What’s hot at Broadway Licensing Global? Check out the top trending titles of the week from Broadway Licensing, Dramatists Play Service, and Playscripts.
LOVE/SICK by John Cariani
A darker cousin to Almost, Maine, John Cariani’s LOVE/SICK is a collection of nine slightly twisted and completely hilarious short plays. Set on a Friday night in an alternate suburban reality, this 80-minute romp explores the pain and the joy that comes with being in love. Full of imperfect lovers and dreamers, LOVE/SICK is an unromantic comedy for the romantic in everyone.
Saturday Night Fever The Musical Based on the Paramount/RSO Film and the story by Nik Cohn, Adapted for the stage by Robert Stigwood in collaboration with Bill Oakes, North American version written by Sean Cercone and David Abbinanti, Featuring songs by The Bee Gees, Arrangements and orchestrations by David Abbinanti
In this beloved ’70s throwback, Tony Manero, a nineteen-year-old Brooklynite paint store clerk, spends his weekends at a local disco, where he moonlights as the king of the dance floor. When he and mesmerizing dancer Stephanie enter a dance competition, the pair’s professional partnership blossoms into a deep friendship and challenges both to reflect on what’s important in life amidst rising social tensions and disillusionment. Featuring the timeless hits of the Bee Gees and classic disco tracks, this reimagined version of Saturday Night Fever transports you back to the era of disco balls, platform boots, and white suits. Burn, baby, burn!
The Internet is Distract—OH LOOK A KITTEN! by Ian McWethy
Micah only has forty-five minutes to finish her paper on The Great Gatsby. She just needs to check a few facts on the internet first. Unfortunately, the web is a nefariously wacky place where boxing cats, Russian spies, and competitive streaming services threaten to take over Micah’s schoolwork, or worse. Will she finish her paper and escape with her life before the school bell rings? A high-octane comedy that explores the rabbit hole of distraction we all go down every time we go online. (A one-act version of this play is also available.)
Honky Tonk Hissy Fit by Jones Hope Wooten
In this rollicking, hilarious comedy, the Doublewide, Texas, gang is back and life in their tiny town has gotten crazier than ever! Just when things are looking up—the population has grown to seventeen mobile homes and a weekend farmers’ market—the rug is pulled out from under the residents yet again. It seems their vacation rental trailer has drawn unwanted attention from a mega-corporation in Austin. Suddenly the corporation is interested in Doublewide. Waaaay too interested. Mayor Joveeta Crumpler is the only one suspicious enough to sound the alarm, but no one is listening. Her mother, Caprice, is too self-involved with her “career” as a local celebrity to sense the growing threat, or to even realize that grumpy old Haywood Sloggett is increasingly drawn to her—and Sloggett is fighting those romantic feelings tooth and nail. Caprice is also hell-bent on keeping her neighbor and rival, Big Ethel Satterwhite, from horning in on her domain—the Stagger Inn bar. Big Ethel has her hands full trying to teach the town’s good-ol’-boy police chief, Baby Crumpler, how to dirty-dance for a countywide competition. But Baby’s got as much chance of winning as Georgia Dean Rudd has of not jinxing her relationship with Nash Sloggett—she’s twisting herself into knots trying to dodge his constant marriage proposals. And as the danger to the town grows, Joveeta can’t even count on the usually reliable and sweet health fanatic Lark Barken—because she’s currently under the spell of a demon she’s only recently discovered: caffeine. But as the tentacles of the corporation envelope them all, can the citizens of this little Texas town put aside their problems and unite behind Joveeta to fight “the big guys” and turn the tide in Doublewide?
The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stephenson
The Globe and Mail describe this play as “both gloriously funny and deeply felt. Indeed, The Memory of Water is so funny that it appears at first to be pure black comedy, with the newly bereaved sisters indulging wildly in witty bickering and dope-induced dress-ups. Their quarrels over the fu-neral arrangements, their well-worn family roles, their unsatisfactory men and their mixed memories of a highly feminine working-class mother are hilarious…In The Memory of Water, Shelagh Stephenson skillfully charts the joyous and painful territory of family relationships with insight and compassion.”
