FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: March 23, 2004
Contact: Christa Skiles
Public Relations Director
513-345-2242, ext. 232
CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK ANNOUNCES 2004-2005
SEASON
(CINCINNATI) - The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park will
celebrate its 45th anniversary season with a mix of titles that live
up to its mission of providing Cincinnati audiences with the best and
broadest range of theatre, mixing both the classic and contemporary.
Today the Playhouse announced the shows in its upcoming Robert S. Marx
and Thompson Shelterhouse theatre schedules, and the 2004-2005 season
includes a world premiere, a Tony Award front-runner and several new
plays that will make their regional debuts for Cincinnati audiences.
Among the highlights include the first Playhouse production of a work by acclaimed
Cincinnati native Theresa Rebeck with the regional premiere of her new one-woman
comedy Bad Dates; Broadway’s acclaimed new drama (and a leading
contender for this year’s Tony Award for best play), William Nicholson’s The
Retreat From Moscow; and a joyous new musical celebration of black women
and their church hats — wide-brimmed, pillbox, fussy, furry and feathery
alike — Regina Taylor’s Crowns. The season also includes
works by authors ranging from William Shakespeare and Arthur Miller to Steve
Martin and Jeffrey Hatcher.
“For 45 years, the Playhouse has been one of the premiere theatres in the
region,” says Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park Producing Artistic Director
Edward Stern. “Our productions have been invited to theatres in London,
Vienna, Toronto, Dublin, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and numerous American
cities where they have received great acclaim. Our 2004-2005 season promises
to continue this tradition. Whether audiences are partial to comedies, musicals,
dramas, classics or premieres, we believe that we have a season to transport,
enlighten, provoke and captivate them.”
The Robert S. Marx Theatre Season
(sponsored by The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation)
The Marx Theatre season begins with the most romantic of comedies, William
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, September 7 – October 8
(opening night: September 9). Shipwrecked on an island of mystery and longing,
Viola falls in love with the powerful Count Orsino, who is love-sick himself
for the grieving Countess Olivia, who loves no one… that is, until she
meets Viola, now disguised as a man, and, well… the picture only gets
more confusing from there. This merry recipe for comedy is whimsical yet passionate,
a living portrait of love in all of its wonderful and painful glory.
The season continues with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (October
19 – November 19; opening night: October 21), one of the century’s
most celebrated plays by one of America’s greatest living playwrights.
The Salem Witch Trials provide the backdrop for this gripping, suspenseful
drama set in motion when a young woman spurned by a married man retaliates
with false accusations of witchcraft. As relevant today as when it first was
written more than 50 years ago and featuring an incredible love story at its
core, The Crucible is an extraordinary look at integrity in the face
of social hysteria and misguided authority. The New York Times called The
Crucible “a provocative, stimulating and, most of all, an inspiring
creation.”
For the fourteenth consecutive year, the Playhouse will provide its own special
gift to the city’s holiday celebration with its magical retelling of
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. A Christmas Carol returns
December 1 – 30 (opening night: December 2). The Playhouse's production
features a lovingly faithful adaptation by Howard Dallin, complete with a cast
of nearly 30 actors and elaborate costumes and special effects. Playhouse Associate
Artistic Director Michael Evan Haney will return as the show’s director,
and Joneal Joplin will recreate his acclaimed performance as Ebenezer Scrooge
for the eighth time. A Christmas Carol is not part of any subscription
package, although subscribers do receive discounts and early buying opportunities.
Cincinnati native Theresa Rebeck, an acclaimed playwright and a former writer
for television’s L.A. Law, Third Watch and NYPD Blue,
shows off a lighter side with the regional premiere of her comedy Bad Dates (January
25 – February 25, 2005; opening night: January 27). In this one-woman
play, restaurant manager and shoe connoisseur Haley Walker is re-entering the
world of dating. From the privacy of her bedroom, she relates a series of hilarious,
poignant and very real tales of her experiences while preparing for, and then
recovering from, one dreadful date after another. Along the way, audiences
also learn the truth behind a hidden shoebox full of money and the reason why
the Romanian mob is in an uproar. New York Magazine said, “You
will not want to miss this charming play.”
William Nicholson’s The Retreat From Moscow (March 15 – April
15, 2005; opening night: March 17) has been hailed as one of this year’s
best plays. This acclaimed Broadway hit is a remarkable examination of the
dying embers of a 33-year marriage that should have lasted. One weekend the
husband abruptly walks out, destroying his wife’s fragile world and leaving
their only son to put the pieces back together and decide right from wrong.
Called “subtle and powerful” by The New Yorker and “the
best new play in 20 years” by Gannett Newspapers, this compelling drama
is a tender, intimate and unsparing look at the complicated puzzle that is
the human heart.
The Marx Season concludes with a joyous new theatrical sensation, Regina Taylor’s Crowns (April
26 – May 27, 2005; opening night: April 28). Adapted from the best-selling
book of the same title by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry, Crowns moves
audiences to stand, cheer and move to the music as it celebrates a cherished
custom that fuses spirituality and fashion: black women and their church hats.
The play features stories of family and faith, love and loss and finding one’s
true identity, all told through compelling oral histories, glorious gospel
music and a generous dose of “hattitude.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution described Crowns as “a
soul-stirring, hip-swaying spectacle… a made-to-order crowd pleaser.”
The Thompson Shelterhouse Season
(sponsored by Heidelberg Distributing Co.)
The Thompson Shelterhouse season begins with the regional premiere of an award-winning
new play by Jeffrey Hatcher, author of Scotland Road and The Turn
of the Screw. In A Picasso (September 25 – October 24;
opening night: September 30), an abandoned vault below the streets of Paris
provides the setting for a high-stakes cat and mouse game of intrigue. At the
height of the German occupation in 1941, artist Pablo Picasso is interrogated
by a beautiful and strong-willed woman hired by the Gestapo to authenticate
three pieces of art, each assumed to be “a Picasso.” Art and politics
collide as the twists and turns of fortune mount an enticing tension between
desire and the lure of power.
The Shelterhouse is going “Plaid” for the holidays! In Plaid
Tidings (November 6 – December 31; opening night: November 11),
a new holiday version by Stuart Ross of his own hit musical Forever Plaid,
Sparky, Smudge, Jinx and Frankie are high school chums from the class of 1956
who dream of becoming pop music icons. This time, the hilarious foursome is
on a mission to restore a little fun, music and laughter to the season. They
do so with a flurry of favorite songs, including “Let It Snow,” “I’ll
Be Home for Christmas” and “Cool Yule,” plus a three-minute
history of The Ed Sullivan Show and live back up vocals for a video-projected
Perry Como. The L.A. Times called this show “enormously entertaining
feel-good fare.”
Next in the Shelterhouse is a world premiere play yet to be announced (February
12 – March 13, 2005; opening night: February 17). The Playhouse long
has demonstrated a commitment to introducing new voices to the American stage. The
Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, In Walks Ed, The Brothers
Karamazov, The Dead Eye Boy and Coyote on a Fence are
just a few of the original plays that have premiered at the Playhouse. Many
have then proven successful at theatres throughout the country and around the
world. Audiences in Cincinnati can be among the first to witness a new American
play come alive on our stage.
Steve Martin’s sidesplitting adaptation of Carl Sternheim’s classic
German comedy The Underpants (April 2 – May 1, 2005; opening
night: April 7) was a hit off-Broadway in 2002. The story begins with a mild-mannered
housewife who becomes an instant celebrity when her unruly pantaloons accidentally
fall down as she watches a parade. Her very proper but block-headed husband
is terrified the incident will ruin him forever, until the surprising arrival
of two new lodgers with high hopes and hidden agendas. All of the ingredients
add up to create a bold and bawdy comedy filled with Steve Martin’s famous
flashes of wit. According to The New York Times, “Mr. Martin
shares the time-honored belief in the seriousness of silliness… laugh-out-loud
funny.”
The Shelterhouse season draws to a close with a charming and bittersweet musical
by a Tony Award winning composer, Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five
Years (May 14 – June 12, 2005; opening night: May 19). The show
proves there really are two sides to every love story. Jamie is a writer enjoying
his first taste of success. Kathleen is an actress struggling to make it. Over
the span of five years, they fall in love and fall apart. As he tells their
story from the beginning, she recounts it in reverse, revealing how they lived,
loved and lost their way. Funny and uplifting, this intimate story captures
some of the most heartbreaking and universal moments of modern romance. The
Chicago Tribune declared, “You better go see it. Exhilaration so
intense that it brings tears of joy.”
Subscriptions to the 2004-2005 Playhouse season are available
now in a variety of packages. Prices range from $152.50-$230.00 for the
five-show Robert S. Marx Season, $162.50-$240.00 for the five Thompson
Shelterhouse shows and $164.50-$200.50 for the popular Five Star subscription,
which allows patrons to choose any five shows from both theatres. Prices
for the full 10-play season range from $252.00-$399.50, up to a 20 percent
discount off the two separate series combined. Full-time students can
attend all five Marx Theatre shows for $75.00. Full-time educators can
purchase a subscription to the Marx Theatre for $137.50 and to the Shelterhouse
Theatre for $147.50. (All 10 plays are just $228.00 for full-time educators.)
Other discounts are available for senior citizens and young professionals.
A couple purchasing Tuesday or Wednesday subscriptions in the Marx Theatre
even can receive a $100.00 rebate to cover the cost of baby sitters thanks
to the Baby Sitter Rebate Series.
Costs for most packages depend on the day of week and seat location desired.
Some sections are sold out. Single tickets for all shows (except for A
Christmas Carol) go on sale to the general public on August 27. Single
tickets for A Christmas Carol go on sale to the general public in
late September.
To purchase subscriptions or for more information about
the 2004-2005 season at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, call 513/421-3888
or toll-free throughout Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana at 800/582-3208. For
TDD access, call 513/345-2248. Subscription information and forms also
are available online at www.cincyplay.com.
Artists fly to and from Cincinnati on Delta Connection
COMAIR, the Playhouse’s official airline.
The Playhouse is supported, in part, by the generosity
of the tens of thousands of individuals and businesses that give to the
Fine Arts Fund.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund the Playhouse with state
tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and
cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
The Playhouse also receives funding from the City of Cincinnati.
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