Scene On Stage
Wide Variety On Summer Stages - Theaters offer musicials, comedy, and drama: all within a gallon of gas...
By Philip Dorian
The Monmouth County theater scene blossoms in the summer, with several seasonal companies joining a few year-round stalwarts in presenting a wide variety of stage fare. Original and old-favorite musicals, plays, comedy and drama, from new composers to Rodgers & Hammerstein (and Hart) and from Neil Simon (of course) to Shakespeare. Here, in opening-date order, are upcoming offerings:
June 5-27 at First Avenue Playhouse, Atlantic Highlands: Pot Luck, Erica Bertoli's dramatic look at five college friends 15 years after graduation. Conflicts arise among one-time fraternity brothers and roommates at an ill-fated dinner party, when old and new secrets are revealed.
July 3-August 1: Neil Simon's Prisoner of Second Avenue, a comedy with serious overtones about an out-of-work New Yorker who just can't take it any more. (732) 291-7552 or at firstavenueplayhouse.com
At Eatontown Playhouse, Over the Rainbow Productions goes all-original for the summer with You Can't Say That, a new comedy "loosely based on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show," running June 5-28, and Diamonds Revised, an original musical about the jewelry business on New York's 47th Street, July 17-August 8. (732) 888-0339 or at overtherainbowproductions.net
It's a Biblical-musical revival meeting at the Henderson Theatre in Lincroft. Premier Theatre Company is invoking the Gospel According to St. Matthew with Godspell June 12-28 and the book of Genesis via Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat July 10-26. (732) 774-7827 or premier theatre.com
Year-round professional New Jersey Repertory Company presents the state premiere of Evie's Waltz June 18-July 26. Carter W. Lewis's three-character play is "a complex thriller about a serious subject," the alienation of today's youth in a period of turmoil and violence. (732) 229-3166 or www. njrep.org
Monmouth University's Woods Theater is home to Shadow Lawn Stage, where The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) - all 37 of The Bard's plays parodied in 97 minutes - opens June 26 for three weekends through July 12.
Then it's Shadow Lawn's annual Irish-written play, Conor McPherson's piercing Shining City, a stunning play about emotional and psychological survival in a world of personal guilt, runs July 17-August 2. (732) 263-6889 or at ticketsmu@monmouth.edu
The toddler-on-up set is the target audience at The Barn in Thompson Park, with Pushcart Players' Stone Soup and Other Stories in for three performances July 6, 7 and 8, followed by Shore Players' Cinderella on July 27, 28 and 29. At ten bucks a head, it's good value. (732) 842-4000 ext.1
Brookdale's Summer Shakespeare Ensemble livens up the Lincroft campus with the Scottish Play. Macbeth, the Bard's shortest and most gruesome tragedy, plays July 9-19: Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 6:30. Performances are outdoors on the Great Lawn (park in lot #2) and free (bring lawn chair or blanket). (732) 224-2411
Spring Lake Theatre Company's summer season features two classic musicals. My Fair Lady plays weekends from July 9-25 and Meredith Willson's The Music Man follows August 13-29. (732) 449-4530 or at springlaketheatre.com
The adventurous producers at Phoenix Productions are producing The Producers. Mel Brooks's irreverent hit musical, adapted from his hit movie, plays the Count Basie Theatre for two weekends, July 17-26. (732) 747-0014 and at tix@phoenixredbank.com
Holmdel Summer Theatre presents The Foreigner for two weekends, July 18-26. The comedy about mixed-up identities is followed by the 1937 musical Babes in Arms, August 14-29. With such songs as "I Wish I Were in Love Again, "My Funny Valentine" and "The Lady Is a Tramp," Babes claims more hits than any other Rodgers and Hart musical. (732) 946-0427
There you have it - something for everyone. No excuses now.
