“Moon Over Buffalo”, the final show of TheatreWorks Community Players’ 2018-2019 season, will be presented May 9-11 and 16-18.
Performances will begin at 7 p.m. in the Black Box Theatre, 44 Franklin St. in uptown Martinsville.
In the madcap comedy tradition of “Lend Me a Tenor,” the hilarious Moon Over Buffalo centers on George and Charlotte Hay, fading stars of the 1950s. At the moment, they’re playing Private Lives and Cyrano De Bergerac in rep in Buffalo, N.Y., with five actors. On the brink of a disastrous split-up caused by George’s dalliance with a young ingénue, they receive word that they might just have one last shot at stardom: Frank Capra is coming to town to see their matinee, and if he likes what he sees, he might cast them in his movie remake of The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Unfortunately for George and Charlotte, everything that could go wrong does go wrong, abetted by a visit from their daughter’s clueless fiancé and hilarious uncertainty about which play they’re actually performing, caused by Charlotte’s deaf, old stage-manager mother who hates every bone in George’s body.
Tickets may be purchased at the Daily Grind, 303 E. Church St., Martinsville; at the MHC Visitor’s Center on the ground floor of New College Institute, 191 Fayette St., Martinsville; or on the TheatreWorks website at www.twcp.net.
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Following are the performances scheduled for the 15th season of TheatreWorks Community Players:
• June 20-22 and 27-29, 2019 — Cabaret (1987 version); PG-17 (content)
Berlin, Germany – 1931. American cabaret singer Sally Bowles meets a young man who is finishing his university studies. The pair become lovers, but the arrival of a wealthy and decadent playboy complicates matters. This love triangle plays out against the rise of the Nazi party and the backdrop of the Kit Kat Club where Sally works. Cabaret is a multiple Tony Award winner for three Broadway productions and was made famous by the movie starring Liza Minelli.
• July 12, 2019 — Improv
• Aug. 15-17 and 23-25, 2019 – August, Osage County; PG-13 (for language, etc.)
A vanished father. A pill-popping mother. Three sisters harboring shady little secrets. When the large Weston family unexpectedly reunites after Dad disappears, their Oklahoma family homestead explodes in a whirlwind of repressed truths and unsettling secrets that uproariously exposes the dark side of a Midwestern American family. This won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award.
• Sept. 12, 2019 – Postmodern Lounge Lizards (a piano bar); PG
• Oct. 11-12, 2019 – Readers theater — Pirates of Chemotherapy; PG
A support group of six breast cancer survivors band together to take on more than just their cancer and its side effects. They find new meaning for their lives through love and laughter. Comedy is how many of the members deal with the tragedy of cancer. It underlines the tremendous and relentless spirit of breast cancer survivors. Cancer is nothing to laugh about but you can choose to laugh at it!
• Nov. 14-16 and 22-24, 2019 – A Tuna Christmas; G
Many of you remember the first show in the Black Box Theatre. Well, we really missed what’s going on in the third-smallest town in Texas. In this hilarious sequel to Greater Tuna, it’s Christmas…. and radio station O-K-A-Y news personalities Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie report on various yuletide activities including the hot competition in the annual lawn-display contest. Pearl Burras, Vera Carp and Petey Fisk can’t wait to return to the TheateWorks stage.
You might be wondering why our Christmas show is in November. Well, keep in mind that so is the Martinsville Christmas parade!
• January 9, 2020 – Piano bar; G
• March 19-21 and 27-29th – Of Mice and Men; PG 13
George and his friend Lennie, two drifters with delusions of living off the fat of the land, find trouble when gentle giant Lennie’s love of all things soft leads to tragedy at the ranch where they are working to make enough money to buy their own place. Adapted from John Steinbeck’s Depression era novel of the same name, The Tony Award-winning play was on Broadway in 2017.
• April 16, 2020 – Readers theater (TBA)
• May 3, 2020 — Improv
