CATALOGUE
CATALOGUE
A Strange Loop
SYNOPSIS:
Michael R. Jackson’s blisteringly funny masterwork exposes the heart and soul of a young artist grappling with desires, identity, and instincts he both loves and loathes.
Meet Usher: a Black, queer writer writing a musical about a Black, queer writer writing a musical about a Black, queer writer. Usher wrestles with the thoughts in his head in an attempt to capture and understand his own strange loop.
BOOK: MICHAEL R. JACKSON
MUSIC: MICHAEL R. JACKSON
LYRICS: MICHAEL R. JACKSON
MUSIC: MICHAEL R. JACKSON
LYRICS: MICHAEL R. JACKSON
Burn This
SYNOPSIS: When a mysterious death brings together two unlikely strangers, their explosive connection sparks a chemistry too fiery to ignore.
- PLAYWRIGHT: LANFORD WILSON
Angels in America
SYNOPSIS: In late 1985 and early 1986, as the first wave of the AIDS epidemic in America is escalating and Ronald Reagan has been elected to a second term in the White House, the play’s two parts bring together a myriad of disparate characters whose lives intersect, intertwine, collide and are blown apart during a time of heartbreak, reaction and transformation. Ranging from earth to heaven, from the political to the intimate to the visionary and supernatural, Angels in America is an epic exploration of love, justice, identity and theology, of the difficulty, terror and necessity of change.
- PLAYWRIGHT: TONY KUSHNER
1984
SYNOPSIS: Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth, rewriting newspaper articles so that history always supports the views of the Party. But when Winston has a thought, writes a diary and falls in love, he does so under the ever watchful eye of Big Brother.
- PLAYWRIGHT: GEORGE ORWELL, ROBERT ICKE, DUNCAN MACMILLAN
War Paint
SYNOPSIS: Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden defined beauty standards for the first half of the 20th Century. Brilliant innovators with humble roots, both were masters of self-invention who sacrificed everything to become the country’s first major female entrepreneurs. They were also fierce competitors, whose 50-year tug-of-war would give birth to an industry. From Fifth Avenue society to the halls of Congress, their remarkable rivalry was ruthless, relentless and legendary—pushing both women to build international empires in a world dominated by men.
- MUSIC: SCOTT FRANKEL
- LYRICS: MICHAEL KORIE
- LIBRETTO: DOUG WRIGHT
The Glass Menagerie
SYNOPSIS: Tennessee Williams’s autobiographical “memory play” looks at the WIngfield family—frustrated writer Tom, his nagging mother, Amanda, who is often lost in memories of her Southern-belle past, and his painfully shy sister, Laura—and the effect a visit from a “gentleman caller” for Laura has on all their lives.
- PLAYWRIGHT: TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Oh, Hello on Broadway
SYNOPSIS: Fresh off the success of their hit prank show Too Much Tuna, these two Alan Alda-obsessed Upper West Side bachelors are returning to their roots in New York theatre. Having wowed audiences with past theatrical works like True Upper West and the Annie Get Your Gun-inspired Bernie Goetz You Gun: A Non Musical Drama, Faizon and St. Geegland are back for a total victory lap and to premiere their new play We're Us, You're You, Let's Talk.
- PLAYWRIGHT: NICK KROLL, JOHN MULANEY
Fully Committed
SYNOPSIS: Sam works the red-hot reservation line at one of New York’s trendiest restaurants, where the best food inspires the worst behavior. Coercion, petty threats, bribes, histrionics—a cast of desperate callers, all brought to life by Ferguson, will stop at nothing to land a prime reservation, or the right table.
- PLAYWRIGHT: BECKY MODE
The Humans
SYNOPSIS: After a sleepless night, Erik Blake has brought his family from Pennsylvania to celebrate Thanksgiving at his daughter’s new apartment. As darkness falls outside the crumbling pre-war duplex, mysterious things start to go bump in the night and family tensions reach a boiling point.
- PLAYWRIGHT: STEPHEN KARAM
Fun Home
SYNOPSIS: After her father dies unexpectedly, Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Based on Alison Bechdel’s autobiographical graphic novel.
- MUSIC: JEANINE TESORI
- BOOK: LISA KRON
- LYRICS: LISA KRON
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
SYNOPSIS: Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a rock musical about a fictional rock and roll band, the Angry Inch, fronted by Hedwig - an East German transgender singer.
- BOOK: JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL
- MUSIC: STEPHEN TRASK
- LYRICS: STEPHEN TRASK
Of Mice and Men
SYNOPSIS: Two migrant field hands, the average-looking but smart George and the strong but mentally challenged Lennie, find work on a farm in California during the Great Depression, seeing their dreams lead to tragedy when Lennie gets too close to the wife of the boss's son, in John Steinbeck's adaptation of his novel.
- PLAYWRIGHT: JOHN STEINBECK
If/Then
SYNOPSIS: If/Then is a contemporary musical that follows Elizabeth as she rebuilds her life in New York, a city of infinite possibilities. By the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning creators of Next to Normal, If/Then is an original new musical set at the intersection of choice and chance, where the road you take meets the road you didn’t.
- MUSIC: TOM KITT
- BOOK: BRIAN YORKEY
- LYRICS: BRIAN YORKEY
Murder for Two
Murder for Two is a musical comedy, with book and lyrics by Kellen Blair and book and music by Joe Kinosian. The musical is a whodunit for two actors, who both sing and play an onstage piano. One actor performs the role of a policeman investigating a murder, and the other performs the roles of all the suspects and other characters.
- BOOK: KELLEN BLAIR, JOE KINOSIAN
- MUSIC: JOE KINOSIAN
- LYRICS: KELLEN BLAIR
Hands on a Hardbody
SYNOPSIS: For ten hard-luck Texans, a new lease on life is so close they can touch it. Under a scorching sun for days on end, armed with nothing but hope, humor and ambition, they'll fight to keep at least one hand on a brand new truck in order to win it. In the hilarious, hard-fought contest that is Hands On a Hardbody, only one winner can drive away with the American Dream.
- MUSIC: AMANDA GREEN, TREY ANASTASIO
- BOOK: DOUG WRIGHT
- LYRICS: AMANDA GREEN
RED
SYNOPSIS: Red depicts 20th century abstract expressionist Mark Rothko as he paints a set of murals for the Four Seasons restaurant and struggles to cope with his growing riches and fame.
- PLAYWRIGHT: JOHN LOGAN
Hamlet
SYNOPSIS: Hamlet, a Danish prince, discovers that his uncle Claudius murdered his father and took the throne; Hamlet's mother has married the usurper. Shakespeare's tragedy of betrayal and revenge is considered among the greatest plays in the English language.
- PLAYWRIGHT: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Mary Stuart
SYNOPSIS: Schiller's political thriller is a partially fictionalized account of the epic power struggle between England's Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, as Mary faces her final days imprisoned for her claim to the English throne.
- PLAYWRIGHT: FRIEDRICH SCHILLER
Next to Normal
SYNOPSIS: In this contemporary musical and winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a suburban household copes with crisis and the unpredictability of a mother's worsening bipolar disorder.
- MUSIC: TOM KITT
- BOOK: BRIAN YORKEY
- LYRICS: BRIAN YORKEY
33 Variations
SYNOPSIS: In parallel tales of obsession, musicologist Katherine Brandt attempts to uncover the motivation behind Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, a series of 33 variations on an ordinary waltz by a composer he felt was beneath him.
- MUSIC: LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
- PLAYWRIGHT: MOISÉS KAUFMAN
Legally Blonde
SYNOPSIS: A sorority-sister valley girl goes to Harvard Law to get her boyfriend back, and ends up defying expectations while staying true to herself. Based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the MGM movie starring Reese Witherspoon.
- MUSIC: LAURENCE O'KEEFE, NELL BENJAMIN
- BOOK: HEATHER HACH
- LYRICS: LAURENCE O'KEEFE, NELL BENJAMIN
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
SYNOPSIS: The tale of several socially awkward youngsters finding joy, heartache and a purpose in competing at the regional spelling bee features a score by William Finn and a book by Rachel Sheinkin.
- MUSIC: WILLIAM FINN
- BOOK: RACHEL SHEINKIN
- LYRICS: WILLIAM FINN
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
SYNOPSIS: Composer-lyricist David Yazbek and librettist Jeffrey Lane adapt the 1988 film about two conmen — one elegant and one slovenly — who scheme to bilk rich women out of their money on the French Riviera.
- MUSIC: DAVID YAZBEK
- BOOK: JEFFREY LANE
- LYRICS: DAVID YAZBEK
A Raisin in the Sun
SYNOPSIS: Lorraine Hansberry's landmark drama was one of the first on Broadway to examine African-American life on the cusp of the civil rights era. Walter Younger and his mother, Lena, both yearn to move their family out of Chicago's Southside ghetto. When Lena's late husband's insurance check arrives, Lena hopes to use it to buy a house in a white neighborhood — while Walter hopes to invest it in a liquor business.
- PLAYWRIGHT: LORRAINE HANSBERRY