NEW YORK CITY: Classic Stage Company (CSC) has announced its 2017-18 lineup, the theatre’s 50th anniversary season, featuring a world premiere from Terrence McNally.
“Since 1967, CSC has engaged the most enthralling and challenging works of the world in an active examination of what makes a classic a classic,” said artistic director John Doyle in a statement. “It is a pursuit that continues to captivate us. In this year of both looking back and looking ahead, we are delighted to present a season of three distinctive acts, which we hope will both enrich and broaden one’s idea of the classic: Shakespeare, Americans, and musical theatre.”
The season will open in September with Shakespeare’s As You Like It (September), which will feature original music by Stephen Schwartz and will be coproduced with Sag Harbor, N.Y.’s Bay Street Theatre. Doyle will direct, setting the play in the Jazz Age.
Next up will be Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (November), presented by Fiasco Theater.
The new year will open with the world premiere of Terrence McNally’s Fire and Air (January 2018), about the Ballets Russes and the relationship between Sergei Diaghilev and his dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. Doyle will direct.
Tennessee Williams’s Summer and Smoke (April 2018) will be next, helmed by Jack Cummings III. The play, about a local minister’s daughter’s love for the neighborhood doctor in the South, will be coproduced with Transport Group Theatre Company.
Next up will be Carmen Jones (June 2018), with book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and music by Georges Bizet. The musical is a World War II reimagining of Bizet’s opera Carmen and will feature an all-African-American cast. Doyle will direct.
CSC will also present two shows for young audiences next season. The first will be The Stowaway (November), directed and written by Drew Petersen and based on Shakespeare’s plays. Presented by Trusty Sidekick Theater Company, this production uses puppetry and live music to tell the story of an iron-fisted duke and a stowaway on the run on the Island of Hockey Puck. The show is intended for ages 5 and older. The second TYA show will be Julius Caesar (March 2018), which will be for ages 12 and up.
Founded in 1967, Classic Stage Company reimagines classic stories for contemporary audiences.
