What’s hot at Broadway Licensing Global? Check out the top trending titles of the week from Broadway Licensing, Dramatists Play Service, and Playscripts.
Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous by
A lifetime ago, actress Anna Campbell and manager Betty Samson ignited a major theatrical controversy with a performance of monologues from August Wilson’s Fences that came to be known forever as Naked Wilson. After decades of self-imposed exile in Amsterdam to escape the critics, they receive an invitation to perform the show at a women’s theatre festival promising to be “angry, raucous, and shamelessly gorgeous.” Uncertain of what kind of reception she will get, and unmoved by Betty’s reassurances, Anna’s insecurity grows when she meets Pete Watson, the ambitious young performer who has been chosen to replace Anna in the role but whose theatrical experience is so far limited to the adult entertainment industry. Searching for common ground, Anna and Pete must confront their ideas about themselves and each other as they reconcile two vastly different worldviews. With humor and grace, Pearl Cleage finds a meeting place where both women can not only find each other, but make peace with a few lingering ghosts just in time for opening night.
LOVE/SICK by
A darker cousin to Almost, Maine, John Cariani’s LOVE/SICK is a collection of nine slightly twisted and completely hilarious short plays. Set on a Friday night in an alternate suburban reality, this 80-minute romp explores the pain and the joy that comes with being in love. Full of imperfect lovers and dreamers, LOVE/SICK is an unromantic comedy for the romantic in everyone.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch by text by John Cameron Mitchell, music and lyrics by Stephen Trask
This groundbreaking Obie-winning Off-Broadway smash also won multiple awards for its hit film adaptation. It tells the story of “internationally ignored song stylist” Hedwig Schmidt, a fourth-wall smashing East German rock ‘n’ roll goddess who also happens to be the victim of a botched sex-change operation, which has left her with just “an angry inch.” This outrageous and unexpectedly hilarious story is dazzlingly performed by Hedwig (née Hansel) in the form of a rock gig/stand-up comedy routine backed by the hard-rocking band “The Angry Inch.” Using songs and monologues, Hedwig tells her story, which began in the former East Berlin where as Hansel he meets Luther, an American GI who promises to take the young man to the States on the condition that he switch his sex. After the bungled operation, Luther abandons newly named Hedwig in a Kansas trailer park, where she turns to music and meets geeky Tommy Speck, whom she takes under her wing and soon falls for. Tommy steals her songs, achieves rock star fame, and Hedwig is once again cast aside. She decides to demand redress and stalks Tommy’s world tour, performing in the T.G.I. Fridays that are situated next door to his stadiums. Hedwig describes her life’s search for “The Origin of Love” and her other half. It’s a rocking ride, funny, touching, and ultimately inspiring to anyone who has felt life gave them an inch when they deserved a mile.
Always a Bridesmaid by
In this hilarious comedic romp, four friends have sworn to keep the promise they made on the night of their Senior Prom: to be in each other’s weddings…no matter what. More than thirty years later, these Southern friends-for-life are still making “the long walk” for each other, determined to honor that vow. Libby Ruth, the hopeful romantic with the perfect marriage, believes—in spite of all evidence to the contrary—that her friends can find the very same happiness. Headstrong Deedra’s “rock-solid” union hangs by a thread when she discovers her husband of many years not only has a wandering eye, but the hands to match. Monette, flashy, high-spirited and self-involved, continues to test her friends’ love and patience with all-too-frequent trips down the aisle. And salt-of-the-earth, tree-hugging Charlie discovers—the hard way—that marital bliss is not the end of her rainbow and panics in outrageous style when the opportunity presents itself. Hop on this marriage-go-round for a laugh-out-loud journey with these beleaguered bridesmaids as they navigate the choppy waters of love and matrimony. Libby Ruth, Deedra, Monette and Charlie are committed to the notion that careers, waistlines and even marriages may disappear, but real friendships last a lifetime. Forsaking all others, in sickness and in health, they repeatedly struggle to stage the perfect wedding in spite of fistfights at the altar, runaway brides and the mistaken, and unfortunate, release of a flock of white doves on the first day of hunting season. ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID is the rollicking tale of four loyal and determined women who definitively answer the question, “Just how far are you willing to go to keep a promise to a friend?” If you’ve ever elbowed a stranger out of the way to catch a bride’s bouquet, seriously questioned the mental stability of the duo saying “I do” or been forced to wear the world’s ugliest bridesmaid dress, this deliriously funny Jones Hope Wooten Comedy is definitely for you…and your dearly beloved!
A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur by
The time is 1935, the place St. Louis, where Dorothea, a youngish high school teacher, rooms with Bodey, a plain but kind-hearted German-American spinster. Hopelessly romantic, Dorothea dreams of marriage with her sometime beau, the principal of the school, and Bodey, in an attempt to spare her feelings, hides the morning newspaper, which carries a notice of the principal’s engagement to another. Bodey also hopes to make a match between Dorothea and her fat, cigar-smoking brother, and tries to persuade Dorothea to join them for a picnic at Creve Coeur, a nearby amusement park. Their departure is delayed by the arrival of Helena, a snobbish, tart-tongued art teacher, who wants Dorothea to share an apartment with her in a better part of town. Inevitably, a struggle evolves between Bodey and Helena, with Dorothea, lost in her dream world, caught between them. In the end reality shatters Dorothea’s fond hopes, and brings her rudely back to earth—but not without clear evidence that, somehow, she will find the strength to recover and go on.
Light Up the Sky by
The comedy revolves around a group of New York theatre-folk who attend the opening of their new play in Boston. The lead actress, the backer, and several others, are in seventh heaven at the prospect of a tremendous success which they hope for in the work of a young unknown writer. Gathered in a hotel room, these people go through their paces with tremendous gusto and many exhibitions of temperament. The opening of the play, which is a very earnest and experimental work, is such as to lead the cast, director and backer to believe it a flop. Instantly they turn against themselves, the production, the author and savagely proceed in what looks like an attempt to destroy themselves and all their former hopes. It turns out, however, that in spite of the curious reception by the first night audience, the play has made a deep impression, and when news spreads that the reviews are on the whole favorable, the tables are turned. But the playwright who has suffered both from the enthusiasm and pessimism of his associates has decided that he is through with the theater, and he is captured by the backer only at the moment he is about to take a plane back home. He is persuaded to play ball with his associates, but he is so disgusted with the temperamental shenanigans of those who were presumably his friends that he turns on them and lays down the law to them.
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.
Badger (one-act) by Don Zolidis
In 1944, four young women take newly-available jobs at one of the largest munitions factories in the United States: the Badger Ordnance Works. Facing dangerous work with highly flammable powder as well as insidious sexism, the women form an unlikely friendship through joy and heartbreak. A vibrant ensemble brings the factory to life as each of the women confronts not only the challenges of entering the workforce in the darkest days of World War II, but also who she is and what she truly values. Unforgettable human stories make the era immediate in this captivating ensemble drama.
Governing Alice by C. Denby Swanson
In this modern adaptation of the Greek classic Antigone, a rebellious high school student named Alice must respond to the sudden and shattering death of her older brother, the class valedictorian — who was shot while robbing a convenience store. Up against an unyielding principal and accompanied by a bookish Geek Chorus, Alice must find her own way through personal and classical tragedy. In honoring her brother, she’ll probably break some rules. Which is more important?
The Greek Mythology Olympiaganza (full-length) by Don Zolidis
Two battling narrators attempt to cover the entirety of Greek mythology using audience participation, cross-dressing, and general theatrical insanity. Famous myths such as Pandora’s Box, Jason and the Argonauts (the original Super Friends), and Hercules: Intern God jostle for space with obscure, weird myths such as the myth of Linus and the legend of the Argus. Culminating in a bizarre, musical dance-influenced version of The Iliad complete with a full-scale battle of little green army men, this play is wild, silly, and a complete blast for audiences of all ages. (A one-act version and an Iliad! only version of this play are also available.)
