What’s hot at Broadway Licensing Global? Check out the top trending titles of the week from Broadway Licensing, Dramatists Play Service, and Playscripts.
Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical Co-Creators: Jordan Ross, Lindsey Rosin, Roger Kumble Based on the film by: Roger Kumble
THE STORY: Rulers of their elite Manhattan prep school, Sebastian and Kathryn have placed a mischievous bet: Can Sebastian successfully deflower the innocent Annette Hargrove, the headmaster’s daughter? As their vengeful crusade wreaks havoc on the students at Manchester Prep, the two devilish step-siblings become entangled in their own web of deception and unexpected romance in this raucous jukebox throwback.
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (Full Length Version) by Philip Van Doren Stern
THE STORY: This beloved American holiday classic comes to captivating life as a live 1940s radio broadcast. With the help of an ensemble that brings a few dozen characters to the stage, the story of idealistic George Bailey unfolds as he considers ending his life one fateful Christmas Eve. (A short version of this play is also available.)
On the Wings of a Mariposa from the novel by Barbara Joosse, by Alvaro Saar Rios, music and lyrics by Dinorah Márquez Abadiano
THE STORY: Based on Barbara Joosse’s beloved children book, On the Wings of a Mariposa is a story about one girl’s quest to keep her abuelita’s memory alive set during the beautiful annual monarch butterfly migration. After her abuelita dies, ten-year-old Pilar uses an old shawl that smells like her grandmother to help her remember their adventures together. One whiff reminds her of the two of them making tortillas or visiting a special forest known as el Círculo Magico where her abuelita would converse with wildlife. But as the shawl’s scent fades, so too do Pilar’s memories. Once it’s gone, will she lose her grandmother forever? This play with music is a true celebration of life and bursts at the seams with warm memories and joy.
Slow Food by Wendy MacLeod
THE STORY: A vacationing couple celebrates their anniversary at a Greek restaurant in Palm Springs—but will the marriage survive the service? As a needy waiter insinuates his way into their meal—and their lives—the couple examines their past and their future together. Playwright Wendy MacLeod brings us a tender comedy that delves deeply into what we hunger for.
The Effect by Lucy Prebble
THE STORY: Hearts racing. Minds reeling. Knees buckling. Connie and Tristan have palpable chemistry—or is it a side effect of a new antidepressant? They are volunteers in a clinical trial, but their sudden and illicit romance forces the supervising doctors to face off over the ethical consequences of their work. THE EFFECT takes on our pill-popping culture with humor and scintillating drama.
The Weir by Conor McPherson
THE STORY: In a bar in rural Ireland, the local men swap spooky stories in an attempt to impress a young woman from Dublin who recently moved into a nearby “haunted” house. However, the tables are soon turned when she spins a yarn of her own.
The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel
THE STORY: When Anna, an unmarried schoolteacher, is diagnosed with ATD, Acquired Toilet Disease, a fatal new malady with a high risk factor for elementary school teachers, she and her brother Carl take flight to Europe. Anna decides she wants to drown herself in the sensuality of food and sex, while Carl becomes involved in a wild Third Mannish espionage scheme to find a cure for his sister on the Continent. Something is not quite right with the scenario, and the largest hint is dropped when Anna shows slides of their trip to Europe where each frame looks exactly like Baltimore. Carl’s quest for a cure dead ends with a mad Viennese quack. Their European idyll is broken by Carl’s death, and the tragic revelation that the entire play was Anna’s valiant fantasy to keep alive her brother’s spirit when she could not save his life.
Smokefall by Noah Haidle
THE STORY: Magical realism collides with manic vaudeville in a family drama unlike any you’ve ever seen. Fetuses swap philosophy while awaiting their birth, a daughter eats dirt and doesn’t speak, a father is about to drive away and never return, and there’s an apple tree growing through the walls of the house. Whipping from astonishing tenderness to profound humor and back again, SMOKEFALL explores the lives of a family in a lyrical treatise on the fragility of life and the power of love.
Dearly Departed by David Bottrell and Jessie Jones
THE STORY: In the Baptist backwoods of the Bible Belt, the beleaguered Turpin family proves that living and dying in the South are seldom tidy and always hilarious. Despite their earnest efforts to pull themselves together for their father’s funeral, the Turpins’ other problems keep overshadowing the solemn occasion: Firstborn Ray-Bud drinks himself silly as the funeral bills mount; Junior, the younger son, is juggling financial ruin, a pack of no-neck monster kids, and a wife who suspects him of infidelity in the family car; their spinster sister, Delightful, copes with death as she does life, by devouring junk food; and all the neighbors add more than two cents. As the situation becomes fraught with mishap, Ray-Bud says to his long-suffering wife, “When I die, don’t tell nobody. Just bury me in the backyard and tell everybody I left you.” Amidst the chaos, the Turpins turn for comfort to their friends and neighbors, an eccentric community of misfits who just manage to pull together and help each other through their hours of need, and finally, the funeral.
And A Child Shall Lead by Michael Slade
THE STORY: This is the heroic and true story of children coming of age in Terezin, the “Jewish city” established by the Nazis near Prague as a way station before the death camps. In the face of unspeakable horror, these children use their determination and creativity to build lives filled with hope and beauty — playing, studying, making art, and writing an underground newspaper — all at the peril of being executed. Their actual poems and stories are woven into a fast-paced drama, evoking the universality of children caught in the insanity of war.
