Broadway.com’s Countrywide Guide is your destination for the best in theatrical offerings around the country. This week, we go from Connecticut to Colorado with five fabulous theater picks, including an imaginative re-telling of The Crucible, a star-studded Lend Me a Tenor and an original star of Annie in The Vagina Monologues.
NEW HAVEN, CT
Judith Ivey Gets Cursed
Fresh off her acclaimed performance in Broadway’s The Heiress, two-time Tony winner Judith Ivey steps into Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class at the Long Wharf Theatre's Claire Tow Stage. The story follows the broke and broken Tates as they contemplate what to do with the family farm. Gordon Edelstein directs the revival of Shepard's influential 1978 comedy—which includes at least one real lamb in the cast—from February 13 through March 10.
CINCINNATI, OH
The Crucible Tells Another Story
Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark and Glee writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has been electrifying audiences with the world premiere of his play Abigail/1702, a vivid re-telling of Arthur Miller’s classic drama The Crucible. The story revisits protagonist Abigail Williams 10 years after the events of the Salem witch trials, but hurry—the spooky thrills end at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park on February 17!
MILLBURN, NJ
Broadway Stars Find a Tenor
Broadway alums Judy Blazer, John Treacy Egan and Jill Paice lead a stellar cast in the Paper Mill Playhouse revival of Ken Ludwig's farcical comedy Lend Me a Tenor. Directed by Don Stephenson (a Broadway alum himself), the production promises a night of laughs as the Cleveland Opera Company deals with the arrival of "Il Stupendo" Tito Merelli and his imperious wife. Opening night is February 13 for a run continuing through March 10.
NEW HOPE, PA
A Former Annie Flexes Her Feminism
Just in time for V Day, Andrea McArdle will participate in a starry Bucks County Playhouse production of The Vagina Monologues alongside Tony winner Adriane Lenox, Gossip Girl’s Zuzanna Szadkowski, Olivia Oguma and Lea DeLaria. Eve Ensler’s groundbreaking play is directed by Karen Lynn Carpenter (Love, Loss, and What I Wore) and plays a special limited engagement from February 13 through 17.
DENVER, CO
Denver Downloads Drama
The Denver Center Theatre Company (a Tony winner for excellence in regional theater) offers up Ed, Downloaded, a world premiere comedy from writer Michael Mitnick. The play combines live action and film into a techno tale of a dying man forced to choose 10 memories to take with him into eternity. The comedy ends its run on February 17, so plug in to this new play before it floats off into cyberspace.