THE DEAD PRESIDENTS' CLUB by Larry L. King, Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall, October 18 - November 3, 2013

[Austin Playhouse, temporary facility at Highland Mall, 6001 Airport Blvd - click for map]

presents

directed by Don Toner
October 18 – November 3, 2013
Thursdays–Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m. (no performance on Oct. 31)
Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall, 6001 Airport Blvd., Austin, TX 78752

TICKETS: $28 Thursday/Friday, $30 Saturday/Sunday
$50 Opening Night Benefit, October 18th
BOX OFFICE: 512.476.0084 or online at: www.austinplayhouse.com
DISCOUNTS: All student tickets are half-price. $3 discount for Seniors 65 and up.
Half-Price for Season Ticket holders and their guests. Season Ticket holders must call the box office or email to receive their discount!
No discounts for October 18th benefit.

WEB: www.austinplayhouse.com

In this comic gem by the famed Texas playwright best known for "The Night Hank Williams Died" and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," four former presidents - Richard M. Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, Calvin Coolidge and Harry S. Truman- find themselves in an exclusive holding pen outside heaven awaiting the decision of an admissions committee. "Just who is on that committee?" asks the recently arrived Nixon. "That's the problem: a buncha narrow-minded damned saints!" Johnson replies. As the sanctified weigh the leaders' good deeds against their sins of omission and commission, "Landslide Lyndon" and "Tricky Dick" plot to get around the bureaucracy and go straight to the Boss.

The cast includes Austin Playhouse Company members David Stahl as Nixon, Michael Stuart as LBJ, Tom Parker as Harry Truman, Huck Huckaby as Calvin Coolidge, and Hans Venable as the Heavenly Bureaucrat, with a special appearance by Jacqui Cross.

This show is rated PG-13 due to somewhat "salty" language (mostly LBJ's).

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

TRIUMPH OF LOVE, musical, Austin Playhouse, June 7 - July 14, 2013

[Austin Playhouse, temporary facility at Highland Mall, 6001 Airport Blvd - click for map]

presents





Princess Leonide of Sparta has fallen hopelessly in love with Agis, the rightful heir to her kingdom. Unfortunately Agis has sworn to kill the Princess and reclaim his throne. In order to win his love Leonide takes on a series of increasingly absurd disguises and woos not only Agis, but also his over-protective aunt and uncle. But in the end she learns that true love means revealing her true self and hoping that love will indeed triumph.
 

Season Ticket holders, make reservations now, only 14 performances!

Box office: (512) 476-0084

Email: boxoffice@austinplayhouse.com

Purchase Online Here!

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Austin Playhouse Holiday Card for The Game's Afoot by Ken Ludwig, December 13 - January 13, 2013

December 13 - January 13

Our 2012-2013 Season opens with a brand new comic murder-mystery by Ken Ludwig! It is December 1936 and Broadway star William Gillette, admired the world over for his leading role in the play Sherlock Holmes, has invited his fellow cast-members to his Connecticut castle for a weekend of revelry. But when one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turn dangerous. Then it’s up to Gillette himself, as he assumes the persona of his beloved Holmes, to track down the killer before the next victim appears. The danger and hilarity are non-stop in this glittering whodunit set during the Christmas holidays. 
 

Starring Joey Banks, Mary Agen Cox, Boni Hester, Huck Huckaby, Molly Karrasch, Jason Newman, Lara Toner, and Cyndi Williams.

Upcoming: The Game's Afoot by Ken Ludwig, Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall, December 13 - January 13

December 13, 2012 - January 13, 2013

Our 2012-2013 Season opens with a brand new comic murder-mystery by Ken Ludwig! It is December 1936 and Broadway star William Gillette, admired the world over for his leading role in the play Sherlock Holmes, has invited his fellow cast-members to his Connecticut castle for a weekend of revelry. But when one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turn dangerous. Then it’s up to Gillette himself, as he assumes the persona of his beloved Holmes, to track down the killer before the next victim appears. The danger and hilarity are non-stop in this glittering whodunit set during the Christmas holidays.

Starring Joey Banks, Mary Agen Cox, Boni Hester, Huck Huckaby, Molly Karrasch,

Jason Newman, Lara Toner, and Cyndi Williams.

Directed by Don Toner with costumes by Diana Huckaby, sound design by the Gunn Brothers, and lighting design by Don Day.

Austin Playhouse Season Ticket holders may make reservations now.

Single tickets go on sale Monday, November 27th.

What: The Game's Afoot by Ken Ludwig

When: December 13, 2012 - January 13, 2013

Times: Thursday - Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 5pm

Where: Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall

6001 Airport Blvd., Austin, TX 78752

How Much: $28 Thurs/Fri, $30 Friday/Saturday

$35 Opening Night with post-show reception, Friday December 14th

All student tickets are half-price!

Info/Tickets: (512) 476-0084

Website: www.austinplayhouse.com

Highland Mall Map

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

The Lion in Winter by James Goldman, Austin Playhouse at Mueller Development, November 18 - December 18

Your medieval experience for Austin Playhouse's The Lion in Winter is unexpectedly complete, for in that almost unheated temporary tent structure on the windy plains of the Mueller Development you might just wish you were wearing castle-appropriate fur and wool like those of the period costumes put together for the actors by Diana Huckaby. Although I suspect that they might have been wearing high tech underwear for the long evening during which we sat motionless watching them.

The talkative lady from Chicago who settled next to us at the Sunday performance confided that she was there because high winds had prompted Austin Playhouse to cancel the Saturday staging. She went over to greet Artistic Director Don Toner as he was wrangling a space heater. The temperature fell during the first half of this two-act work, and she and her husband disappeared at the intermission, as did a number of other attendees.

That's the down side, but be of good cheer, for perhaps the cold will abate and you can come prepared. My wife and I were relatively comfortable because we put on hats and pulled out gloves stowed in coat pockets since last February.

The Lion in Winter, staged originally in New York in 1966, is a familiar title thanks largely to the 1968 film of the same name with Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn, which won Goldman an Academy Award for screenwriting. It's the year 1168, as the Queen reminds us in a memorably acerbic line, "and of course everyone is carrying knives." Vaguely based in English history, this piece has few of the complexities of Shakespeare's histories and none of the pageantry. King Henry married well, taking Eleanor and her Aquitaine, consolidating a reign of extent unmatched since the days of Charlemagne almost four centuries earlier. The royal pair had four sons but the first, Henry's namesake, died as a child. Now at the ripe old age of 50 -- ancient for the epoch -- Henry is canoodling with his 16-year-old female ward, he has kept his queen under house arrest in another palace for ten years, and he acknowledges the need to prepare for his succession.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Images by Gray G. Haddock for The Lion in Winter, Austin Playhouse, November 18 - December 18

Images by Gray G. Haddock for the production by

of

The Lion in Winter

by James Goldman

November 18 - December 18

Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 5 p.m.
No performance on November 24th (Thanksgiving)
Tickets: $35 opening night, $26 Thursday and Friday, $28 Saturday and Sunday
All student tickets are half-price. $5 discount for subscriber guests

Temporary Facility Location: 1800 1/2 Simond Avenue, Austin, Texas 78722
The temporary facility will be on the corner of Aldrich Street and Simond Avenue in the Mueller Austin Redevelopment. (Click for directions and map)
Austin Playhouse box office: (512) 476-0084 -- E-mail: austinplayhouse@aol.com -- Website: www.austinplayhouse.com
Blog: www.austinplayhouse.blogspot.com

Click 'Read more' to view additional images by Gray G. Haddock at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Laughter on the 23rd Floor by Neil Simon, Austin Playhouse, February 25 - March 27

Neil Simon's set-up for Laughter on the 23rd Floor is simple and classic, if you can abstract from the biographic aspects of it. A newcomer enthusing about his new job discovers that his work colleagues are eccentrics, each more bizarre and devastatingly verbal than the previous one. Their employer, initially unseen, has enormous stature with the public, but they all know that he is a generous, distracted borderline psycho. Set 'em ricocheting off one another, bring the boss in, interrupt it from time to time as the newcomer addresses the audience with a rueful smile. Eventually, toward the middle of the second half, pressures from craven commercialism and the indifference to genius of the unwashed bring about the disbanding of the work unit, with much sentiment among its members and the megalomaniac disbelief of the boss.

With slight adjustments and a naval theme, you could be on board ship with Mr. Roberts or with Captain Queeg or with William Bligh. Or before Agincourt with Henry V. These few, this band of brothers, they bind together and then disappear into memory, greater and even more eccentric than they really were. This particular ship is an office in a New York skyscraper where the eccentrics are comedy sketch writers, the boss is a neurotic comedy star on live television in the early 1950's, and the newcomer is a surrogate for the playwright, Neil Simon.

Simon and his brother Danny did indeed write for live television before Simon embarked on his series of sweet and often nostalgic comedies. Sid Caesar saw a review they'd put together in a Catskills resort and hired them to write for his Show of Shows with a team that included the most successful writers, comedians and writer-comedians of the time. The Wikipedia article on this piece offers a table linking Simon's eccentrics with the real live eccentrics who probably inspired them, including Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbard, Carl Reiner and more.

Images by Christopher Loveless: Laughter on the 23rd Floor by Neil Simon, Austin Playhouse, February 25 - March 27

Images by Christopher Loveless, received directly:

Laughter on the 23rd Floor

by Neil Simon

directed by Don Toner

Feb. 25 - March 27

Austin Playhouse Main Stage, Penn Field, 3601 S. Congress (click for map)

Tickets are $26 Thursday and Friday and $28 Saturday and Sunday.

All student tickets are half price!

For Tickets, Call (512) 476-0084 or click here to order tickets online.

Hot on the heels of our most successful show ever, we're thrilled to bring theatrical legend Neil Simon's nostalgic comedy Laughter on the 23rd Floor to the stage! Set in 1953, Laughter recalls Simon's days as a young writer on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows. The play is a fast-paced and very fun comic romp through the behind-the-scenes antics in the writers' room.

Laughter features an all star cast including Kimberly Barrow, Brian Coughlin,Huck Huckaby, Jenny Larson, Jason Newman, Steve Shearer, Blake Adam Smith, David Stahl, and David Stokey!

Directed by Don Toner, Costume Design by Buffy Manners, Lighting Design by Don Day, and Sound Design by the Gunn Brothers.

Click to view additional images by Christopher Loveless at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Austin Playhouse, February 25 - March 27

Received directly:

Laughter on the 23rd Floor

by Neil Simon

directed by Don Toner

Feb. 25 - March 27

Austin Playhouse Main Stage, Penn Field, 3601 S. Congress (click for map)

Tickets are $26 Thursday and Friday and $28 Saturday and Sunday.

All student tickets are half price!

For Tickets, Call (512) 476-0084 or click here to order tickets online.

Hot on the heels of our most successful show ever, we're thrilled to bring theatrical legend Neil Simon's nostalgic comedy Laughter on the 23rd Floor to the stage! Set in 1953, Laughter recalls Simon's days as a young writer on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows. The play is a fast-paced and very fun comic romp through the behind-the-scenes antics in the writers' room.

Laughter features an all star cast including Kimberly Barrow, Brian Coughlin,Huck Huckaby, Jenny Larson, Jason Newman, Steve Shearer, Blake Adam Smith, David Stahl, and David Stokey!

For more information, visit our website!

Upcoming: Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin, Austin Playhouse, March 26 - May 2

Click for ALT review, April 22

UPDATE: Review by Olin Meadows for AustinOnStage.com, April 12

UPDATE: Review by Ryan E. Johnson at examiner.com, April 8

Received directly:

Austin Playhouse presents

Picasso at the Lapin Agile
by Steve Martin

March 26 - May 2, 2010
Austin Playhouse, 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C
Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 5 p.m .
Prices: $26 Thursdays, Fridays, $28 Saturdays, Sundays
$35 Opening Night, March 26, 2010
All student tickets are half-price
Tickets/Information at (512) 476-0084

It’s 1904 in Paris and a young Albert Einstein is working on a very famous theory. At the same time, a young Pablo Picasso is almost ready to “leave Blue behind.” At the Lapin Agile, a cabaret bar in Montmartre, Paris,frequented by artists, anarchists, and dreamers, these two young visionaries meet and engage in a lively debate on the creative process and the true nature of genius.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile was written in 1993 by famed comedian and actor Steve Martin. It is set on October 8, 1904, a time when Einstein and Picasso were both on the verge of executing a tremendous act of genius. Einstein will publish his theory of relativity in 1905 and Picasso will paint 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' in 1907.

Martin has written, "Focusing on Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity and Picasso’s master painting 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,' the play attempts to explain, in a light-hearted way, the similarity of the creative process involved in great leaps of imagination in art and science."

Picasso at the Lapin Agile is a playful, witty, incredibly funny look at how artists, scientists, and other inventors bound past society’s norms to enhance and advance humanity’s understanding of itself. Bringing the play to life is an incredible ensemble including Ben Wolfe as Picasso, Robert Matney as Einstein, Huck Huckaby as Freddy, Cyndi Williams as Germaine, Tom Parker as Gaston, David Stahl as Sagot, Kimberly Barrow as Suzanne and The Countess, Barry Miller as Schmendiman, and Jason Newman as The Singer.

The play is directed by Austin Playhouse Associate Artistic Director Lara Toner (Age of Arousal, The Turn of the Screw), with set design by Jessica Colley-Mitchell (Misalliance, A Flea in Her Ear), costume design by Buffy Manners (Misalliance, Les Liaisons Dangereuses) and lighting design by Don Day (Misalliance, Frost/Nixon).

Frost/Nixon, Austin Playhouse, September 11 - October 11

Almost thirty years had gone by when British dramatist Peter Morgan wrote this piece. The Gielgud Theatre picked it up from an "off-West-End" theatre in 2006. It moved to Broadway for 137 performances in 2007. Frank Langella won both a Tony Award for best actor, as well as the corresponding Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards.

Thirty years is about the right lapse of time before one exorcises demons and rehabilitates felons. Pain is remembered but no longer throbs, and different issues occupy the public mind.

The audience members at the Austin Playhouse were almost without exception of an age to have vivid memories of Watergate, Nixon's resignation, and David Frost's 1977 interviews, watched by some 45 million persons. That is reportedly still the record viewership for a televised political interview.

The play is structured as a hunt, a negotiation, and a verbal contest. Don Toner and his cast keep the suspense tight, almost convincing us that we don't know how this will turn out. The pull of the piece, however, is in the acting.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Frost/Nixon, Austin Playhouse, September 11 - October 11

Click for ALT review of October 4

UPDATE: Review by Olin Meadows at AustinOnStage.com, October 1

Received directly:

Austin Playhouse presents

Frost/Nixon
by Peter Morgan
September 11 - October 11, 2009

Austin Playhouse proudly opens their 10th anniversary season with the Austin premiere of Peter Morgan’s Tony Award-winning play, Frost/Nixon.

Frost/Nixon is set three years after Richard Nixon resigned from the Presidency in disgrace. Throughout those three years Nixon remained silent. But in the summer of 1977 the former commander-in-chief agreed to sit for an interview to confront the questions of his time in office and the Watergate scandal that ended his presidency.

Nixon selected David Frost as his interviewer, confident that he would outwit the lightweight British talk show host. But as cameras rolled, a charged battle of wits resulted. Would Nixon evade questions of his role in one of the nation's greatest disgraces? Or would Frost confound critics and elicit a confession from the man who'd built a career out of stonewalling?

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The Fantasticks, Austin Playhouse, May 22 - June 28

The Fantasticks at Austin Playhouse is charming. The reliable, charming low-budget winsome musical that has been charming 'em since its low-budget opening off-Broadway in 1960.

This is the show that smashed the records for long runs -- with a 42-year run by the original production and 17,162 performances. Then a New York City revival that ran 655 performances in 2006-2008 at the Snapple Theatre Center's Jerry Orbach Theatre on 50th Street, paused, then resumed and is still going. You can check out their website with perky piano audio, theatre description, ticket info and pages and pages of press clippings. Regular tickets are $75 (twofers, $112.50) and premium seating tickets are $125, which by comparison makes the Austin Playhouse production a grand bargain.

Wikipedia records that there have been 11,103 U.S. productions in 2000 U.S. cities and towns, as well as more than 700 productions in other countries, including 200 in Canada and 45 in Scandinavia.


What's the secret? There are several:

A comfortable formula (boy meets girl, fathers stage fake abduction, boy saves girl; boy discovers trickery, boy ventures into world, girl falls for cad and is disabused, couple are reunited, now more experienced and wiser).

Simple, memorable melodies and lyrics (Try to Remember, Why Did The Kids Put Beans In Their Ears?, Soon It's Gonna Rain, I Can See It).

The simple staging that evokes a troupe of traveling players. With duos: two lovers, two clownish dads, two actor-clowns. And with a mysterious master-of-ceremonies named "El Gallo" who moves the plot, fakes the abduction, seduces (or almost seduces) the jilted heroine, and exposes the lovers to the world's cruelties.

Click to read more on AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Fantasticks, Austin Playhouse, May 22 - June 28

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, May 29





Received from Austin Playhouse:

Austin Playhouse presents

The Fantasticks

music by Harvey Schmidt, book and lyrics by Tom Jones
May 22 – June 28, 2009
Thursday – Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 5pm

The world’s longest running musical is back!

The Fantasticks has enchanted audiences for almost fifty years with its timeless story, memorable music, and delightful characters. Songs like “Try to Remember,” “Much More,” and “Soon it’s Gonna Rain” frame the simple fable of a boy and a girl who find the path to true love (and learn that it never does run smooth).

Matt and Luisa have lived next door to each other their whole lives. Their fathers, Hucklebee and Bellomy, know that children only want what’s forbidden, so they build a wall between the two houses and pretend to feud. Matt and Luisa instantly fall in love. To seal the deal and end the fake feud the fathers employ the mysterious El Gallo to “kidnap” Luisa so Matt can rescue her and they can have a Happy Ending. But the young lovers must discover the real world for themselves and face true disappointments and heartbreaks before they can live happily ever after.

The Fantasticks stars Brian Coughlin as El Gallo, Tom Parker as Bellomy, Huck Huckaby as Hucklebee, David Stahl as Henry, Michael Stuart as Mortimer, Jacob Trussell as Matt, Steffanie Ngo-Hatchie as Luisa, and Kasey Eggleston as the Mute.

The Fantasticks is directed by Don Toner with musical direction by Michael McKelvey, costume design by Diana Huckaby, and lighting design by Don Day. Austin Playhouse produced a successful production of The Fantasticks in 2001. The Fantasticks opened in New York on May 3, 1960 and played 17,162 performances before closing January 13, 2002. A revival is currently running at the Snapple Theater Center in New York City.

Austin Playhouse at Penn Field, 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C

Prices: $28 Thursday and Friday, $30 Saturday and Sunday, $35 Opening Night, Friday May 22nd
All student tickets are half-price.
Info/Reservations: (512) 476-0084
Website: www.austinplayhouse.com

Dancing at Lughnasa, Austin Playhouse, January 23 - March 1

Ah, sweet Jesu, the Irish! A gifted lot, you know, close to the earth; fine women and, o' course, those charmin' but useless men of theirs. Think back with me, now, to the early days, and by that I mean, say, 1936, when the Mundy sisters had just gotten their radio, which back then they called a "Marconi. . . "

An ensemble piece for five women actors, Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa gives us an Ireland that is now mythic. Inside the memory space of the Playhouse stage and under the influence of the now-grown narrator Michael, played with soothing persuasiveness by Huck Huckaby, the five unmarried Mundy sisters live a simple but rich existence in their rural cottage.

We do not really know why none of these women ever married. The visible male characters cannot match them in character, intelligence or dedication. In the moment of this telling, Michael is just a boy, their indulged young man child. Father Jack, their uncle, has returned, bewildered and mildly heretical after 30 years of missionary work in Uganda, and he wanders through the cottage not always recognizing them. Gerry, the useless twinkling-eyed perpetual suitor to Chrissie, got young Michael upon her six years earlier but has no thought of them in his dreams of traveling salesman success and service in the International Brigade in Spain.

The warm, safe space of cottage and family is threatened and will eventually be destroyed by outside forces, narrator Michael reveals to us. The market for the handicrafts made by youngest sisters Agnes and Rose disappears when a glove factory opens nearby. The school dismisses Kate, the principal breadwinner, on the pretense that the school population is waning, but almost certainly because of the scandal wafting after Father Jack. That useless Gerry disappears, eventually, back to his native Wales, with ne'er a thought for the Mundy sisters.

But within that threatened household, what a vivid, emotional and supportive circle those sisters make! Babs George as Kate (rightmost, below) is the voice of propriety, bastion against the heathen carrying on of the semi-pagan Irish and their dance over bonfires on the ancient rite of Lughnasa. The Marconi fitfully erupts in a fiddle tune that enchants the sisters including Kate into stepping, whirling and jigs, until Kate with effort shuts down that celebration.

Michael's mother Chrissie (Lara Toner, in gray sweater) dotes upon him, as does his brash aunt Maggie (Cyndi Williams, far left). Chrissie's heart remains with gallant, useless Gerry although her conscience resolutely says "no" to his flattering and dancin'; her sister Agnes (Rebecca Robinson, in brown sweater) is plainly pining away for the same man, or any man, or any hope of love. And sister Rose (Margaret Hoard, in checked sweater), perhaps the youngest, certainly the simplest and most headstrong, just will not give up going out in the countryside with that married man.

The grown Michael recounts the fates of each of his aunts -- except, unless memory fails me, that of Aunt Maggie, the liveliest and most solid of them all. Cyndi Williams in this role gives us a woman of good appetite and great humor, with an emblematic moment in which a deep puff on a cigarette transforms her, says she, from sadness to happiness.

This is the melancholy, nostalgic side of the Irish -- not the wake, but the dirge. Director Don Toner and the female principals have created the feel of a continuous rapport among the sisters. The women reveal their vulnerabilities in words, subtle gesture and body language, and in their scrupulous attention to one another onstage. The unselfconscious Father Jack (right) is the sacred fool for this bunch - - Steve Shearer plays him with both openness and restraint, the calm voice of a reason unimaginable and unacceptable in this milieu. Brian Coughlin as Gerry is the bane of Irish womankind -- sunny, plausible and confidently attractive.

Set design by Don Toner, costumes by Buffy Manners, Irish dance choreographed by the impressively Gaelic Eimer Ni Mhaoiledidigh-Donnellan, and lighting by the Gunn brothers -- all contribute strongly to the creation of the protected space of memory.

Toner directed Dancing at Lughnasa at Austin's Live Oak Theatre in 1993 with Babs George as Kate, the same role. There is another point of continuity -- Steve Shearer was the merry Gerry in that production and he has now become Father Jack. Those facts offer the opportunity to speculate about theatre, memory, and transformation, just as the Playhouse is moving into its 2009 campaign in hopes of raising capital for a new home.

Robert Faires' review in the Austin Chronicle of January 29: ". . .Don Toner's staging here . . .did make me appreciate anew Friel's lyrical, stirring script and the preciousness and power of memory."