The 1999-2000 Season

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Shakespeare's Tragedy Oct. 28 - November 13, 1999	Funny and Touching May 4 - 20, 2000
Hilarious Musical Farce February 24 - March 11, 2000	Tom Stoppard Masterpiece July 20 - August 5, 2000

October 29 - November 13, 1999

by William Shakespeare
Directed by D Schweppe

We start the season with one of William Shakespeare's darkest and most intriguing plays - a tragedy of ego, obsession, guilt, and ambition. Macbeth and his lady, succumbing to the desire for power, are driven to perform a terrible deed. The consequences of this act, and further sins, propel each of them into a personal and solitary darkness. Their journey is filled with the dangers that lurk along the path to the seat of power. Through their eyes, we experience horrors that are chilling reminders of the cost of the heedless pursuit of success. Macbeth is filled with wars and murders, lies and treachery, surreal visions, and of course, witches - a perfect piece for Halloween.

February 24 - March 11, 2000

Music by Stephen Flaherty
Book and Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens

A musical about a discontented shoe salesman, who goes to Monte Carlo, so he can collect his long-lost uncle's inheritance? There's a premise for you! Of course everybody else is chasing after the money too, from the charitable Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn to the cheating wife of the jealous casino owner. This remarkable inventive musical farce is another treat from the composer/lyricist team that gave us Ragtime and the animated movie musical Anastasia. Lucky Stiff introduces a wacky world of eccentric characters and screwball situations guaranteed to keep you laughing long after you've found out "whodunnit."

Lucky Stiff Pictures

May 4 - 20, 2000

by Tom Griffin

This is a very funny and truly touching play about four mentally handicapped men who live in a communal residence under the care of an earnest but increasingly burned-out young social worker. Norman takes great pride in his huge bundle of keys; Lucien has the mind of a five-year-old, but imagines that he is able to read the weighty books he lugs about. Arnold suffers from a persecution complex, while Barry, a brilliant schizophrenic, fantasizes that he is a golf pro. The glimpses into the daily lives of these four, where little things become momentous, and very funny, are moments of great poignancy. The New York Times said, "The Boys Next Door moves the audience to an awareness of how many things in every day life we take for granted."

By Tom Stoppard Directed by John Barrett July 20 - August 5, 2000

In Arcadia, Tom Stoppard, perhaps the world's greatest living playwright, has created a masterwork. The play is rich in language, humor, intellect, and insight. Stoppard presents two intriguing groups of fascinating characters - a collection of 20th century scholars researching the past and an early 19th century household wondering about the future - onstage in the same room, but existing in their own distinct periods. As the characters look toward each other through time, Arcadia (says critic Steven Winn) "unfurls like a Mobius coil, bending and twisting back on itself with philosophy, coincidence and comic details gaining momentum. Newtoninan physics, mathematical chaos theory, Latin translations and the history of English garden design are threaded together with assignations in the gazebo, stolen kisses, and duels at dawn".