The Sixteenth Season of Broadway Onstage Live Theatre, and the Twenty-Ninth Season of Dennis Wickline Productions, opens on Friday, July 24 with a new version of the Renee Taylor/Joseph Bologna comedy Lovers and Other Strangers. Playing Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Select Sundays at 2pm, the hilarious comedy will run through Saturday, August 22.
Select Sunday Matinees are only performed at Broadway Onstage when a prearranged group of 30 or more is scheduled to attend. Broadway Onstage Live Theatre is located at 21517 Kelly Rd. at Toepfer (8 ½ Mile Rd.) in Eastpointe. It is the home of the patented TeeVeeStage™ Presentation system, which employs cameras above the audience and monitors above the stage to provide audience members with different viewing perspectives of the live stage performance. Broadway Onstage Live Theatre is also the home of Dennis Wickline Productions, Inc., which began producing Non-Equity professional live theatre on the Eastside of Detroit in February of 1980.
Lovers and Other Strangers is a play about love, couples, togetherness and the natural comedy that ensues. It is told in the context of five individual scenes as portrayed by two couples, oNe Younger and one older. We meet Frank and Bea and Richie and Joan. Richie is the son of Frank and Bea. In the first scene we see Richie and Joan on their first date. In the second, we see Frank having a liaison with Susan, a neighbor, and in the third scene we see Frank and Bea in bed together after attending a party. That’s all before intermission! Relationships, sex, being married, being a man or woman, are all part of the comic fodder that Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna explore in Lovers and Other Strangers.
An excellent cast at Broadway Onstage brings Lovers and Other Strangers to life. Portraying Frank and Joan are Broadway Onstage favorites Joe Urkshus and CeCe Reuter Lesner. Mr. Urkshus and Ms. Lesner portrayed old friends turned lovers in the spring comedy Mixed Emotions at Broadway Onstage and both are regular members of the cast of the Holiday Comedy The Nutcracker's Nuts which will be performed for the ninth consecutive year this December. Taking on the roles of Joan and Richie are Audra Lord and John Arden McClure. Ms. Lord has been seen in a variety of professional venues throughout the Detroit Metropolitan area, most recently as Golde in Two By two at the JET. Mr. McClure was just seen at Broadway Onstage in the title roles of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Elizabeth Rager completes the cast as Susan, Frank’s mistress. Ms. Rager was also recently seen as Pauline in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and will also act as Stage Manager for the production. Lovers and Other Strangers is under the direction of Broadway Onstage producer Dennis Wickline.
Tickets for Opening Night Friday, July 24 are $14. Tickets for all other performances are $16. Group Rates and Performances are available. Again, Broadway Onstage is located at 21517 Kelly Rd. at Toepfer (8 1/2 Mile Rd.) in Eastpointe, Michigan. Ticket Reservations are recommended by calling (586) 771-6333.
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