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| | Arsenic and Old Lace
By Joseph Kesselring
Arsenic and Old Lace is a classic comedy that ran for three years and over fourteen hundred performances on Broadway. The plot centers on the Brewster family, a once elite American bloodline that has now descended into homicidal insanity. Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic and the most ostensibly normal of his clan, is forced to cover up for his sadistic kin while being torn between family loyalty and his desire to marry the woman he loves.
His family includes two spinster aunts who have taken to murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with a glass of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and "just a pinch" of cyanide; a brother who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt and digs locks for the Panama Canal in the cellar of the Brewster home (which then serve as graves for the aunts' victims; he thinks that they died of yellow fever); and a murderous brother who has received plastic surgery performed by an alcoholic accomplice, Dr. Einstein (a character based on real-life gangland surgeon Joseph Moran) to conceal his identity, and now looks like horror-film actor Boris Karloff (a self-referential joke, as the part was originally played on Broadway by Karloff).
Exploring themes including family loyalty, nature versus nurture, and whether we can ever truly break away from our family’s influence, Arsenic and Old Lace is praised for its dark, screwball comedy tone with The New York Times theater critic declaring it one of the funniest plays he’d ever seen. | Get Tickets! | |
| | Hands On A Hardbody
Book by Doug Wright, music by Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green, lyrics by Amanda Green.
For ten Texans who are down on their luck, the chance at a new life is only fifty-some hours and a hardbody truck away. Based on the real-life “Hands on a Hard Body Contest,” chronicled in the 1997 documentary Hands on a Hardbody, this all-American musical tells the story of a small-town Texas endurance contest, where the contestant who keeps their hands on a truck the longest, gets to keep the truck.
With tuneful country-rock melodies and soulful lyrics by Phish’s Amanda Green and Trey Anastasio, Hands on a Hardbody explores a diverse cross-section of a small-town Texas community and the trials they’ll endure for a chance to win a Nissan hardbody truck. From Jesus-loving Norma Valverde and injured and out-of-work J.D. to boastful former winner Benny and hopeful dreamer Kelli, each character has their own vision for the realization of their American Dream -- and they’ll keep their hands on it as long as they can.
Nominated for 3 Tony Awards and 10 Drama Desk Awards during its 2013 Broadway run, this is a feel-good musical that will leave you humming and cheering for your favorite contestants. | Get Tickets! | |
| | Pirates of Penzance
Music by Arthur Sullivan and Libretto by W. S. Gilbert
Pirates of Penzance is the famous, comic, Gilbert & Sullivan musical in two acts. The story concerns Frederic, who, having completed his 21st year, is released from his apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted pirates. He meets Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley, and the two young people fall instantly in love.
Frederic soon learns, however, that he was born on the 29th of February, and so, technically, he has a birthday only once each leap year. His indenture specifies that he remain apprenticed to the pirates until his "twenty-first birthday", meaning that he must serve for another 63 years. Bound by his own sense of duty, Frederic's only solace is that Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully. | Get Tickets! | |