March 2011

Dear Subscriber: 

It is always hard to believe that the final shows of the season are upon us. It feels like it was just yesterday that we were opening You Can’t Take It With You and the world premiere of High. This season brought exciting theatre to all our stages, and you are very much a part of the work we do. You support The Rep and spread the word about what is going on at the theatre, which has helped to make this an amazing season. Thank you for all you do for us.

This season we are closing the Mainstage with a big party in the electric and energetic musical celebration, Beehive. You’ll want to dance in the aisles and maybe even sing along with the hits of the ’60s. The fierce girl groups of that era brought many a tune to the radios at home and in the cars. Transistor radios were all the rage. Though now they look as clunky to us as eight-track tapes, they were the personal devices people used to listen to music, and having a personal radio was an important status symbol.

You may have to explain to your children (or dare I say grandchildren?) that we were all rockin’ out to "The Name Game," "My Boyfriend’s Back," "It’s My Party," "Proud Mary," "One Fine Day," "Downtown," "Respect," "Mountain High," "Mercedes Benz"—well the list goes on and on. You will get to see the transition from the softer tones of the early ’60s to the more powerful tunes sung late in the decade by Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner and many, many more.

Of course, a show like this is full of big wigs, lots of hairspray, outlandish costumes and pure irresistible fun. You may want to see it more than once, and you may want to bring your friends from those days back with you. This is not a plot-heavy show, which you have probably guessed—it’s just for raising the rafters with great music. And frankly, in our very complex world right now, it may be the perfect time to come along and just celebrate these wonderful tunes with an amazing cast. We welcome Lauren Dragon, Lisa Estridge, Jennie Harney, Kristin Maloney, Debra Walton and Jessica Waxman—and these gals really can sing!

Our good friend Pamela Hunt is back to direct and choreograph the show. She was last with us for The Musical of Musicals—the Musical! Designing the set is James Morgan, with costumes by John Carver Sullivan. Mary Jo Morgan designs the lights and Rusty Wandall, the sound. After the run here, this production travels to our colleagues in Cincinnati, so if you know people over there, let them know the Playhouse will be rockin’ out in April.

Downstairs, we close our Studio season with a bold new work by the very talented and adventurous playwright, Sarah Ruhl. Her play In The Next Room or the vibrator play attracted a lot of attention during its Broadway run last season. Indeed, an important part of the story centers around the use of the new invention, the vibrator, which was taking advantage of electricity becoming part of the landscape of the 1880s. However, as with all of Ms. Ruhl’s work, the play is about much more than that. This provocative piece was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize as well as a Tony nominee for Best Play. It’s a funny, touching, emotional story about people and the lengths we will go to in order to connect with each other.

At the dawn of the age of electricity, the 1880s, "hysteria" was a very common diagnosis for women. Among the treatments doctors used was vibrator therapy, a new and understandably strange idea to many at the time. Inspired by her research on the subject, Sarah Ruhl created a play that sensitively explores women’s subjugation and the way that men controlled their lives, their thoughts, even their bodies. Dr. Givings, a young and modern doctor, uses new techniques of vibrator therapy on his patients in treatments that are all based in the documented history of the time. The women in his life—his wife, his assistant and his patient—all become curiously engrossed in the new sensations and feelings that such a treatment can arouse. But it is not only what happens in the operating theatre that is important. Far more significant are the relationships of the characters in the play, and what everyone finds out about each other. It is a remarkable and insightful piece that will certainly create many conversations.

Director Stuart Carden returns to the Studio after creating last season’s striking Crime and Punishment, along with the 2008 Off-Ramp production of The Lieutenant of Inishmore. The strong cast includes Ron Bohmer, Emily Dorsch, Amy Landon, Krystel Lucas, Annie Purcell, Michael James Reed and David Christopher Wells. Joining them is a wonderfully talented design team including Scenic Designer Gianni Downs (Crime and Punishment) and Costume Designer Dorothy Marshall Englis (Macbeth), who are both nominated for Kevin Kline Awards this year. They are joined by Mark Wilson (Secret Order) designing the lights and Rep newcomer Mikhail Fiksel handling the sound.

Our closing productions this year demonstrate the wide range of possibilities that we want to produce and to share with you. Thank you for joining us for this amazing season. Have a wonderful spring and summer—we’ll see you in September! (Isn’t that a song?)

Steven Woolf 
Artistic Director

P.S. Keep an eye on your mailbox—our 2011-12 season announcement is on its way!

And if you happen to be in New York, High starts previews on March 25 and opens on April 19 at the Booth Theatre on 45th Street.