Willum Cubbert has often told his friends about the debt he owes to Rick Steadman, a fellow ex-GI whom he has never met, but who saved his life when he was wounded in Vietnam. He has written to Rick to say that, as long as he is alive, “you will have somebody on Earth who will do anything for you.” Willum is delighted when Rick shows up unexpectedly at his apartment on his thirty-fourth birthday, but delight soon fades. Rick is a hopeless “nerd,” a bumbling oaf with little intelligence, less tact, and no manners. Rick stays on and on. His continued presence leads to one uproarious incident after another, until the placid Willum is contemplating violence — a dire development staved off by a surprising “twist” ending. The play, and even its title, is irresistible, infectious fun.
Dr. Martin Dysart, a psychiatrist, is confronted with an exceptional situation and a puzzle to unravel in the form of his new patient: Alan Strang, a boy who has blinded six horses in a violent fit of passion. Dysart has a great deal of difficulty making any kind of headway with Alan, who at first responds to questioning by singing advertising jingles. Slowly, Dysart makes contact with Alan by playing a game where each of them asks a question which must be answered honestly. This psychological riddle leads both doctor and patient to a complex and disturbingly dramatic confrontation. The play’s long-term international success reached new acclaim in London and on Broadway when it was revived in 2008 starring Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths.
The final collaboration between Rodgers & Hammerstein was destined to become one of the world’s most beloved musicals. When Maria proves too high-spirited for the religious order, she is dispatched to serve as governess to the seven children of widowed naval Captain George Von Trapp. Her growing rapport with the youngsters, coupled with her generosity of spirit, gradually captures the heart of the stern Captain. After a tender courtship, they marry. But as they return from their honeymoon, they discover an Austria invaded by the Nazis, who demand the Captain’s immediate service in their navy. The family’s narrow escape over the mountains into Switzerland as World War II looms provides one of the most thrilling and inspirational finales in musical theatre.
They’re back! Those eccentric inhabitants of Tuna, the third smallest town in Texas, have returned for the much-anticipated third installment in the Tuna trilogy. Along with Tuna’s perennial favorites, some new Tuna characters burst into the 4th of July Tuna High School Class Reunion (yes, you read that correctly). A stage full of Tuna-style fireworks is set in the land where the local Lion’s Club is a little too liberal and Lady Gaga can’t hold a candle to Patsy Cline. A Tuna Christmas left Bertha and Arles dancing into the sunset. Did romance blossom? Has Didi Snavley received any “cosmic” communications from R.R.’s UFO? Did Stanley stuff his pockets making his fortune as Albuquerque’s most notable taxidermist? These and other burning questions will be asked and answered in this side-splitting parody of life in rural America.
Berlin, 1930: economically depressed with millions of unemployed roaming the streets. Into this chaos enter Sally Bowles, an American dancer at the seedy underground Kit Kat Klub, where anything goes. An eclectic assortment of characters surrounds her, notably Cambridge student Brian Roberts. Without much money, he moves into an inexpensive rooming house to write his novel, where he befriends the outwardly flamboyant dancer. Sally’s façade is matched by the Klub, overseen by its mercurial Emcee. The growing threat of Nazism is gradually taking control in Berlin while its people are emotionally and spiritually blind. With an amazing score and lyrics by Kander and Ebb, Cabaret is extreme, decadent, both dispassionate and highly moving at the same time.
In 1975, in a Woolworth’s five and dime store in the small West Texas town of McCarthy, an all-female fan club called the “Disciples of James Dean” gathers to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Dean’s death. Now middle-aged women, they were teenagers when Dean filmed Giant two decades ago in nearby Marfa. One of them, an extra in the film, has a child whom she says was conceived with Dean during the shoot. The ladies’ recollections mingle with flashbacks of their youth. But soon, with the arrival of a stunning but familiar stranger, the carefree tone of the gathering begins to slip, revealing a darker underside. The mystery of the newcomer and the eventual revelations she provokes, sets off a series of confrontations that erode their delusions and leave them fighting to make peace with who they were and what they may have become.