What’s hot at Broadway Licensing Global? Check out the top trending titles of the week from Broadway Licensing, Dramatists Play Service, and Playscripts.
The Revolutionists by
Four beautiful, badass women lose their heads in this irreverent, girl-powered comedy set during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. Playwright Olympe de Gouges, assassin Charlotte Corday, former queen (and fan of ribbons) Marie Antoinette, and Haitian rebel Marianne Angelle hang out, murder Marat, and try to beat back the extremist insanity in 1793 Paris. This grand and dream-tweaked comedy is about violence and legacy, art and activism, feminism and terrorism, compatriots and chosen sisters, and how we actually go about changing the world. It’s a true story. Or total fiction. Or a play about a play. Or a raucous resurrection…that ends in a song and a scaffold.
Ago
The time has come for headstrong Kera to be fully initiated into the tribe of healers she’s been a part of all her life. But as the day approaches, she finds herself paralyzed by doubt. Can she ever compare to her accomplished older sister? Is there any value to all the rituals and ceremonies? Striking out on a hero’s journey in search of answers, Kera is surprised to find the key to her future may lie in her dark past–and what makes her different may be her strength. A mystical, inventive coming-of-age tale.
Honky Tonk Angels by Ted Swindley
When three gutsy gals from different backgrounds take charge of their lives, they decide to follow their honky tonk dreams all the way to the city of Nashville. Combining 30 classic country tunes (including “Stand By Your Man,” “9 to 5,” “Harper Valley PTA” and more!) Honky Tonk Angels is a hilarious, foot-stomping good time.
Rough Magic by
Transplanting characters from The Tempest to present-day New York, Rough Magic is a Shakespearean action-adventure-fantasy in the tradition of Harry Potter and The X-Men that conjures a mythical, magical meta-universe in which the evil sorcerer Prospero is willing to do anything to recover his stolen book of magic—even if it means Manhattan’s destruction. Lucky for us, New York’s defenders include a quartet of unlikely heroes: Melanie Porter, a plucky, raven-haired dramaturg with the ability to free characters from plays; Caliban, Prospero’s hunky (though not-too-bright) son; Tisiphone, a revenge-seeking Fury from Ancient Greece; and a seventeen-year-old lifeguard from Coney Island named Chet Baxter. May the forces of evil beware…
The Wild Women of Winedale by
This joyful and exuberant, yet ultimately touching, comedy focuses on three women at crossroads in their lives—the Wild sisters of Winedale, Virginia—Fanny and Willa and their frustratingly quirky sister-in-law Johnnie Faye. This feisty and fun-loving trio has supported and cheered one another through life’s highs and lows through the years, including the early demise of two of their husbands. And they really need each other now, as Fanny experiences a hilariously inappropriate reaction to her 60th birthday, while Willa is so stressed out from her nursing job she resorts to vodka and speed-knitting to cope, and Johnnie Faye, determined to put her year of fraught widowhood behind her, desperately tries to find a man—preferably a man with a house, since hers is somewhere at the bottom of a Florida sinkhole. These women’s lives are further upended by the responsibility of caring for their free-spirited, ailing aunt and the realization that they are drowning under loads of family keepsakes and possessions nobody wants—especially them! With equal doses of hilarity and heart, these extraordinary women come up with delightful and surprisingly unorthodox ways to clear the clutter from their lives, their homes and their relationships so they can move their lives forward. Together they prove it’s never too late to take another one of life’s paths for a grand new adventure. This Jones Hope Wooten comedy is guaranteed to drive you wild with laughter—and motivate you to keep hounding the kids to please take that stack of quilts and Granny’s Christmas china!
Key Exchange by
The scene is a bicycle path in Central Park, where three young cyclists come together each weekend. Philip, an aspiring novelist, is having an affair with Lisa, a photographer, while Michael, a Madison Avenue copywriter, is newly married to the girl with whom he has been living (and who has just run off for a fling with her music teacher). Their meetings are pleasantly casual and filled with crisp, funny lines, but a sobering reality pops up when Lisa suggests to Philip that they make their relationship more permanent by exchanging apartment keys—a possibility that disconcerts the freedom-loving Philip, who prefers sex without “commitment.” As Lisa presses her case Philip evades, but then, as Lisa stuns him by electing to turn elsewhere, Philip reverses his field and tries to win her back—but the opportunity has slipped by. Meanwhile, Michael’s wife calls to tell him she is coming home—a prospect that, despite the fact they had decided to make their own liaison a lasting one, he can only regard with mixed feelings and even a touch of regret.
The Heidi Chronicles by
Recipient of the 1989 Tony Award® for Best Play and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Comprised of a series of interrelated scenes, the play traces the coming of age of Heidi Holland, a successful art historian, as she tries to find her bearings in a rapidly changing world. Gradually distancing herself from her friends, she watches them move from the idealism and political radicalism of their college years through militant feminism and, eventually, back to the materialism that they had sought to reject in the first place. Heidi’s own path to maturity involves an affair with the glib, arrogant Scoop Rosenbaum, a womanizing lawyer/publisher who eventually marries for money and position; a deeper but even more troubling relationship with a charming, witty young pediatrician, Peter Patrone, who turns out to be gay; and increasingly disturbing contacts with the other women, now much changed, who were a part of her childhood and college years. Eventually, Heidi comes to accept the fact that liberation can be achieved only if one is true to oneself, with goals that come out of need rather than circumstance. As the play ends she is still “alone,” but having adopted an orphaned baby, it is clear that she has begun to find a sense of fulfillment and continuity that may well continue to elude the others of her anxious, self-centered generation.
Handbagged by
Handbagged imagines what really happened in the private meetings between two of the world’s most powerful women: the Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, and Queen Elizabeth II. Born just six months apart, each leader has the capacity to change the world, but how the world should be changed is another story altogether. Will Mags and Liz find common ground in tumultuous times, or will the gloves come off at Buckingham Palace?
The Rules of Comedy by Peter Bloedel
The audience is given a side-splitting lesson in what’s funny and what’s not funny. In order to prove that the Rules of Comedy work, they are hilariously inserted into one of the most popular tragedies of all time: William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The Rules of Comedy is a physical comedy “blow-out” with an interesting twist that showcases the cast’s ability to handle tragic drama, as well. Playing by the rules has never been so much fun.
The Trojan Women by Euripides, English version by Amlin Gray
After ten long years of war, the great city of Troy has fallen. Only the mothers, wives, and daughters of its slaughtered warriors survive. Nothing worse can befall them. Then it does, blow after blow. Their previous lives in ruins, the women find unimagined resources in each other and themselves. The Trojan Women is a thousands-year-old tale of courage, resilience, and hope in the face of utter devastation.
