INDECENT, DOLLS HOUSE PART 2, YERMA, and More Among Huntington's 2018-19 Season
By: Julie Musbach Mar. 01, 2018
Huntington Theatre Company, Boston's leading independent theatre, announces its 2018-2019 season, featuring two of the most highly acclaimed Broadway plays of the last year, Shakespeare's enduring love story, a theatrical caper with Sherlock Holmes, and three of the most compelling new plays in the country, all with rich and relevant stories that speak to the times we live in.
The new season opens for the first time at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA with The Niceties, an explosive new play about race, history, and privilege from Boston native and Huntington Playwriting FellowEleanor Burgess. Other Calderwood Pavilion offerings will include Man in the Ring, a new play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and actor Michael Cristofer based on the life of world champion boxer Emile Griffith, directed by Michael Greif; and a reinvention of Lorca's searing classic masterpiece Yerma by Huntington Playwright-in-Residence Melinda Lopez.
At the Huntington Avenue Theatre, the fall begins with the comedy-thriller Sherlock's Last Case by Charles Marowitz and the return of beloved director Maria Aitken (Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, Bedroom Farce); followed by Lucas Hnath's A Doll's House, Part 2, the hit comedy about marriage that received universally excellent reviews on Broadway last season; Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois will put his stamp on Romeo and Juliet, the world's most famous love story and the first Shakespeare play to be produced by the Huntington in eight years; and Tony Award winner Rebecca Taichman will recreate the spellbinding Broadway staging of Indecent by Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel.
"Next season marks the return of artists we love and the Huntington debuts of many others I have wanted to bring to Boston," says Artistic Director Peter DuBois. "Smart comedies and heartfelt stories told by world-class artists - this is what we do best. I was drawn to stories of powerful and unique women this year, and am inspired by the imaginative scope of each playwright's vision."
The Huntington welcomes back a number of artists with whom it has had long term relationships, such as playwrights Melinda Lopez (Mala, Becoming Cuba, Sonia Flew), Paula Vogel (A Civil War Christmas), and Huntington Playwriting Fellow Eleanor Burgess, and directors such as Maria Aitken (Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, Bedroom Farce, The Seagull, Private Lives), Melia Bensussen (A Doll's House, Awake and Sing!, Luck of the Irish, Circle Mirror Transformation), and Rebecca Taichman (Mauritius).
In addition to these female artists, the Huntington season features powerful, women-centered stories and strong female characters throughout the year, beginning with the equally brilliant student and professor characters in The Niceties and ending with the mostly female cast of Yerma. Music is another hallmark of the Huntington's 2018-2019 season as this slate of shows is infused with song: in particular, Man in the Ring features songs with a Caribbean flair, Indecent incorporates an onstage klezmer band, and Yerma includes flamenco-inspired songs and original music by composer Mark Bennett.
ABOUT THE 2018-2019 SHOWS
THE NICETIESDirected by Kimberly Senior
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
September 5 - October 7, 2018
EXPLOSIVE NEW PLAY
In this riveting play, a black student and a white professor - both brilliant, both liberal - meet to discuss the student's paper about slavery's role in the American Revolution. A polite conversation becomes an intellectual powder keg of race, history, and privilege, where neither woman will ever be the same. An explosive new play from Boston native and Huntington Playwriting Fellow Eleanor Burgess that everyone will be talking about.
Top 10 of 2017! "A barnburner of a play! Destined to be performed everywhere. One of the best plays I've seen about who gets to tell the story of America, and how." - The Washington Post
"I'm thrilled to be working at the Huntington - the place where I saw my first plays as a teenager, and the place that gave me my start as a professional playwright through the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program," said Burgess. "And I'm extra thrilled to bring this particular play to Boston. A story about academic power and liberal dogmas, about frighteningly smart people and the stories we tell ourselves about history - it's made for this city."
SHERLOCK'S LAST CASE
Directed by Maria Aitken
Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre
September 28 - October 28, 2018
MURDEROUSLY FUNNY CAPER
Sherlock's Last Case takes audiences on a surprising trip to Baker Street with the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusted sidekick Dr. Watson, who are tested once again to solve the seemingly perfect crime. Sherlock's life is threatened by the son of his longtime nemesis Moriarty, but not all is as it appears. A mystery with equal parts hilarity and intrigue in a comedy-thriller directed by Huntington favorite Maria Aitken (Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, Bedroom Farce).
"A clever spoof with fabulously over-the-top twists and turns." - Backstage
"Brilliant!" - London Telegraph
"I have spent an uneasy year away from the Huntington, working all the time, but feeling deprived of my true theatrical home," said director Aitken. "Now, thank heaven, I'm doing Sherlock's Last Case in the fall - a brilliant and eccentric comedy - and I will be united with my favorite theatre in the world, staffed by wonderful people who anticipate my every whim. I can't wait."
MAN IN THE RING
by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cristofer
Directed by Michael Greif (Dear Evan Hansen, Next to Normal, Rent)
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
November 16 - December 16, 2018
POWERFUL EPIC STORY
Man in the Ring is the incredible true story of six-time world champion boxer Emile Griffith and the fatal fight he could never forget. This sweeping tale covers Emile's humble beginnings in the Virgin Islands, his passionate love affairs, and the infamous, lifechanging Madison Square Garden match against his archrival. He searches for redemption and must confront his past in this epic new play, imbued with warmth and the sounds of the Caribbean.
"A knockout! Fierce, poetic, and profound. Ready for Broadway!" - Chicago Sun Times
"I am happy to return to the Huntington as a playwright this time," said Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and actor Michael Cristofer, "bringing them the true story of Emile Griffith - a young immigrant from the Virgin Islands, a gay man struggling with his identity in the brutal world of sports, trying at the end of his life as he slips into dementia to piece together the story of love and pain and joy that was his life. And to find peace. A true hero in my book."
A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2
by Lucas Hnath
Directed by Les Waters
Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre
January 4 - February 3, 2019
BROADWAY HIT COMEDY
Nora famously slammed the door on her marriage, leaving her husband and children behind in Ibsen's groundbreaking classic, but what happened to the iconic heroine next? This audacious sequel imagines her15 years later as a successful writer and independent woman, urgently seeking to finalize her divorce. Universally acclaimed on Broadway, this smart and sophisticated new comedy raises fascinating questions about marriage and the ways the roles of women have - and haven't - changed. (Audiences will enjoy this play whether familiar with Ibsen or not.)
"A TRIUMPH! Smart, funny, and utterly engrossing!" - The New York Times
Time magazine's Top 10 of 2017
ROMEO AND JULIET
Directed by Peter DuBois
Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre
March 1 - March 31, 2019
WORLD'S GREATEST LOVE STORY
Impassioned young lovers are caught between the violence and prejudices of their feuding families in Shakespeare's most famous and enduring love story. In helming the first Shakespeare play produced by the Huntington in eight years, Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois brings an exhilarating and modern sensibility to this timeless classic about the intensity and joy of first love and attraction amid a dangerously divided community.
"I had the time of my life directing Romeo and Juliet in Alaska, and I knew this was the moment to return to Shakespeare's most moving play," says DuBois. "Shakespeare explores the peril of a society possessed by blind tribalism against a love story that has a boundless sense of joy and abandon. This production will show off Boston's wealth of Shakespearean talent and some incredible performers from across the country."
INDECENT
by Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive, A Civil War Christmas)
Directed by Tony Award winner Rebecca Taichman
A co-production with Center Theatre Group
Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre
April 26 - May 25, 2019
SPELLBINDING BROADWAY HIT
Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel's captivating new play with music took Broadway by storm last year and now Rebecca Taichman recreates her Tony Award-winning production for Boston audiences. Inspired by the true story of Sholem Asch's controversial play God of Vengeance and the passionate artists who risked their lives to perform it, this riveting and richly theatrical backstage drama is a fierce indictment of censorship and a joyful celebration of art and love.
"TERRIFIC! A powerful new play." - The New York Times
Time magazine's Top 10 of 2017
"What an honor to be in this lineup!," said Pulitzer Prize winner Vogel. "I am always thrilled to be produced in a town where family and friends live, and always excited to be under Peter DuBois' roof at the Huntington."
YERMA
Translated and adapted by Melinda Lopez (Mala, Sonia Flew, Becoming Cuba)
Based on the play by Federico Garcia Lorca
Directed by Melia Bensussen
Original music by Mark Bennett
Conceived by Melinda Lopez and Melia Bensussen
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
May 31 - June 30, 2019
SEARING DRAMA WITH MUSIC AND HEART
Yerma, a young wife, wants nothing more than to have a child and become a devoted mother. As she watches her friends start their families, she begins to question her own value as a woman. Her desperate desire turns into an all-consuming obsession with devastating consequences. Beloved by Boston audiences, Huntington Playwright-in-Residence Melinda Lopez reinvents Lorca's classic masterpiece, infusing this searing drama with flamenco-inspired music and heart.
"Lopez proves again that she's one of Boston's most important writers." - WBUR, reviewing Lopez's Becoming Cuba
"I am profoundly grateful to the Huntington for bringing my adaptation of Yerma to the stage," says Lopez. "As the Playwright-in-Residence, I have had the opportunity to deepen my craft as a playwright, and also pursue ideas that have haunted me for a long time - such as Yerma! I have always had a deep love for Lorca, and am beyond thrilled to bring my interpretation of his masterpiece to Boston."
For more information about the artists in the Huntington's 2018-2019 season, visit huntingtontheatre.org/season/2018-2019/.
SUBSCRIPTIONS ON SALE NOW
Subscriptions to the Huntington's 2018-2019 season are now on sale. Seven-play seated packages start at just $161 and offer the very best value - seven plays for the price of six - and up to 50% off single ticket prices. FlexPass packages (a minimum of 4 tickets to be used for any show and which never expire) are available now for redemption for the current season and beyond.
Subscriptions may be renewed or purchased by calling the Huntington Box Office at 617 266 0800 or by visiting huntingtontheatre.org/subscribe. Groups of 10 or more can place orders by calling 617 273 1657.
Individual tickets to The Niceties and Sherlock's Last Case will go on sale in mid-June and tickets to the rest of the 2018-2019 season will go on sale in August.
ABOUT THE HUNTINGTON
The Huntington Theatre Company is Boston's leading professional theatre and one of the region's premier cultural assets since its founding in 1982. Recipient of the 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award, the Huntington brings together superb local and national talent and produces a mix of groundbreaking new works and classics made current to create award-winning productions. The Huntington runs nationally renowned programs in education and new play development and serves the local theatre community through its operation of the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. The Huntington has long been an anchor cultural institution of Huntington Avenue, the Avenue of the Arts, and will remain so on a permanent basis with plans to convert the Huntington Avenue Theatre into a first-rate, modern venue with expanded services to audiences, artists, and the community. Under the direction of Artistic Director Peter DuBois and Managing Director Michael Maso, the Huntington cultivates, celebrates, and champions theatre as an art form. For more information, visit huntingtontheatre.org.
Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg
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