man-eating plant he calls “Audrey.” The music, composed by Alan Menken in the style of early 1960s rock and roll, doo-wop, and early Motown, includes several well-known tunes, including the title song, “Skid Row (Downtown),” “Somewhere That’s Green,” and “Suddenly, Seymour.” The musical was also made into a 1986 film of the same name, directed by Frank Oz.
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI)
November 8 – December 14, 2013
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play
by Joe Landry
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play is a stage adaptation presented as a 1940s radio show, adapted by Joe Landry from the classic heartwarming Frank Capra film.
It’s Christmas Eve, 1946 on the stage and auditorium of Studio A at WBFR in Manhattan, New York. Several actors play all the characters and create the sound effects to tell the story of George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others. His imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody, who shows George all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community would be had he never been born. And thankfully, life in Bedford Falls returns to normal.
Produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc.
January 10 – February 15, 2014
by Steven Dietz
Directed by Susan Stangl
Have you ever been tempted to flee your own life? Becky Foster is caught in middle age, middle management and in a middling marriage—with no prospects for change on the horizon. Then one night a socially inept and grief-struck millionaire stumbles into the car dealership where Becky works. Becky is offered nothing short of a new life…and the audience is offered a chance to ride shotgun in a way that most plays wouldn't dare. Becky’s New Car is a thoroughly original comedy with serious overtones, a devious and delightful romp down the road not taken.
BECKY’S NEW CAR is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.
March 14 – April 19, 2014
Book by Joseph Stein
Music by Jerry Bock
Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Based on Sholem Aleichem's stories by special permission of Arnold Perl
Directed by Harold Dershimer
Fiddler on the Roof is the heart-warming musical about the milkman Tevye and his family eking out a living in the Jewish community of Anatevka in Tsarist Russia. Tevye strives to keep up the traditions of his faith, race and culture against the backdrop of discrimination and prejudice in addition to the love, conflict and humor of finding husbands for his three eldest daughters. One of the most successful and long-running musicals of all time, Fiddler includes such favorites as “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” “Tradition” and “Sunrise Sunset.”
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI)
Note: All announced shows are subject to change
If you would like to receive information about Kentwood Players
upcoming shows and auditions via email, please submit
your request by clicking here: PR@kentwoodplayers.org
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