PRHMUSIC&ART Stephanie Kyung-Sun Walters in Theatre Exile’s Today Is My Birthday, photo by Robert Hakalski
The Theatre Geek This spring, theater companies all over Philadelphia are blooming with new shows and performances! Here are some picks from stages in and around the city.
Walnut Street Theater
T H E AT E R
Always…Patsy Cline Celebrate the unlikely friendship between country singer, Patsy Cline, and housewife, Louise Seger. The musical shares their letters, visits and stories of laughter and heartache all while featuring 27 of Cline’s classic songs. This is the second time Walnut Street Theater will be presenting Always…Patsy Cline. The last time was during their 2015-2016 season, when the show sold out all performances during its three-month run in the Independence Studio on 3 series. (April 12 - May 15)
SPRING THEATER HIGHLIGHTS Patsy Cline Rocky in the lineup &
Theater Exile
Today is My Birthday Theater Exile is celebrating 25 years of engaging the imagination of their audience members. Their final show this season is about finding human connection in our digital-obsessed world. Emily, a wannabe writer, moves back home to Hawaii and creates an alter-ego for a radio show. Told through live radio, voicemail, and phone calls, it asks the question, what is real and what isn’t? (April 28- May 22)
Azuka Theatre
Reverie When Jordan answers a knock at his door, he encounters Paul - the father of former boyfriend. Reverie talks about grief, being true to yourself and the family dynamics that can make everything else so challenging. (May 5 - May 22)
Arden Theatre Company
by Marialena Rago
School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play This hilarious and biting story depicts high school ambition and the pageantry of competition when Queen Bee Paulina is threatened by an unlikely newcomer. (May 5-June 5)
People’s Light
Bayard Rustin Inside Ashland Written and directed by Steve H.
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| ROWHOME MAGAZINE | April / May / June 2022
Broadnax III, this story follows Bayard Rustin, chief organizer of the March on Washington and openly gay Civil Rights Activist. Set in 1944 during the time of Rusin’s prison sentence in Ashland, Kentucky, it explores his time in the prison as he was targeted for his sexuality and nonviolent resistance to a system that was stacked against him. (May 18-June 12)
Theatre Horizon
Athena Athena and Mary Wallace are determined and preparing for battle at the National Fencing Championships. Will they become friends with their competitors? Watch a series of fencing matches and quick wit! It’s a comedy about glory and friendship. (May 19 - June 5)
Lantern Theatre
Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine Undine has it all…until her life begins to unravel in one funny event after another. Soon, she is forced to return to a life she had left behind. But can she really go home again? Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage is behind this satirical comedy. (May 26 to June 26)
The Academy of Music
Rocky in Concert There are always so many great shows at the Kimmel Cultural Campus. But for Philadelphians, experiencing the cinematic masterpiece that is Rocky with a live orchestra performing the score, this event is a must! For one night only, the celebrated classic and one of Philadelphia’s beloved heroes will be shown on larger-than-life screens in an all new production. If you are a Rocky fan, you will not want to miss this. (June 3)
EgoPo Classic Theater
Curse of the Starving Class In this classic Sam Shepard play, an idealist son is forced to shoulder the burden of keeping up the family farm while his family is falling apart. The Tate family is said to have a curse put upon them. Since they are broke, hungry, and always fighting, it is not too far of a stretch, but is the family too doomed to pull themselves out of their downward spiral? Or can they alter their futures? (June 15-26) gohomephilly.com
