It took three years, but the hit of TheatreWorks' 2012 New Works Festival is now running as the full-scale opening production of its new season. And shortly after Triangle vacates the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto, the 2015 festival will take over the space with five readings of new works that may find their way into the big leagues down the road. The 14th edition of the New Works Festival runs Aug. 8-16, with productions each receiving two performances on a rotating schedule.
The piece that, on paper at least, shows the most promise to move on up is The Man in the Ceiling. That promise stems from the fact that its creators have each made it more than once to Broadway: songwriter Andrew Lippa (The Addams Family, Big Fish, and off-Broadway, The Wild Party) and author-cartoonist Jules Feiffer (Little Murders, Knock Knock, and Grown Ups).
It was Lippa who suggested to Feiffer that they adapt Feiffer's illustrated book The Man in the Ceiling into a musical, and Disney Theatricals signed on to the project in 2006. The 1993 book tells the story of a boy who wants to be an artist with a father who prefers sports, a school friend with strange suggestions for illustrations, and an uncle who writes flop musicals.
"From the moment I first read this book I knew it could be a spectacular stage musical," Lippa said back in 2006. "It has superheroes, show folk, delightful characters, and, at the center, a boy who wants to be a cartoonist in a world that screams that being an artist is an impossible dream."
The musical was shelved after a couple of readings, and while Disney is no longer attached, it has drawn the interest of mega-successful Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller (Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights, and the upcoming Hamilton ), who will be directing the reading for the TheatreWorks festival. Performances of The Man in the Ceiling are on Aug. 9 and 13. At one of the performances, TBA, the 86-year-old Feiffer will be on hand to autograph copies of The Man in the Ceiling.
In Marie and Rosetta, playwright George Brant imagines the first rehearsal between two real-life gospel icons: Sister Rosetta Tharpe and her protege Marie Knight. Brant's Grounded, starring Anne Hathaway as an Air Force drone operator, was seen earlier this year in New York (and San Francisco Playhouse staged it in 2013). Readings of Marie and Rosetta take place on Aug. 8 and 12.
Suzanne Bradbeer's Confederates has gained hot-topic relevance, but was written well before the Charleston murders upended the Stars and Bars debate. Two reporters looking for headlines learn that the daughter of a presidential candidate once waved the Confederate flag, and all must choose what constitutes news in today's society. Readings are on Aug. 14 and 16.
The festival also includes Lynn Rosen's Man and Beast, about a complacent social worker unnerved by a client who has found fulfillment by tending to wild animals in his apartment (readings on Aug. 9 and 15), and Jason Gray Platt's The There There, which follows a relationship over 60 years and explores how changing communication technology has affected it (readings on Aug. 11 and 15).
Festival passes and single tickets are available at (650) 463-1960 or theatreworks.org.
'Breaking' back
Theatre Rhino is bringing back its production of Breaking the Code for a late-summer run at the Eureka Theatre. Rhino first staged playwright Hugh Whitemore's 1986 rendering of the Alan Turing story in March, just as Turing's saga had gained a high profile thanks to the movie The Imitation Game .
Turing was a brilliant, eccentric British cryptologist whose work in cracking Germany's Enigma code help change the course of World War II. But Turing was also indiscreet about his attraction to other men, leading to a gross indecency conviction and his choice of chemical castration over prison. The play time-travels between his college days, his war work, and the complications of his later life that led to a premature death.
Director John Fisher returns to the role of Turing, and other original cast members Val Hendrixson, Patrick Ross, Celia Maurice, and Heren Patel are joined by Kevin Copps, Gloria McDonald, and Frank Wang. Breaking the Code will run Aug. 5-29. Call (800) 838-3006 or go to therhino.org.