Philadelphia Weekly

The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe are over but the regular Philadelphia-area theater season is just getting under way.

Few shows have been revised and revived as often as Leonard Bernstein's popular musical Candide, which serves as the opening show in the Arden Theatre Company's season. Orginally featuring a libretto penned by famed author Lillian Hellman, the Arden production instead relies upon a libretto created by British dramatist John Caird, which is intended to bring the musical closer to Voltaire's original. The cast for director Terrence J. Nolen's production is loaded with local award-winning talent, including Ben Dibble in the title role.

The Lantern Theater Company celebrates its 15th-anniversary season with the Philadelphia premiere of legendary playwright Harold Pinter's The Hothouse. Written in 1958, the play is set in a strange institution--ominously referred to in the play as a "rest home"--where the residents are known not by name but only by number. It's frightening in its ambiguity.

John McCain was still middle-aged when the Beatles disbanded, but apparently the group's popularity hasn't diminished--as evidenced by the Fab Four's latest tribute show She Loves You!, which occupies the stage at the Society Hill Playhouse for a 13-week engagement starting Sept. 24. A multimedia production that includes old television footage, vintage newsreels and retro commercials, She Loves You! is anchored by a Beatles lookalike quartet performing 30 of the Liverpool lads' greatest hits.

The Wilma Theater renews its successful association with acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard with the company's staging of Stoppard's epic exploration of music and politics Rock 'n' Roll. Spanning several decades, Stoppard's smart and involving drama travels between England and Czechoslovakia (where Stoppard as well as the Wilma's co-artistic directors Blanka and Jiri Zizka are originally from). The new production stars Barnaby Carpenter as the graduate student Jan and David Chandler as his outspoken Marxist mentor Max.

People's Light & Theatre Company opens its season with Ellen McLaughlin's ambitious adaptation of Aeschylus' 472 B.C. Greek drama The Persians. Condensed to 90 minutes by McLaughlin, the play is a gripping firsthand account of the Battle of Salamis, a turning point in the war between the Greeks and the Persians that eventually led to the Greeks establishing Western civilization's first democratic state.

The funky 11th Hour Theatre Company and the suburban Montgomery Theater are teaming up this fall to present the unlikely musical hit Reefer Madness. A parody of the outrageous 1936 propaganda flick warning America's youth about the supposed dangers of marijuana, Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney's cheeky show includes musical numbers that run the gamut from classic Broadway showstoppers to glitzy Vegas show tunes. After opening at Montgomery Theater's Souderton location, director Megan Nicole O'Brien's production arrives in Center City with a cast anchored by the reliable Jennie Eisenhower and promising young performer Nicholas Park.

The Philadelphia Theatre Company planned on christening their new home at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre last season with a world premiere from playwright Terrence McNally when a performer's illness forced them to postpone. In October local audience's will finally get a glimpse of McNally's latest when PTC presents the world premiere of the playwright's Unusual Acts of Devotion. Starring the gifted Richard Thomas and Tony Award nominee Faith Prince, Devotion focuses on a couple celebrating their wedding anniversary with friends on a rooftop in Greenwich Village. A story of love both realized and squandered, the production is directed by Leonard Foglia.