Jackie Demaline: Theatre You Should Check Out in January

Hello, 2015 – starting strong with a winter season showing plenty of promise. January highlights should be the regional premiere of The Other Place at Ensemble, which earned lots of thumbs-up in New York; the much anticipated one-woman show of Margaret Atwood’s bestseller The Handmaid’s Tale, with Cincinnati Shakespeare’s Corinne Mohlenhoff and Brian Isaac Phillips commuting north about a half mile to Know Theatre; and a revival of Waiting for Godot at Cincinnati Shakespeare with a first-class cast led by Bruce Cromer and Nick Rose.

 

On the musical front, Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash, directed by and featuring Jason Edwards, who starred in the show on Broadway, already doing solid box office at Playhouse in the Park and The Carnegie’s annual “lightly staged” classic musical is spellbinding West Side Story, with performers with opera cred as tragic young lovers Tony and Maria.  

 

The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, Jan. 8-24. Footlighters, Stained Glass Theatre , 802 York St., Newport. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets $20 (plus $1 fee.) FootlightersTickets@gmail.com and 859-652-3849.

 

 

A composer, lyricist and director gather for a backer’s audition. Is this a good idea, considering three chorus girls were murdered by the mysterious “Stage Door Slasher” in their last show?  

 

And where’s the audition?

 

At a country house with sliding panels, secret passageways, a German maid and of course a blizzard that cuts them off from rescue because – what kind of show would Murders be if the Slasher weren’t in their midst?

 

West Side Story, Jan. 9-18.  The Carnegie, 1028 Scott Blvd., Covington. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. Additional performances 7:30 p.m. Jan. 15 and 2 p.m. Jan. 17. Tickets $30. www.thecarnegie.com and 859-957-1940.  

 

 

This year’s “lightly staged” classic musical is a masterpiece from the 1950s which sets the plot of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet on the rough streets of Manhattan, with the young lovers members of rival gangs. The driving score is by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim.

 

Marcus Shields (earning a master-s degree with CCM Opera) is Tony, Abigail Paschke (who starred in The Sound of Music last year for The Carnegie) is Maria. And welcome home to NKU grad Brian Bailey, coming home from New York after seven years and national tours including Cats and The Wizard of Oz, returning to a local stage playing Riff, the leader of the Jets. Brian Robertson directs.

 

Something, Something New Vagina, 8 p.m. Jan. 9-10. Cincinnati Fringe, Know Theatre, 1120 Jackson St., Over-the-Rhine. Tickets $15.  513-300-5669 or https://know.tixato.com/buy 

 

An encore performance of a 2014 Cincinnati CityBeat Critic’s Pick. Transgender performer Rebecca Kling’s solo show about laughter, surgery, activism, and a brand new vagina.

 

Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash, Jan. 17-Feb. 15. Playhouse in the Park, Eden Park. 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. There is no 7 p.m. performance on Sunday, Feb. 1, and no 2 p.m. performance on Sunday, Feb. 15. Tickets $30-$85. Prices subject to change. Teen and student tickets $30 each. 513-421-3888 or www.cincyplay.com.

 

This bio musical revue of The Man in Black looks at Johnny Cash’s life thematically,  from the time he was a youngster picking cotton to superstardom with roots in folk, gospel, rock and country. There are more than 30 Johnny Cash hits, including “Folsom Prison Blues”, “Man in Black”, “A Boy Named Sue”, and “I Walk the Line”. Directed by and featuring Jason Edwards, who starred in the show on Broadway.

 

Waiting for Godot, Jan. 16-Feb. 7. Cincinnati Shakespeare.  719 Race St., Downtown. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $14-$35. 513-381-2273 and www.cincyshakes.com. 

 

Cincinnati Shakespeare starts the new year with a quartet of CSC favorites in Samuel Beckett’s vaudeville of cosmic proportions. Bruce Cromer (see his name, buy a ticket) and Nicholas Rose are the pair of hapless vagrants who grapple with the mysteries of the universe, trading barbs and banter as they await the arrival of the eternally truant Godot. Jim Hopkins and Brent Vimtrup also star. Like life, Godot is a profound comedy punctuated with instants of dread.

 

The Handmaid’s Tale, Jan. 23-Feb. 20. Know Theatre, 1120 Jackson St., Over-the-Rhine. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets $20. Free on Wednesdays. 513-300-5669 and https://know.tixato.com/buy

 

Margaret Atwood’s dystopian masterpiece of an America in the near future, the oppressive regime forces Offred to become a Handmaid, a vessel for population growth. She struggles to retain her individuality, personality and even hope in this “Tale” about gender roles, love, fertility, religion, rebellion, memory… 

 

Cincinnati native Joe Stollenwerk adapted the book into a one-woman show. Cincinnati Shakespeare produced super-buzzy workshop performances a few years ago, Corinne Mohlenhoff and Brian Isaac Phillips return as star and director at Know.

 

The Other Place, Jan. 25-Feb. 15. Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, 1127 Vine St., Over the Rhine. Tickets: $18-$44; 513-421-3555 and www.cincinnatiensemble.org.

 

In Ensemble’s regional premiere, veteran Cincinnati actress Regina Pugh plays Juliana Smithton, accomplished scientist and pharmaceuticals pitch-woman, has a life that’s unravelling. Piece by piece, and as fact blurs with fiction, elusive truth begins to emerge.

 

“Sudden flares of uncontrolled feeling appear like lightning flashes from a sky that was clear just moments before…”—NY Times. “…a haunting drama…so cleverly constructed that the nature and depth of the problem isn’t revealed until the last shattering scene.” —Variety. “[A] wonderful surprise…in which we the audience collectively discovered we’d been had. And that we’d liked it.” —Village Voice. 

 

DIG DEEPER: Listen to NPR’s interview with playwright Sharr white.