The Gallery Players presents a remarkably
wide range of comedies, dramas and musicals season after season.
In their 37th season, the troupe – 2000 recipients of the Off-Off
Broadway Review’s Award for Lifetime Achievement – will be presenting
four plays, three musicals and a new play festival – all at the
very affordable price of $88 per subscription.
"We don’t want to give our subscribers a lot of the same,"
Gallery Players president Heather Curran told GO Brooklyn. "We
want to give them a smorgasbord. These plays are all very exciting
and very different."
This smorgasbord includes revivals of Broadway and off- Broadway
hits, productions of rarely performed works and ends with the
Black Box New Play Festival.
The season opens with Alan Ayckbourn’s "Bedroom Farce"
(Sept. 6-21), directed by Ted Thompson, who directed last season’s
excellent "Fuddy Meers."
"Bedroom Farce" centers on the comings and goings
in three bedrooms during one winter night. Set designer Brian
Massolini has staged the show with a trio of bedrooms allowing
the audience to take a simultaneous peek behind all of the closed
doors to witness the couples’ quirks and foibles.
"It’s a nice, crisp way to start the season," said
Curran.
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" (Oct. 11-Nov. 2), based
on Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel, is Rupert Holmes’ rollicking
tribute to the British music hall. The show, which won five Tonys
in 1985, including Best Musical, has everything a typical whodunit
should: a vanishing hero, obvious and not so obvious suspects,
murky motives and clues galore.
The one thing it doesn’t have (a la the novel upon which it
is based) is an ending. (Dickens died before he could complete
the mystery.) So in this play-within-a-play, the audience decides
by popular vote who the murderer is, and the performers act out
the rest accordingly.
"It’s the reality TV of the theater," said Curran.
"It’s a big challenge for the cast." The Gallery Players
production will be directed and choreographed by Steven Smeltzer.
Philip Barry’s "Holiday" (Nov. 29-Dec. 14) was immortalized
on screen by Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. The play, a funny
and bittersweet look at a New York family in the 1920s, depicts
what happens when an heiress from a powerful family falls in
love with a man from the middle-class.
"It’s a very timely play," said Curran. "The
question of how much money you need to make you happy is as valid
today as it was then." Yvonne Conybeare directs.
"You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown" (Jan. 10-Feb. 1)
is a play close to the heart of many Brooklynites. Its author,
Clark Gesner, was a long-time resident of Brooklyn Heights, a
playwright-composer-critic whom Curran called "a very good
friend to the Gallery Players."
The musical presents a series of moments in the life of Charlie
Brown and his friends – both human and otherwise – selected from
Charles Schultz’s comic strip "Peanuts."
"We’re doing the original [1971] version, not the revival
[1999] one as a tribute to Clark Gesner because that’s what he
preferred," said Curran. While the 1999 revival had all
new arrangements by Andrew Lippa with two new songs and the character
Sally replacing the character Patty, many felt Gesner’s initial
off-Broadway version had more charm. Matt Schicker will direct.
Curran calls "Lobby Hero" (Feb. 21-March 7) the "grittiest"
play of the season.
Kenneth Lonergan’s story centers on a security guard in the
lobby of a high-rise building who has to figure out what to do
when his boss’ son is implicated in a brutal murder.
"It’s got fabulous dialogue, a moral dilemma, and it’s
very much a New York play," said Curran. "Lobby Hero"
will be directed by Tom Herman.
In the fine tradition of Irish playwrights, Conor McPherson
makes poetry onstage in his 1999 Broadway show "The Weir"
(March 27-April 11) about a woman listening to ghost stories
in the local bar of a remote town.
"I’m directing this one," said Curran. "I’m really
excited about that. It’s a wonderful ghost story – very intimate,
very slice-of-life, beautifully crafted."
"Merrily We Roll Along" (May 1-May 23) is one of the
few Stephen Sondheim musicals that is rarely performed. Set in
1980, the musical tells the story of a celebrated songwriter
and film producer who returns to his high school, scornful of
his youthful ideals. (The director has yet to be announced.)
The Black Box New Play Festival is the Gallery Players’ culminating
event of the season, taking place June 3-27, but Curran said
they’ll start reading scripts as early as this fall. The festival
provides a workshop environment for playwrights collaborating
with directors and actors.
According to Curran, last year’s festival was "the most
successful ever" – with 20 brand-new plays, featuring 15
directors and more than 50 actors. Three of the plays, by playwrights
Staci Swedeen, Isabelle Weyer and John Paul Porter, went on to
Manhattan’s Samuel French one-act play contest.
The Gallery Players, an Equity Showcase house, attracts some
of the best actors, directors, designers and musicians in New
York – many of whom, like Harvey Fierstein ("Hairspray,"
"Torch Song Trilogy") and director John Rando ("Urinetown"),
have gone on to prominent careers onstage.
So if you’d like to get more bang for your theater bucks, don’t
go to Broadway stay in Brooklyn!
The Gallery Players are located at
199 14th St., between Fourth and Fifth avenues, in Park Slope.
The season opens Sept. 6, with Alan Ayckbourn’s "Bedroom
Farce," directed by Ted Thompson. "Bedroom Farce"
continues through Sept. 21. Subscriptions are $88. Individual
tickets are $15, $12 for seniors and children younger than age
12. For reservations, call (718) 595-0547.
