Hunter Foster
Three musicals and two plays – along with the return of the Second Oscar Hammerstein Festival for lyricists – will comprise the 76th anniversary season of the Bucks County Playhouse (BCP) starting in April.
Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company, a new musical about baseball, National Pastime, and the Marx Brothers’ classic musical Animal Crackers will be joined by On Golden Pond and It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play in the season offering of BCP.
BCP will also present the second annual Oscar Hammerstein Festival in the fall, a program that focuses on the importance of lyrics in the creation of new musicals with public presentations and mentoring of early career composers and lyricists.
The Broadway actor Hunter Foster (Producers, Little Shop of Horrors) will direct the season’s first two offerings – National Pastime and Company, having directed BCP’s musical Ain’t Misbehavin’. Foster, and Lorin Latarro, who will choreograph both plays, are both Artistic Associates at BCP, along with John Augustine.
BCP 2015 scheduled productions:
National Pastime
April 2-19
It’s 1933 in Baker City, Iowa. WZBQ Radio is going under and Barry, the station’s owner, is trying to save it. Karen, Barry’s co-owner, wants to sell the station. Will a crazy scheme involving baseball change Karen’s mind and cause her to fall in love in the process? National Pastime is a musical valentine to love, baseball and the American Dream. Music and lyrics by Al Tapper, book by Tony Sportiello. Choreographed by Lorin Latarro and directed by Hunter Foster.
Company
May 29-June 21
Stephen Sondheim’s 1970 musical smash, Company:
It’s Robert’s 35th birthday, and his friends want him to settle down! During a hilarious array of interactions over dinners, drinks and even a wedding, “those good and crazy people my married friends” finally make Robert understand that being alone isn’t really being alive. Music and lyrics by Mr. Sondheim, book by George Furth. Choreographed by Lorin Latarro and directed by Hunter Foster.
On Golden Pond
July 10-Aug. 2
Written by Ernest Thompson
On Golden Pond debuted on Broadway in 1979 (later a film starring Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn), and is an enduring play set on a beautiful New England lake where Ethel and Norman Thayer have spent their summers for nearly 50 years. Their tranquil hideaway is disrupted when their daughter and her newest boyfriend turn up unexpectedly to leave his precocious teenage son with the elder Thayers for the summer.
Animal Crackers
Aug. 14-Sept. 6
A hit musical starring the Marx Brothers in 1928 (and the subsequent film classic in 1930), Animal Crackers has a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind; music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. The production has adaptation by and directed by Henry Wishcamper and choreographed by John Carrafa.
Animal Crackers centers on Captain Spaulding, the intrepid African explorer and inveterate womanizer, as he and his cohorts upend a swanky soiree and become caught up in a screwball search for the thief of a priceless painting.
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play
Dec. 11-27
BCP will celebrate the 2015 year-end holidays with the beloved classic film, performed as a 1940s live radio broadcast. An ensemble of over two dozen characters bring the story of George Bailey and his unforgettable redemption to live on stage. Written by Joe Landry, directed by Gordon Greenberg and choreographed by Lorin Latarro.
Subscriptions are now available for all 5 productions; single tickets are on sale for National Pastime. Visit the theater online or call (215) 862 2121.
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