2023 Main Stage Season
The Play That Goes Wrong
By Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, and Jonathan Sayer
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Directed by Rebecca Wahls
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February 1st - 18th
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From Mischief, Broadway masters of comedy, comes the smash hit farce. Welcome to opening night of the Cornley University Drama Society’s newest production, , where things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous. This 1920s whodunit has everything you never wanted in a show—an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines). Nevertheless, the accident-prone thespians battle against all odds to make it through to their final curtain call, with hilarious consequences! Part Monty Python, part Sherlock Holmes, this Olivier Award–winning comedy is a global phenomenon that’s guaranteed to leave you aching with laughter!
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RATING: PG
This show contains some moments of violence and mild innuendo. Parental discretion is encouraged.
The Rose Tattoo
By Tennessee Williams
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Directed by Michael Hood
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March 14th - 31st
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Winner of the 1951 Tony Award. Serafina Delle Rose is a restless widow whose intense and absorbing instinct for love drives everything before it. The figure of this extraordinary woman dominates the small town where she and her friends are living and embodies the exultation and danger of unbridled passion. Her story, and that of the lover she chooses and the daughter she denies, are forged into a play of power, humanity, and soaring emotion. Set among a colony of Sicilian fisher-folk on the American Gulf Coast, THE ROSE TATTOO is the story of a woman for whom love was stronger than death.
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RATING: PG-13
The show contains some mild language and sexual situations. Parental discretion is encouraged.
Jesus Christ Superstar
Lyrics by Tim Rice
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
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Directed by Kimberli Rowley
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May 2nd - 19th
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What’s the buzz? The first musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice to be produced for the professional stage, Jesus Christ Superstar has wowed audiences for over 50 years. A timeless work, the rock opera is set against the backdrop of an extraordinary and universally known series of events but seen, unusually, through the eyes of Judas Iscariot. Loosely based on the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Superstar follows the last week of Jesus Christ’s life. The story, told entirely through song, explores the personal relationships and struggles between Jesus, Judas, Mary Magdalene, his disciples, his followers and the Roman Empire.
The iconic 1970s rock score contains such well-known numbers as “Superstar,” “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” and “Gethsemane.” A true global phenomenon and perfect pick for schools, community theaters and professionals alike, Superstar continues to touch new generations of audiences and performers.
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RATING: PG
The show contains moments of violence. Parental discretion advised.
Sideways
By Rex Pickett
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June 6th - 23rd
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This show placed 2nd in our Audience Choice vote for 2023. A wine-tasting road trip to salute the final days of bachelorhood careens woefully sideways as two friends hit the gas en route to mid-life crises. The comically mismatched pair, who share little more than their history and a heady blend of failed potential and fading youth, soon find themselves drowning in wine and women. Emerging from a haze of Pinot Noir, wistful yearnings, and trepidation about the future, the two inevitably collide with reality. Adapted by Pickett from his novel, which also spawned the 2004 hit movie starring Paul Giamatti.
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RATING: PG-13
The show contains strong language, implied sexual acts and adult situations. Parental discretion is encouraged.
Footloose the Musical
Stage Adaptation by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie
Based on the Original Screenplay by Dean Pitchford
Music by Tom SnowLyrics by Dean Pitchford
Additional Music by Eric Carmen, Sammy Hagar, Kenny Loggins and Jim Steinman
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Directed by Kimberli Rowley
Music Direction by Jaiden Courrier
July 11th - 28th
Winner of our Audience Choice for 2024! When Ren and his mother move from Chicago to a small farming town, he is prepared for the inevitable adjustment period at his new high school. But he’s not prepared for the rigorous local edicts, including a ban on dancing instituted by the local preacher, who is determined to exercise control over the town’s youth. When the reverend’s rebellious daughter sets her sights on Ren, her roughneck boyfriend tries to sabotage Ren’s reputation, with many of the locals eager to believe the worst about the new kid. The heartfelt story that emerges pins a father longing for the son he lost against a young man aching for the father who walked out on him.
To the rockin’ rhythm of its Oscar and Tony-nominated Top 40 score, augmented with dynamic new songs, Footloose celebrates the wisdom of listening to young people while guiding them with a warm heart and open mind.
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RATING: PG
The show contains mild adult situations. Parental discretion is encouraged.
Biloxi Blues
By Neil Simon
Directed by Seth Thompson
September 5th - 22nd
**select dates**
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Performed in Rep – the first time CT has done this! Two stories set in World War II told from two very different viewpoints.
Biloxi Blues is a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon. It portrays the conflict of Sergeant Merwin J. Toomey and Arnold Epstein, one of many privates enlisted in the military stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi, seen through the eyes of Eugene Jerome, one of the other soldiers. This play is the second chapter in what is known as his Eugene trilogy, following Brighton Beach Memoirs and preceding Broadway Bound. The play won the Tony Award for Best Play.
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RATING: PG-13
The show contains violence and mild language. Parental discretion is advised.
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The Cover of Life
By R.T. Robinson
September 5th - 22nd
**select dates**
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Performed in Rep – the first time CT has done this! Two stories set in World War II told from two very different viewpoints.
In The Cover of Life, Tood, Weetsie, and Sybill are brides in rural Louisiana in 1943. Each married a Cliffert brother. The men are off to war and a local news story about these young wives keeping the home fires burning intrigues Henry Luce. He decides that they belong on the cover of Life Magazine and assigns Kate Miller to the story. She has been covering the war in Europe and, though she views doing a "women's piece" as a career set-back, she accepts because it will be her first cover story. Kate spends a week with the Cliffert women, and her haughty urban attitude gives way to sympathy as she begins to understand them while coming face-to-face with her own powerlessness in a man's world. Filled with charm and fun, The Cover of Life is a deeply affecting story about the
struggle for self-worth.
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RATING: PG-13
The show contains mild language, sexual and adult situations. Parental discretion is advised.
Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe
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By Jonathan Christenson
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Music Direction by Mikayla Dodge
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October 10th - 27th
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This unique and wildly theatrical musical combines haunting music and poetic storytelling to chronicle the fascinating life of iconic American writer Edgar Allan Poe. A literary rock star of his day, Poe struggles with tragedy and addiction, poverty and loss, yet produces some of the world’s most original, visionary and enduring literature before dying in unexplained circumstances at the age of 40. At once gorgeous and grotesque, explores the events that shape Poe’s character and career, blurring the line between fact and fiction–after all, as Poe himself writes, “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”.
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RATING: PG-13
The show contains mild language, violence and adult situations. Parental discretion advised.
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It's A Wonderful Life
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Adapted to the stage and Directed by Kimberli Rowley and Seth Thompson
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December 5th - 22nd
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An adaptation of the beloved Frank Capra film starring Jimmy Stewart. It is Christmas Eve, and George Bailey stands on a bridge looking over the icy waters below, contemplating suicide. Joseph, an unseen angel, calls on The Boss for advice, and they decide on Clarence Oddbody, an Angel Second Class who, after 200 years, has yet to earn his wings. Joseph takes Clarence into the past to see George as a boy, rescuing his brother from drowning, enduring a beating from grieving druggist Gower, saving a child from accidental poisoning, then growing up to forgo college so he can save the family business and keep the citizens of Bedford Falls from being ruined by the Depression and the machinations of the conniving Henry Potter. George marries his childhood sweetheart, has a family, and resigns himself to a life of "failure." When his Uncle Billy misplaces $8,000 of the Building and Loan's money, George takes responsibility and runs to the bridge to commit suicide. Clarence stops him, and when George wishes he had never been born, makes the wish come true. Now George wanders through a Bedford Falls that has been rechristened Pottersville and has fallen far without him to save it. He realizes how many lives he has touched, how many people he has helped—and that he has been a success, after all.
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RATING: PG
Mild adult situations, but appropriate for most audiences.
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