What’s hot at Broadway Licensing Group? Check out the top trending titles of the week from Broadway Licensing, Dramatists Play Service, and Playscripts.
Brainstorm by Ned Glasier, Emily Lim, and Company Three
THE STORY: Inside every adolescent brain, 86 billion neurons connect and collide to produce the most frustrating, chaotic, and exhilarating changes that happen to human bodies. BRAINSTORM is a theatrical investigation into how teenagers’ brains work, and why they’re designed by evolution to be the way they are. Created in collaboration with neuroscientists Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and Dr. Kate Mills, the play is a blueprint for a company of teenagers to create and perform by drawing directly on their personal experiences.
Jimmy Buffett’s Escape to Margaritaville Book by Greg Garcia and Mike O’Malley, Composer/ Lyrics by Jimmy Buffet
THE STORY: Jimmy Buffett’s Escape to Margaritaville is a musical comedy featuring the most-loved Jimmy Buffett classics, including “Cheeseburger in Paradise”, “Margaritaville,” “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” “Fins,” “Volcano,” and many more. With a book by Emmy Award winner Greg Garcia (“My Name is Earl,” “Raising Hope”) and Emmy nominee Mike O’Malley (“Survivor’s Remorse,” “Shameless”), this hilarious, heartwarming musical is the party you’ve been waiting for!
The 9 Worst Breakups of All Time by Ian McWethy
THE STORY: You think your breakup was bad? Eve Tonsil, an employee of the nonprofit company “Relationships for a Better Tomorrow” is here to take you on a tour of the nine worst breakups of all time, from the Cro-Magnon era to the Civil War, to a smattering of modern-day breakups. A comedy that proves that no matter how hard someone has stomped on your heart…it could always be worse.
Dracula by Steve Dietz
THE STORY: “I want your fear. For your fear, like a current, rushes through your body. Your fear makes your heart pound, it renders your veins rich and full. Your fear hemorrhages deliciously within you.” This new adaptation restores the suspense and seduction of Bram Stoker’s classic novel to the stage. As Count Dracula begins to exert his will upon the residents of London, they try to piece together the clues of his appearances—in a valiant attempt to save themselves from a hideous fate. Rich with both humor and horror, this play paints a wickedly theatrical picture of Stoker’s famous vampire.
Getting Away with Murder by Stephen Sondheim and Geroge Furth
THE STORY: The esteemed and retired Dr. Conrad Bering has selected, out of countless applicants, several individuals for private as well as Group therapy. It seems this Pulitzer Prize-winning doctor might be writing another book and it further seems these patients might be his subjects. The Group consists of Martin Chisholm, an ambitious political consultant; Dossie Lustig, a sensual restaurant hostess; the snob socialite Pamela Prideaux; Vassili Laimorgos, a sly dealer in antiques and collectibles; the rich and arrogant real estate mogul Gregory Reed; a cop with a grudge, Dan Gerard; and Nam-Jun Vuong, a college instructor and resentful would-be administrator. On this particular evening the members of the Group gather as usual in Dr. Bering’s office only to discover that the doctor has been murdered. Who did it? And what do the appearances of a mysterious young man who killed a girl in Central Park have to do with what’s going on? Does the fact that the doctor is the last and only tenant in this otherwise empty, guarded security building confirm that one of them had to have done it? To call the police will subject them to reckless scandal, relentless investigation and turn them all into fodder for the hungry media, so a collective decision is made to try to solve the murder themselves. The play then is propelled by a series of twists and turns and red herrings, along with some hold-your-breath shocks, all culminating in an explosive surprise ending. Act One is a “whodunit” and by its end the audience knows the murderer. Act Two becomes a suspense play… will the characters figure it out? Will someone actually be “getting away with murder?”
Auntie Mame by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
THE STORY: This fabulously successful hit hardly needs introduction. Besides being the source for one of America’s most popular musicals, AUNTIE MAME set a standard for Broadway comedy that’s been sought after ever since. “Auntie Mame was a handsome, sparkling, scatterbrained and warm-hearted lady who brightened the American landscape from 1928 to the immediate past by her whimsical gaiety, her slightly madcap adventures and her devotion to her young nephew, who grew up to be Patrick Dennis. Through fortunes that rose and fell and a pleasant but brief marriage to a likable Southerner, who had the bad luck to tumble down from the Matterhorn, Auntie Mame’s chief concern was that nephew, whom she raised…[the play’s] central figure is a woman of spirit, innate kindness and undefeatable courage…” —New York Post.
The Women of Lockerbie by Deborah Brevoort
THE STORY: A mother from New Jersey roams the hills of Lockerbie, Scotland, looking for her son’s remains that were lost in the crash of Pan Am 103. She meets the women of Lockerbie, who are fighting the U.S. government to obtain the clothing of the victims found in the plane’s wreckage. The women, determined to convert an act of hatred into an act of love, want to wash the clothes of the dead and return them to the victim’s families. THE WOMEN OF LOCKERBIE is loosely inspired by a true story, although the characters and situations in the play are purely fictional. Written in the structure of a Greek tragedy, it is a poetic drama about the triumph of love over hate.
The Seussification of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Peter Bloedel
THE STORY: The Bard’s most beloved comedy gets the full Seuss treatment in this playful adaptation. Two madcap Narrators chronicle the tale of the mixed-up lovers as they wander through a forest full of whoosh bush tush beasts and fairies dueling with bumballoon swords. Told in rhyming couplets, this reimagining is how Shakespeare’s magical tale might have played if Dr. Seuss had gotten his hands on it…
Dashing Through the Snow by Jones Hope Wooten
THE STORY: It’s four days before Christmas in the tiny town of Tinsel, Texas, and a colorful parade of eccentric guests arrive at the Snowflake Inn and deck the halls with holiday hilarity. Trina, the harried yet upbeat innkeeper of this B&B, has more than she can handle coping with these nuttier-than-a-fruitcake lodgers. Hoyt and his sister, Donna Jo, make the mistake of trying to end a thirty-year feud between their curmudgeonly aunts, Ennis and Della, with sidesplitting results. Ainsley and Lenora, self-involved actors from a lower-than-low-budget touring production of A Christmas Carol, descend on the Inn to fulfill a promise, leaving comedic chaos in their wake. Add to this Yuletide mayhem an ill-advised romantic rendezvous between Mrs. Claus and one of Santa’s elves, a demanding guest who refuses to leave, not to mention a tipsy housekeeper, and it’s clear it will take more than a kiss under the mistletoe to keep Trina’s spirits merry and bright. But a spur-of-the-moment Christmas Eve wedding that brings together the fabulous Futrelle sisters—Honey Raye, Twink, Frankie and Rhonda Lynn—and their best friend, Raynerd, takes a surprising and delightful turn that leads to a laugh-’til-your-sides-ache climax, changing all their lives forever. You’ll swear this family-friendly Jones Hope Wooten Christmas comedy is more fun than a joyride in a one-horse open sleigh!
Open by Crystal Skillman
THE STORY: OPEN is a magic act that reveals itself to be a resurrection. A woman called the Magician presents a myriad of tricks for our entertainment, yet her performance seems to be attempting the impossible—to save the life of her partner, Jenny. But is our faith in her illusions enough to rewrite the past? The clock is ticking, the show must go on, and, as impossible as it may seem, this Magician’s act may be our last hope against a world filled with intolerance and hate.
