Looking to give your audience a memorable night at the theater full of laughs? If you want to lighten the mood, plan a fun time for your season with these contemporary American comedies:
Chicken & Biscuits
Douglas Lyons
5W, 3M
Rivaling sisters, Baneatta and Beverly, try to bury their father without killing each other. This proves difficult when Beverly shows up to the chapel with all her “blessings” on display. Baneatta’s husband tries to mediate the family drama while preparing Bernard’s eulogy. Baneatta’s son intentionally brings his neurotic Jewish boyfriend along, knowing Baneatta disapproves. All while Beverly’s nosy daughter keeps asking questions no one wants to answer. But when a family secret reveals itself at the altar, the two sisters are faced with a truth that could either heal or break them.
Clue: On Stage
Based on the Screenplay by Jonathan Lynn
Written by Sandy Rustin
Additional Material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price
5W, 6M
Based on the iconic 1985 Paramount movie which was inspired by the classic Hasbro board game, Clue is a hilarious farce-meets-murder mystery. The tale begins at a remote mansion, where six mysterious guests assemble for an unusual dinner party where murder and blackmail are on the menu. When their host turns up dead, they all become suspects. Led by Wadsworth – the butler, Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock and Colonel Mustard race to find the killer as the body count stacks up. Clue is the comedy whodunit that will leave both cult-fans and newcomers in stitches as they try to figure out…WHO did it, WHERE, and with WHAT! Some restrictions may apply.
Clyde’s
Lynn Nottage
2W, 3M
In Clyde’s, a truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at redemption. Even as the shop’s callous owner tries to keep them under her thumb, the staff members are given purpose and permission to dream by their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich.
Fireflies by Matthew Barber performed by Pioneer Theatre Company, Salt Lake City
Fireflies
Matthew Barber
2W, 2M
From the novel Eleanor and Abel by Annette Sanford. Retired schoolteacher Eleanor Bannister lives a quiet life alone in tiny Groverdell, Texas, set in her routines and secure in her position as the town’s most respected woman—until a hole in her roof draws the attention of Abel Brown, a smooth-talking drifter intent on renovating Eleanor’s house, and possibly her life. Can the unexpected sparks of late-life romance be trusted, or is there truth in the gossip that Abel isn’t all that he seems to be? Either way, the whole town is talking.
Grand Horizons by Bess Wohl. Original Broadway Cast.
Grand Horizons
Bess Wohl
3W, 4M
Fifty years into their marriage, Bill and Nancy want a divorce. While they seem unfazed by the decision, their two adult sons are shaken to the core, forced to reexamine everything they thought they knew about their parents’ outwardly happy lives. As the family grapples with their new reality, each must reckon with their own imperfect past and how their collective love for each other might express itself in new and unlikely forms.
Merry Wives by William Shakespeare, adapted by Jocelyn Bioh, directed by Saheem Ali for the Public Theatre. Jacob Ming-Trent and Susan Kelechi Watson. Photo credit: Joan Marcus.
Merry Wives
Jocelyn Bioh
7W, 10M
Set in South Harlem, amidst a vibrant and eclectic community of West African immigrants, Merry Wives is a New York story about tricks of the heart. A raucous spinoff featuring the Bard’s most beloved comic characters, this hilarious farce tells the story of the trickster Falstaff and the wily wives who outwit him in a new celebration of Black joy, laughter, and vitality.
The Play That Goes Wrong
Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, & Henry Shields
2W, 6M (Flexible Casting)
From Mischief, Broadway masters of comedy, comes the smash hit farce. Welcome to opening night of the Cornley University Drama Society’s newest production, The Murder at Haversham Manor, where things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous. This 1920s whodunit has everything you never wanted in a show—an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines). Nevertheless, the accident-prone thespians battle against all odds to make it through to their final curtain call, with hilarious consequences! Part Monty Python, part Sherlock Holmes, this Olivier Award-winning comedy is a global phenomenon that’s guaranteed to leave you aching with laughter!
Jessica O’Hara-Baker & Dave Maulbeck in Rx for Vivid Stage, Summit, NJ
Rx
Kate Fodor
3W, 4M
Phil is a researcher entrusted with the first major trial of Thriveon, Schmidt Pharma’s experimental treatment for workplace depression. Meena is a study subject who is depressed by her workplace. Can Thriveon cure Meena? Can Meena cure Phil? A comedy about big love, big dreams and Big Pharma.
