Original Productions
THE GIVER – MARCH 9 – 18, Fridays, Saturdays at 7:30 and Saturdays, Sundays at 2:00. Kentucky Rep Main Stage
KENTUCKY REP will begin the 2012 season with Eric Coble’s beautiful adaptation of Lois Lowry’s wildly popular novel, “The Giver”. The Mainstage production, directed by Producing Artistic Consultant Ken Neil Hailey, will open March 9.
In this “grand morality tale with a magical quality” (Pegasus News, Dallas), Jonas’ world is perfect. Everything is under control and safe. There is no war or fear or pain. There are also no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. But when Jonas turns 12, he is chosen for special training from The Giver-to receive and keep the memories of the community. The Giver is the only person who holds the memories of real pain and real joy. Now Jonas will learn the truth about life-and the hypocrisy of his utopian world. Through this astonishing and moving adaptation, discover what it means to grow up, to grow wise and to take control of your own destiny.
“The Giver” has played to sold out audiences as such theatres as: First Stage Milwaukee, The Coterie Theatre, People’s Light and Theatre Company, Stages Repertory, Asolo Repertory Theatre and Indiana Repertory Theatre, as well as a New York University produced production at Off-Broadway’s Player’s Theatre. “An absorbing production that asks both children and adults compelling questions about how we want our world to be.” (The Oregonian) There are lessons for those of every age in this compelling adaptation.” (Sarasota Magazine) “Questions are imaginatively sensitively and deftly explored in a gorgeous tale.” (Lexington Herald Leader)
Public performances will be presented March 9-18. School performances will continue through March 23. Purchase Tickets >>>
GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL! – MARCH 23 – APRIL 8, Fridays, Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 2:00. Kentucky Rep Main Stage
The critically acclaimed musical comedy by Scott Brown and Anthony King, GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL! opens at Kentucky Repertory Theatre’s Warren Hammack Mainstage on March 23.
Praised by the New York Times as “A smashing success,” in this hilarious musical spoof, a pair of aspiring writers performs a backers’ audition for their new project – a big, splashy musical about printing press inventor Johann Gutenberg, the evil monk who tries to stop him and the beautiful woman who loves him. With an unending supply of enthusiasm, Bud and Doug sing all the songs and play all the parts in their tuneful but tactless historical epic, with the hope that one of the producers in attendance (You, the audience) will give them a Broadway contract – fulfilling their bright eyed and ill-advised dreams.
Doug Simon and Bud Davenport are two men with a dream: to write a hit Broadway musical. And with Gutenberg! The Musical! they’ve done just that. Come on down and watch as Doug and Bud perform all the roles and sing all the songs of their musical documenting the life and work of Johann Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press. And if you’ve got any big Broadway producer friends, bring them along too! Bud and Doug LOVE your big Broadway producer friends! It promises to be, like, probably the best musical about two guys who have written a musical about Johann Gutenberg that you will ever see.
GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL received three New York Musical Theatre Festival awards including Excellence in Musical Theatre Writing and was nominated for an Outer Critic’s Circle Award, a Lortel Award, and two Drama Desk awards.
The cast features NY performers Matt Swanston as Bud and Dalles Wilie as Doug. Ken Neil Hailey, Producing Artistic Consultant at KRT directs. Purchase Tickets >>>
THE GOOD DOCTOR – APRIL 13-29, Fridays, Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 2:00. Kentucky Rep Main Stage.
Broadway’s master of comedy, Neil Simon, expertly weaves a variety of Anton Chekhov short stories into a laugh-out-loud evening that is heartwarming, hilarious, and just what the doctor ordered. The cast of characters includes a writer, a blustering general, a lady of the night, a wild woman with a nervous disorder, a man who earns money by “drowning”, a novice dentist, and an overeager actress.
The Good Doctor is Neil Simon’s tribute to Anton Chekhov combining the best of both styles: the dark humor of Chekhov and the one-liner humor of Simon. Purchase Tickets >>>
ME & JEZEBEL – May 4-20, Fridays, Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 2:00. Kentucky Rep Main Stage.
What if Margo Channing came for dinner and Baby Jane stayed for breakfast?
“Me & Jezebel” is a hilarious play based on the real experience of author Elizabeth Fuller, who in the summer of 1985, by pure chance, had the legendary screen actress Bette Davis come to stay at her ‘somewhat dilapidated’ New England cottage. What was supposed to be an overnight stay turned into an escapade which lasted 32 days, in which time Davis turned Fuller’s home and life upside down.
‘A zinging comedy … a hoot … as funny as you could hope for’ – WASHINGTON TIMES
WARNING: Miss Davis does use occasional coarse language!
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