Otterbein Theatre begins its new season Sept. 16
Otterbein University’s Theatre and Dance Department hopes to fully return to live performances next season with three Broadway musical comedies, two modern dramas and a cabaret.
“Our patrons are eager to see shows again, experience them together and in person,” said T.J. Gerckens, the department’s producing artistic director.
“Our hope is to come back with a high degree of levity after a year-and-a-half of pandemic, but also take on work with gravitas and significance,” Gerckens said.
Except where noted, all performances will take place at Cowan Hall’s Fritsche Theatre, 30 S. Grove St., Westerville.
h “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” (Sept. 16-25): The Tonywinning Broadway musical comedy, postponed from March 2020 and presented in concert style, follows a lowborn Englishman so desperate to inherit a title and wealth that he schemes to kill
the eight heirs closer to the dukedom.
“We’re fired up about revisiting this musical, which brings us back full circle to where we stopped,” Gerckens said.
h “A Lie of the Mind” (Oct. 21-30, Campus Center Theatre, 100 W. Home St., Westerville):sam Shepard’s drama revolves around two dysfunctional
families, joined by marriage in the American West.
h “The Pajama Game” (Nov. 18-21): The 1954 Broadway hit, coproduced with the university’s music department, offers a romance among coworkers amid labor troubles at a pajama factory and is remembered for Bob Fosse’s choreography for “Steam Heat” and “Hernando’s Hideaway.”
h “The Launch: A Senior Cabaret” (2 p.m. Dec. 4): The rising stars of the class of 2022 perform songs, scenes, monologues and dance in the 90-minute program, a fundraiser for the university’s New York Senior Showcase.
h “The Heidi Chronicles” (Feb. 1019): Wendy Wasserstein’s Pulitzerwinning feminist coming-of-age drama revolves around a woman struggling to be true to herself without sacrificing the ideals of her youth.
h “Something Rotten” (March 31 to April 9): The antic Broadway musical comedy imagines Renaissance-era brothers, overshadowed by their contemporary Shakespeare, who set out to write the world’s first musical.
Subscriptions, available now, cost $104 for the three musicals and “The Heidi Chronicles,” with an additional discounted $15 for “A Lie of the Mind” and $30 for the Cabaret.
Single tickets, available Aug. 31, cost $30 for musicals and $22 for plays. Call 614-823-1109 or visit www.otterbein.edu/drama. mgrossberg1@gmail.com @mgrossberg1