Yearly Archives: 2017

For the 2017-2018 season, you’ll see some familiar directors, and some new! Along with a few shows you’ve always wanted to see, and some modern interpretations you’ve never heard of. Look below for the exciting season that starts this summer.

ONCE UPON A MATTRESS
Aug. 4-6 & 11-13, 2017

Director: TBA

“If you thought you knew the story of ‘The Princess and The Pea,’ you may be in for a walloping surprise! Did you know, for instance, that Princess Winnifred actually swam the moat to reach Prince Dauntless the Drab? Or that Lady Larken’s love for Sir Harry provided a rather compelling reason that she reach the bridal altar post haste? Or that, in fact, it wasn’t the pea at all that caused the princess a sleepless night? Carried on a wave of wonderful songs, by turns hilarious and raucous, romantic and melodic, this rollicking spin on the familiar classic of royal courtship and comeuppance provides for some side-splitting shenanigans. Chances are you’ll never look at fairy tales quite the same way again.

WOMEN PLAYING HAMLET
Sept. 15-17 & 22-24, 2017

Director: Jordan Eechaute-Lopez

“Hamlet’s a challenge for any actor, but when Jessica is cast as the titular character in a New York production, it sends her into an existential tailspin. It doesn’t help that her acting coach is borderline abusive, or that every Starbucks barista with an MFA tells her she’s too young for the role. Or that she’s somehow managed to make Sir Patrick Stewart her nemesis. Not to mention the fact that she’s a woman. How can Jessica figure out “to be or not to be,” when she can’t even figure out herself? Featuring an all-female cast performing multiple roles, Woman Playing Hamlet is rip-roaring fun for Shakespeare fans and haters alike.”

CHESS
Nov. 3-5 & 10-12, 2017

Director: Carrie Thurston

“The collaborators on Chess are giants of rock music and rock musicals and they have created a complex rock opera that played to full Broadway houses and standing ovations. Here the ancient game becomes a metaphor for romantic rivalries, competitive gamesmanship, super power politics and international intrigues. The pawns in this drama form a love triangle: the loutish American chess star, the earnest Russian champion and a Hungarian American female assistant who arrives at the international chess match in Bangkok with the American but falls for the Russian. From Bangkok to Budapest the players, lovers, politicians, and spies manipulate and are manipulated to the pulse of a monumental rock score that includes One Night in Bangkok and “Heaven Help My Heart.”

THE 39 STEPS
March 2-4 & 9-11, 2017

Director: Bekki Madden

“In The 39 Steps, a man with a boring life meets a woman with a thick accent who says she’s a spy. When he takes her home, she is murdered. Soon, a mysterious organization called “The 39 Steps” is hot on the man’s trail in a nationwide manhunt that climaxes in a death-defying finale! A riotous blend of virtuoso performances and wildly inventive stagecraft, The 39 Steps amounts to an unforgettable evening of pure pleasure!”

ROCK OF AGES
May 11-13 & 18-20, 2017

Director: Aaron Eechaute-Lopez

“It’s the tail end of the big, bad 1980s in Hollywood, and the party has been raging hard. Aqua Net, Lycra, lace and liquor flow freely at one of the Sunset Strips last legendary venues, a place where sex machine Stacee Jaxx takes the stage and scantily clad groupies line up to turn their fantasies into reality. Amidst the madness, aspiring rock star (and resident toilet cleaner) Drew longs to take the stage as the next big thing (and longs for small-town girl Sherri, fresh off the bus from Kansas with stars in her eyes). But the rock and roll fairy-tale is about to end when German developers sweep into town with plans to turn the fabled Strip into just another capitalist strip mall. Can Drew, Sherri, and the gang save the strip–and themselves–before it’s too late? Only the music of hit bands Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake and more hold the answer.”

For more information visit www.playhousesouth.org.