Local stages are celebrating the new year by kicking off their new seasons of a new slate of plays and musicals set to entertain theatergoers throughout 2023.
From a funny-yet-disastrous play-within-a-play to passengers suspected of murder on an exotic train journey to a snooty professor teaching a cockney flower girl to talk and act posh, there are plenty of offerings for the whole family. Here’s what’s opening at local theaters through the month of January.
Reagan Connell is Nala and Josiah Evans is Simba.in the summer 2022 production of Lion King Jr. from Servant Stage Company. The theater is bringing back the show later this month as the culmination of a winter acting camp.
Opening
— A theatrical troupe is trying to present a 1920s-style murder mystery when disasters hilariously befall the cast, and the audience gets to see all the missed cues, pratfalls and collapsing floors that befall the production.
It’s the comedy “The Play That Goes Wrong,” opening Thursday at the Fulton Theatre (after two nights of previews) and running through Feb. 12.
Actors tripping over their lines and each other, a corpse that can’t play dead and plenty of falling props will entertain the audience in a play described as Monty Python meets Sherlock Holmes.
According to the Fulton’s online content guide, “If this were a film it would be rated PG.”
From left, Chuck Ragsdale, Andrew Kindig, Kevin Earley, Lara Hayhurst and Jonathan Arana rehearse a scene from the Fulton Theatre’s upcoming production of “The Play That Goes Wrong.” The show opens Jan. 19.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 2 p.m. matinees Sundays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and most Thursdays. Tickets range from $31 to $89.
The Fulton Theatre is located at 12 N. Prince St., Lancaster. For information and tickets, visit thefulton.org or call 717-397-7425.
— It’s a whodunit on the rails as “Murder on the Orient Express” pulls into the station at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre on Friday.
The play runs through Feb. 18.
Based on the 1934 book by beloved mystery writer Agatha Christie, the play reveals that a tycoon has been murdered on the famed train as it journeys through Europe. During a snowdrift-forced stop, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot will again be pressed into service to figure out which of a cast of unusual and likely suspects did the deed — before he or she can strike again.
The script is by York native and Tony Award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig, whose previous works include “Lend Me a Tenor” and the book of “Crazy for You.”
Matinee and evening performances run mostly Wednesday through Sunday, and tickets are available with a meal ($25 to $72) or for the show only ($22 to $55).
The Dutch Apple is at 510 Centerville Road, Lancaster. For tickets and information, visit dutchapple.com or call 717-898-1900.
Madelin Bibeau is Rafiki in the summer 2022 production of Lion King Jr. from Servant Stage Company. The theater is bringing back the show later this month as the culmination of a winter acting camp.
— Will Professor Henry Higgins win his bet with Col. Pickering that he can turn Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a true English lady? The answer will be revealed on stage at Hershey Theatre in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical “My Fair Lady,” Tuesday through Sunday.
The touring show, directed at New York’s Lincoln Center by Bartlett Sher, is the musical version of the George Bernard Shaw play “Pygmalion.” As Liza hopes to become “a lady in a flower shop” and Higgins seeks to prove his linguistic transformational skills, they lock horns while developing a grudging respect for each other.
With well-known tunes including brings its popular songs such as “I Could Have Danced All Night” and “On the Street Where You Live,” performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 7 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets are $27.15 to $82.15; to order, or for more information, visit lanc.news/MyFairLadyHershey.
— Susquehanna Stage in Marietta kicks off its season of five mainstage productions, five special events and five staged readings on Saturday, Jan. 28, with a free reading of the dark comedy “Gloria.”
The reading of the play, for which playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins was a 2016 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama, begins at 8 p.m.
The play concerns a group of 20-something editorial assistants pursuing at a prestigious New York cultural magazine. The audience hears their workplace banter about office drama and their career paths as they vie for the opportunity to become an editor and land a book deal.
A subsequent tragic event has the play asking important questions about ambition, trauma and who has the right to shape the narrative of what happened.
Susquehanna Stage performs at the Marietta Center for the Arts, 133 W. Market St., Marietta. For information and tickets for the 2023 season, visit susquehannastage.com or contact the box office at 717-426-1277.
From left, Reagan Connell (portrying Nala), Callaghan Petrosky (Scar), Josiah Evans (Simba), Landon Hunsicker (Zazu) and Seth Snyder (Mufasa), with Madelin Bibeau (Rafiki) kneeling in front, were part of Servant Stage’s theater camp and performed “Lion King Jr.” in the summer of 2022. The theater is bringing back the show later this month as the culmination of a winter acting camp.
For young audiences
— The musical tale of Simba the lion cub, and his coming-of-age journey toward his destiny as king of the jungle, comes to life in “Lion King Jr.,” a youth production of Servant Stage Company’s Youth Theatre.
The musical will be presented by a cast of young actors, ages 8 to 16, as the culmination of a monthlong theater camp.
The musical, based on the 1994 Disney film, features music by Elton John and Tim Rice.
It tells the story of how young Simba witnesses the death of his father Mustafa and the ascension to the jungle throne by his evil uncle Scar. To restore the “Circle of Life,” can Simba find the courage to fulfill his destiny, with the help of friends Nala the lioness, Timon the meerkat and Pumbaa the warthog?
Performances are at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27; 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 29, at Leola Elementary School, 11 School Drive, Leola. As with all Servant Stage productions admission is pay-what-you-will.
To reserve tickets and learn about Servant Stage’s 2023 season, visit servantstage.org.
