Waterfront Playhouse has announced its 2020-21 season, featuring radio shows, musicals, small comedies and a whodunit.
Following a summer season of producing hit radio shows that were broadcast across the nation, as well as a live-streamed production of “Bash,” a reading of a new play and the one-woman show, “The Year of Magical Thinking,” the theatre will welcome patrons back in a socially distanced auditorium where masks will be required and temperatures will be taken.
The Waterfront Playhouse Welcome Back Revue opens at 8 p.m. Nov. 27 and 28 featuring Arthur Crocker, Belle Jampol, Donovan Pavlicek, Lauren Thompson, Jessica Miano Kruel, Stephanie Sanderson, Jim Speake, Meaghan Barter, Kelsey Lakeman, Devante Mills, Gerri Louise Gates and others.
December brings the new play “Every Brilliant Thing,” starring Arthur Crocker. If you were to make a list of things that make life worth living, what would be at the top? Ice cream? Family? The even-numbered Star Trek films? With whom would you share your list? This surprising and immersive theatrical experience speaks openly about depression, mental illness, and suicide. With poignant humor and joy, ”Every Brilliant Thing” is a journey through grief, healing, falling in love, and (re)discovering all life has to give.
A broadcast of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” will take place at 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
A revival of “The Rocky Horror Show” will open the new year with shows on Dec. 31 and through January. The cast will feature Richard Quint, Zachary Franchini, Belle Jampol, Carolyn Cooper, Donovan Pavlicek, Kelsey Lakeman, John McDonald, Tony Konrath, Bria Ansara and Joshua Lawson as Rocky.
“The Maltese Falcon” will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Jan. 30, followed by David Mamet’s “A Life in the Theatre” playing through February. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ”Glengarry Glen Ross” takes us into the lives of two actors: John, (Zachary Franchini) young and rising into the first flush of his success; the other Robert, (John McDonald) older, anxious and beginning to wane. The production is a joint venture between Waterfront Mainstage and Waterfront Youth Theatre.
“Matilda The Musical” will play March 3-20. Sponsored in part by the Community Foundation of the Keys, “Matilda the Musical” is based on the 1988 children’s novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. It was adapted by Dennis Kelly, with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin. The musical centers on Matilda, a precocious 5-year-old girl with the gift of telekinesis, who loves reading, overcomes obstacles caused by her family and school, and helps her teacher to reclaim her life.
Auditions for children 5 and up will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15 for “Matilda The Musical.” There are nine children’s roles available, including the role of Matilda. Young actors will be asked to go through a song and dance. Auditions will be socially distanced.
“The Hitchhiker” thriller will be broadcast April 3 and Waterfront On the Edge will celebrate the birth of Tennessee Williams with “This Property is Condemned” on March 14 and 15. Edward Albee’s Pulitzer-winning “Three Tall Women” will play April 7-17. A young lawyer has been sent to sort out the finances of an elderly client with more than money at issue. With a nurse companion steadily alongside, the old woman’s conflicted life is laid bare in all of its charming, vicious and wretched glory. The play is a semi-autobiographical view of the playwright’s mother, and is often considered Albee’s most personal and compelling play.
On May 1, “Tales of Poe” will be broadcast at 8 p.m. and then live on stage is the hit comedy “Clue,” May 5-15. Based on the iconic 1985 Paramount movie that was inspired by the classic Hasbro board game, “Clue” is a hilarious farce-meets-murder mystery. The tale begins at a remote mansion, where six mysterious guests assemble for an unusual dinner party where murder and blackmail are on the menu. When their host turns up dead, they all become suspects. Led by Wadsworth, Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock and Colonel Mustard race to find the killer as the body count stacks up. “Clue” is the comedy whodunit that will leave both cult fans and newcomers in stitches as they try to figure out who did it, where and with what.
Tickets for all live shows this season are $50 per person; radio show tickets are $20.For complete schedules and ticketing information, call the box office at 305-294-5015 or visit waterfrontplayhouse.org.
