The 1996-97 Season
The 1996-97 Season
October 31 - November 16, 1996
February 27 - March 15, 1997
May 1 - 17, 1997
July 17 - August 2, 1997
October 31 - November 16, 1996
We open our season with one of the most challenging, bizarrely funny, and controversial musical plays in recent years. Assassins is a thought-provoking, wildly unpredictable exploration of the dark side of the American Dream. The traditional "Every child can grow up to be president" is met by its twisted mirror image, "Every kid can grow up to kill the president." What drives a John Wilkes Booth or a Squeaky Fromme to commit such a hateful and often senseless crime? The search for the answer (through the scope of American history) takes us through a wide range of American music (from folk songs to Broadway, barbershop quartets to cakewalks), magnificently brought to life by Stephen Sondheim, composer of the recent Vokes productions of Company and Into the Woods. Assassins promises to be an exciting, stimulating, and at times improbably comic theatrical experience.
Read Larry Stark's
Review of opening
night, on the Theater Mirror
web page.
Read
The Assassination
of America, an essay by Anthony DiSanto, from the archives of the
Stephen Sondheim Stage web page.
February 27 - March 15, 1997
Fans of Molière know that there is no subject which he could not turn to gaiety - false piety, miserliness, unfaithfulness. Here he casts his bright eye on hypochondria and the result is as hilarious as ever. Longtime Vokes viewers will remember the madcap pace and zany farce of Molière's Tartuffe. We are excited about the opportunity to present another excursion into lunacy by the man who is perhaps the world's greatest writer of comedy. Molière scholar John Wood has said that of all his plays "none is more joyous, more expressive of his ebullient energy, his mingled compassion and delight in the spectacle of human frailty and folly." This is a very funny play, full of life, zest, and wit. The Imaginary Invalid is the prescription for laughter and the perfect antidote to a long, cold winter.
May 1 - 17, 1997
We are very proud to be presenting this little-known masterpiece by one of the great American playwrights of the twentieth century. Lillian Hellman was an acknowledged master of dialogue and characterization and her genius was never more in evidence than in this gripping psychological drama. Set in Venezuela during Bolivar's war of liberation, the play looks past the sweep of history and finds six innocents caught between the Spanish crown and the Great Liberator. They have just one hour to find a way to save their lives and the way in which they come to grips with the situation is at once painfully dramatic and utterly real. The dialogue is grittily realistic and the tension builds to a fever pitch as we wait to see whether it will be execution or salvation. Montserrat is drama in the best sense of the word.
Even
Lillian
Hellman has a Web Page!
July 17 - August 2, 1997
A wonderfully, life-affirming comedy with serious undertones, Lips Together, Teeth Apart is a play that defies easy pigeonholing. At times a bright, breezy comedy full of the brittle, sophisticated wit for which Terrence McNally is famed, at other times a probing and painful self-examination of the dark side of the soul, and at all times clever, sharp, and intriguing. Two couples spend an emotionally eventful weekend sharing a house on Fire Island. Their interaction is hilarious, all the more so as it becomes much less comfortable for the characters. As the weekend wears on, so do nerves, psyches, and tempers - building to a series of funny and poignant perspectives on the human condition. Lips Together, Teeth Apart will make you laugh and cry, perhaps at the same time.
Read Larry Stark's
Review of opening night,
on the Theater Mirror web page.
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