What’s hot at Broadway Licensing Global? Check out the top trending titles of the week from Broadway Licensing, Dramatists Play Service, and Playscripts.
27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays by Tennessee Williams
27 WAGONS FULL OF COTTON Swift and passionate scene. (2 men, 1 woman.) THE PURIFICATION Poetic drama in New Mexico. (9 men, 6 women.) THE LADY OF LARKSPUR LOTION Powerful sketch about derelicts. (1 man, 2 women.) THE LAST OF MY SOLID GOLD WATCHES A character sketch about a salesman. (3 men.) PORTRAIT OF A MADONNA A sketch of a demented spinster. (4 men, 2 women.) AUTO-DA-FÉ. Tragic Study of fanaticism. (1 man, 1 woman.) LORD BYRON’S LOVE LETTER. A romantic story involving the poet. (1 man, 3 women.) THE STRANGEST KIND OF ROMANCE Sketch of a lonely worker’s devotion to his cat. (3 men, 1 woman.) THE LONG GOODBYE A short study of family life. (2 men, 2 women.) HELLO FROM BERTHA. A tour-de-force sketch set in St. Louis. (4 women.) THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED A dramatic dialogue. (1 boy, 1 girl.) TALK TO ME LIKE THE RAIN AND LET ME LISTEN “Morning-After” scene of moving drama wherein a wife decides to leave her husband under tragic circumstances. (1 man, 1 woman.) SOMETHING UNSPOKEN Character sketch in which two characters are developed with remarkable insight. A play with an underlying current of irony and horror. (2 women.)
The Old Man and The Old Moon by PigPen Theatre Co.
The Old Man has kept his post as the sole caretaker of the moon for as long as he (or his wife, the Old Woman) can remember. When she is drawn away by a mysterious melody that sparks memories of their shared past, the Old Man must decide between duty (and routine) and love (and adventure). Luckily for audiences everywhere, he chooses the latter, and what follows is an imaginative sea-faring epic, encompassing apocalyptic storms, civil wars, leviathans of the deep, and cantankerous ghosts, as well as the fiercest obstacle of all: change.
Elsewhere by Don Zolidis
At a boarding school in New Hampshire, the former headmaster’s house sits empty, abandoned decades ago after his son disappeared inside and now thought haunted. But when four students break in on a dare, they don’t find ghosts or ghouls, but instead a doorway to another world: Elsewhere. Elsewhere is a realm of pure imagination, overflowing with everything Sylvan, Ariel, Jenna, and Vi could ever want: magic, adventure, acceptance, purpose, a half-human, half-buffalo librarian. But the longer they stay in Elsewhere, the more it seems there’s something not quite right with the fantasy utopia—and the less willing Elsewhere is to let them go back to their real lives. To escape this dream world, the four friends must journey through their darkest nightmares. (An alternate version of this play amended for language and content is also available.)
The Most Massive Woman Wins by Madeleine George
Challenging, brutal and hilarious, four women of various shapes and sizes sitting in the waiting room of a liposuction clinic explore their perceptions of body image. The women reveal their experiences dealing with their weight issues through monologues, short scenes, and even schoolyard rhymes. From painful childhood memories to frustrations with the opposite sex, these experiences both haunt and empower these women as they imagine their way to a new vision of themselves as beautiful and whole.
LIFT Music and Lyrics by Craig Adams, Book by Ian Watson
A contemporary musical set in London with a rich and complex musical score. The journey of the LIFT takes one minute (or thereabouts) but the journey of the show takes us through a minute within everyone’s imagination, allowing us to say and see things that might not be possible in real life.
School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play by Jocelyn Bioh
Paulina, the reigning queen bee at Ghana’s most exclusive boarding school, has her sights set on the Miss Global Universe pageant. But the arrival of Ericka, a new student with undeniable talent and beauty, captures the attention of the pageant recruiter—and Paulina’s hive-minded friends. This buoyant and biting comedy explores the universal similarities (and glaring differences) facing teenage girls across the globe.
Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus by Taylor Mac
In GARY, maverick theater artist Taylor Mac’s singular world view intersects with Shakespeare’s first tragedy, Titus Andronicus. Set just after the blood-soaked conclusion of that sensationally gruesome tale, the years of battles are over, the country has been stolen by madmen, and there are casualties everywhere. And two very lowly servants are charged with cleaning up the bodies. It’s the year 400—but it feels like the end of the world.
John Brown’s Body by Stephen Vincent Benét
The poem begins with John Brown’s attack on Harper’s Ferry and goes on through the Civil War, telling much of it from the points of view of Jack Ellyat, a Northern soldier, and Clay Wingate, a Southern soldier. The families and backgrounds of both men are woven into the action of the poem, as are their romances.
Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca, translated by Lillian Groag
Two families in a semi-mythical rural Spain are intricately bound in an unbreakable cycle of murder and revenge. The death-bound love triangle at the center of the play fuels these passions to a fever pitch and propels the story to its unstoppable tragic conclusion. An arranged country marriage between the children of rich landowners is about to take place. A past lover, himself in a loveless marriage, cannot allow the wedding to take place and spirits the Bride away, who goes with him willingly on her wedding night. An entire town goes after the lovers in the middle of the night where pursuers and pursued plunge into a realm of deep darkness where the moonlight is not friendly and the forest not shelter enough. Lorca’s image-laden poetry unfolds the story with the fire and power characteristic of his work and the fateful resonance that marked his own tragically short life.
Frankenstein by Victor Gialanella
From the novel by Mary Shelley. Set in nineteenth-century Switzerland, this classic tale of horror and suspense details the ill-fated experiments of young Dr. Frankenstein as he attempts to fathom the secrets of life and death. Purchasing cadavers from two unsavory grave robbers, he give life to a creature both hideous and touching—and so physically powerful and mentally twisted that he soon brings death or destruction to all who stand in his way. Adhering more closely to the original novel than did the famous motion picture versions, the play blends moments of brooding terror and sudden shock with questions of morality and the dangers of unrestrained scientific inquiry.
