VERIZON HALL at the KIMMEL CENTER, 260 S. Broad St. Run, do not walk, to see and hear Broadway legend AUDRA McDONALD. We first saw Audra when Master Class premiered in Philadelphia. She wowed us and everyone else who saw her and predictably won a Tony for her role in New York. Since then she’s been everywhere: Broadway, television, the White House, opera, and the concert stage. Later this season she will star in George Gershwin’s American Opera Porgy and Bess on Broadway. For us lucky ones this multi-talented star will perform an intimate evening of favorite show tunes, cinematic classics, and original pieces written expressly for her on Sat., Oct. 1: 215.893.1955.
11TH HOUR THEATRE COMPANY, SKYBOX at the ADRIENNE, 2030 Sansom St. Five years ago THE BOMB-ITTY OF ERRORS arrived in Philly and put the 11th Hour Theatre Company on the map. The return of this rap adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors uses four actors to play over twenty roles, both male and female. Elizabethan times are infused with a hip-hop flavor aided by a live DJ. The story line has everything that Will Shakespeare had and more. A loving couple are blessed with two sets of identical twins whom they are forced to give up for adoption. Lots of room for confusion, mistaken identity, betrayal, and love, as in all of Shakespeare’s plays. Runs through Sept. 25: 267.987.9865.
ACT 11 PLAYHOUSE, 56 E. Butler Ave., Ambler, PA. Harriet Power directs A.R. Gurney’s unusual romantic comedy, SYLVIA. Greg Wood and Mary Beth Scallen are a New York power couple who find themselves in a love triangle with a dog called Sylvia, played by Jessica Bedford. This unique interloper speaks and understands English perfectly! Surprising changes in the family structure take place and the wife Kate finds herself ignored. She struggles to compete with the undeniable appeal of Sylvia’s unconditional love. Paul Felder rounds out the cast with three very funny and varied roles. Sept. 6-Oct. 2: 215.654.0200.
ARDEN THEATRE COMPANY, 40 N. 2nd St. Tracy Letts’s AUGUST- OSAGE COUNTY is a giant play which gets the production it deserves from the Arden Company and director Terrence J. Nolen . When was the last time you saw a three act play with a cast of 13 and a 3-story home on stage? The cast is comprised of so many outstanding performers that a list alone should compel theater lovers to attend. As an example: Carla Belver, Corinna Burns, Grace Gonglewski, David Howey, Anthony Lawton, Mary Martello, Paul Nolan and Kathryn Peterson carry the dramatic burden, with an ease born of many years working together at Arden and other venues. The play will be staged in a thrust configuration allowing the audience to feel as if they are members of the household. This portrait of family dysfunction begins with a father’s disappearance, followed by a pill-popping mother’s demand that her daughters return home. Dinner is served, lies are told, and the family fight commences. Sept. 29- Oct. 30: 215.922.1122.
FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, 20th & Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Mummies either enchant or frighten and disgust most people. As a result almost everybody knows something about mummies and it’s usually wrong! This major exhibit, MUMMIES OF THE WORLD, shows/tells you everything your “mummy” should have taught you about the real mummies, the real science, and the real people. This is the largest exhibit of mummies and related artifacts ever assembled. It includes both intentionally created and naturally preserved human and animal mummies. Allow about an hour to see mummified infants 3000 years older than King Tut, 18th century families discovered in a long forgotten Hungarian church crypt, a Baron & Baroness in a 14th century German castle crypt, a Chilean woman mummified by the desert air, and of course the famous Egyptian royal mummies. Runs through Oct. 23: 215.448.1200.
HEDGEROW THEATRE, 64 Rose Valley Road, Media, PA. Can you imagine Neil Simon and the long dead Anton Chekhov somehow reaching across the centuries to write a play together? Well it didn’t really happen—but it looks like it did in the musical comedy THE GOOD DOCTOR. Simon takes several short stories of Chekhov and turns them into a series of vignettes. The only connecting thread is the writer, obviously Chekhov/Simon. The characters are as wild as the scenes, including a governess, a prostitute, a general, a new bride, and a man who makes a living drowning himself for three rubles. Direction is by the award-winning Louis Lippa and the band of merrymakers includes Zoran Kovcic, Jared Reed, and Susan Wefel. Who could ask for anything more? Runs through Sept. 18: 610.565.4211.
LUNA THEATER COMPANY, PLAYGROUND at THE ADRIENNE, 2030 Sansom St. A whiff of Camus and Kafka surrounds this Philadelphia premiere of Finn Kennedy’s HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY AND NEVER BE FOUND. A young executive overwhelmed with his life decides to disappear completely. He turns to a seedy fortune teller for help and is visited by a pathologist who insists she has seen his corpse! Scott Campbell directs David Stanger, Mark Cairns, Bethany Ditnes, Jennifer MacMillan and Steve Wright in a nightmarish journey to the very heart and depths of a man’s existence. Runs through Sept. 18: 215.704.0033.
PEOPLE’S LIGHT & THEATRE, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, PA. Let’s begin by clarifying what REALLY happened to Don Quixote. He didn’t die—he just retired! That’s the starting premise of Kira Obolensky’s THE RETURN OF DON QUIXOTE. Sancho Panza turns up with a biography of the Don’s life which makes a mockery of his old escapades and forces him to abandon retirement. Together these brave souls take to the road once again in search of adventure, truth, and the righting of all wrongs. Ken Marini directs PL & T’s outstanding cast: Graham Smith as the Don and Chris Faith as Sancho Panza, aided and abetted by Alda Cortese, Nalini Sharma, Luigi Sottile, Melanye Finister, Peter DeLaurier and Stephen Novelli. If you can get there an hour before curtain time join Alda Cortese in a discussion of the world of the play. Sept. 21-Oct. 16: 610.644.3500.
SOCIETY HILL PLAYHOUSE, 507 S. 8th St. The producers of the long running Menopause The Musical follow up their earlier success with MOTHERHOOD THE MUSICAL. This funny, yet poignant, four-woman production is a must see for anyone who has or knows a Mom. It covers the good, the bad, and the laundry while holding up a mirror to Mothers and Motherhood. Twenty songs with titles as wacky as Costco Queen, When the Kids Are Grown, and I Leak should give you some idea of what you’re in for. Group discounts. Come laugh and bring your significant other (if you have the nerve). Opens Oct. 6 for a limited run: 215.923.0210.
WALNUT STREET THEATRE, 825 Walnut Street. Andrew Lloyd Webber means great romantic music and ASPECTS OF LOVE, directed by Bruce Lumpkin, is no exception. This love story spans twenty years, three generations and is set against the background of 1940s France and Italy. A young traveling student falls in love with an alluring actress and they embark on a passionate affair. The unexpected arrival of his uncle changes their lives forever as they come to understand how and why “LOVE CHANGES EVERYTHING!” The soaring melodies celebrate the grand passions of true love and the bittersweet taste of unbridled loss. The cast includes Jennifer Hope Wills, Charles Hagerty, Paul Schoeffler, Laurent Giroux, Denise Whelan, Peter Schmitz and Danielle G. Herbert. Sept. 6-October 23: 215.574.3550.
