WESTPORT, CONN.: Westport Country Playhouse has announced its 2016 shows, including two Tony winners in rep, an Off-Broadway hit, a new thriller by a Pulitzer–lauded playwright, a 1960s farce, and a reimagined Lerner and Loewe musical.
Up first is a pair of Tony-winning plays about art—creating it, owning it—presented in repertory (May 3–29): Yasmina Reza’s Art, translated by Christopher Hampton, and John Logan’s Red. Both pieces will be staged by the company’s artistic director, Mark Lamos.
Next is Buyer & Cellar (June 14–July 2) by Jonathan Tolins, which has made a splash Off-Broadway and around the country. The play follows a young, unemployed actor who finds himself working in Barbra Streisand’s basement.
Then comes Pulitzer winner Ayad Akhtar’s thriller The Invisible Hand (July 19–Aug. 6), about a futures trader from the U.S. who gets kidnapped and held hostage in Pakistan. David Kennedy, the theatre’s associate artistic director, will direct.
Following is Joe Orton’s farce What the Butler Saw (Aug. 23–Sept. 10). The production will be helmed by John Tillinger, who mounted an acclaimed production at Los Angeles’s Mark Taper Forum in 2014.
Closing out the year will be Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s musical Camelot (Oct. 4–22), in an adapted version by writer/director David Lee, who has penned scripts for “Frasier” and “Cheers.” Lamos will direct.
“Our 2016 season is generous in variety and scale,” said Lamos. “I know our community will find many things to enjoy in this lineup.”