SPRING GUIDE 2008

New Paradise Laboratories' "Prom"

Spring Stage Roundup

Philly fizzes with top plays.

by J. Cooper Robb

It’s spring, traditionally the time of year local theaters trot out their best fare. This season looks to be no exception with an impressive number of promising productions on tap.

Temple Theaters offers theatergoers an array of entertainment this season. First up is a new staging of The Merchant of Venice that places the Bard’s classic tale in the turbulent world of fascist Italy. Following Merchant is Alan Ball’s wickedly funny take on contemporary feminism Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.

The Philadelphia Theatre Company examines cheating with Wendy Wasserstein’s Third. A richly observed and provocative drama, the plot focuses on an esteemed college professor forced to reexamine her life and liberal beliefs when she encounters a student athlete accused of plagiarism.

Aging opera stars who are put out to pasture when they can no longer reach a high C are the focus of Ron Harwood’s Quartet at the Walnut Street Theatre. Harwood’s sentimental comedy is set in a retirement home where a trio of opera stars are preparing to celebrate the birthday of Giuseppe Verdi. Their plans for an anniversary concert are disrupted by an aging opera diva who arrives at the home and sets them off on an amusing trip down memory lane.

Gay performance artist D’Lo draws on her passion for hip-hop and her experiences growing up in a Hindu Sri Lankan family in her solo show Ramble-Ations at the Painted Bride Art Center. Exploring her identity as a gay person of color from an immigrant minority, Ramble-Ations investigates how we maintain our individuality in a culture that demands assimilation.

The People’s Light & Theatre Company takes part in the US Airways New Plays Festival for Families with the world premiere of Y York’s adaptation of Audrey Couloumbis’ Getting Near to Baby. Following the death of their baby sister, a young brother and sister are forced to live with an aunt from hell—a strict disciplinarian whose brand of tough love makes a boot camp drill sergeant look sensitive. Baby is a tender and often amusing ode to family acceptance.

Forgiveness and revenge are deftly juxtaposed in Bryony Lavery’s 2004 Tony Award-nominated play Frozen, receiving its Philly premiere at the InterAct Theatre Company. An absorbing drama that explores the dark side of the human psyche, the play focuses on a bereaved mother and the man convicted of murdering her daughter.

Mum Puppettheatre presents a new theatrical version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Adapted by Andrew Periale, the production mixes live actors and puppets to bring to life Orwell’s farmyard satire of a revolution taken over and corrupted by conservatives.

Theater Exile concludes its season with Tracy Letts’ jump-out-of-your-skin comedy Bug. An electrifying shockfest set in a seedy motel, the off-Broadway production was a creepy blend of black humor and violence. Exile’s previous staging of Letts’ Killer Joe was an artistic triumph, and with Grace Gonglewski set to star alongside William Zielinski, Exile’s Bug should deliver plenty of adrenaline-pumping thrills.

After New Paradise Laboratories debuted Prom in Minneapolis in 2004, the Philly company finally brings it home. The first installment in NPL’s American Ethnographies trilogy, Prom is a raucous mix of dance and athletics.

Azuka Theatre gets all hot and bothered this spring with the company’s staging of John Cameron Mitchell’s rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Featuring a blazing score and incisive lyrics, Inch is the story of a fictional band and the group’s charismatic transgender vocalist Hedwig. Starring Dito van Reigersberg and featuring a bevy of the city’s top designers, Inch may finally bring the ambitious Azuka the attention it deserves.

Luna Theater Company hopes to end its successful season on a high note with the company’s revival of Line. The longest-running show in off-off-Broadway history, Israel Horovitz’s 1967 play is an innovative satire on America’s winner-takes-all mentality.

The Wilma Theater’s immaculate production of Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House was one of the highlights of the 2005 season. The Wilma returns to Ruhl with the Philly premiere of the playwright’s classic love story Eurydice. Featuring an original score by composer Toby Twining, Ruhl’s imaginative retelling of the Orpheus myth has been widely hailed as one of the decade’s top plays.