Weekend Theater Presents Urhy's LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO, 4/8-4/23

The Weekend Theater will continue its 2010-2011 season with Alfred Urhy's comedy The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Directed by Andy Hall, the production will perform on April 8, 9, 15, 16, 22 and 23.

The author of Driving Miss Daisy brings us another charming evening of theater. Winner of the 1997 Tony Award for Best Play, The Last Night of Ballyhoo takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, in December of 1939. Gone with the Wind is having its world premiere, and Hitler is invading Poland, but Atlanta's elitist German Jews are much more concerned with who is going to Ballyhoo, the social event of the season. Especially concerned is the Freitag family: bachelor Adolph; his widowed sister, Beulah (Boo) Levy; and their widowed sister-in-law, Reba. Boo is determined to have her dreamy, unpopular daughter, Lala, attend Ballyhoo, believing it will be Lala's last chance to find a socially acceptable husband. Boo is directing Lala in pursuit of Peachy Weil, member of one of the finest Jewish families in the South, as her Ballyhoo escort. Adolph brings his new assistant, Joe Farkas, home for dinner. Joe is Jewish, Brooklyn born and bred, and he is puzzled at the family's assimilation into Southern Christian culture, symbolized by the Christmas tree in the living room. The family is not without its own prejudices: Joe is of Eastern European descent and thus, in Boo's eyes, socially inferior to the Freitags. Emotions explode when Reba's daughter, Sunny, comes home from college and falls for Joe. It's an evening of romance, comedy and revelations as members of this memorable family face where they come from and who they really are.

Individual tickets to The Last Night of Ballyhoo cost $14 ($10 for students and seniors over 65). Tickets can be purchased at the theater with cash, check, Mastercard or Visa. The Box Office opens 1 hour prior to curtain, and the House opens 30 minutes prior to curtain. On Fridays and Saturdays, curtain times are at 7:30 p.m.

The Weekend Theater offers and encourages reservations for all showings, even for season flex-pass holders. The theater doesn't actually issue actual tickets for shows or accept payment by phone, but patrons can make reservations 24 hours a day by calling (501) 374-3761, then pay when they arrive at the theater. Reservations can be made by phone up to two hours before curtain time and are held until 10 minutes before curtain time, at which point they are considered unclaimed and can be released to other patrons. We will only call back or contact you in the event of a sold out performance. Click here to make a reservation online.

The Weekend Theater is located at 1001 West 7th Street. Visit www.weekendtheater.org for more information.

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