Pygmalion
April 2017This story of Eliza Doolittle and her professor, Henry Higgins was made into a musical much more famous than the original play by the impeccable G.B. Shaw. A wonderful comedic comment on the silliness of class structure in Britain, the topic of the play is very timely in today’s world, where appearance trumps reality almost every time. Wit and wisdom combine with a clever plot to create a comedic masterpiece. We laugh as we realize that the real values of honesty, integrity, and love are what matter in the end.
God of Carnage
February 2017In today’s world, civilized behavior, courtesy, and political correctness have evolved to keep raw emotion and impulses in check. When two children from upper middle class families get into a playground fight, both sets of parents get together over cocktails to resolve the dispute. The result is a dissolution of every rule of etiquette, courtesy, and correctness. Primal impulses come to the fore and we see the animal who resides in all of us. Darkly funny, with a wicked punch, this show is wildly entertaining, and illuminates the dark side of being human.
Camelot
December 2016Long, long ago, in a magical time, life was simple. Dragons were real, innocent boys pulled swords from stones. Right was right and wrong was wrong and no one questioned the difference. The legend of King Arthur and his young bride Guinevere tells the story of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. The breaking of the spell of Camelot reveals the complexity and the struggle when ideal meet reality. One of the knights, Lancelot, falls in love and the kingdom crumbles. Set to the incomparable music of Lerner and Loewe, this play became a legend on Broadway.
Hamlet
October 2016The keystone of Shakespeare’s works, this most famous play of all plays has a thousand times more words written about it than the play itself contains. Compass Rose Theater celebrates the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare by sharing a live production of his most celebrated play. To portray this work, and bring it to life on our stage is an honor and a privilege. Hamlet, aggrieved son and nephew to the new king, seeks to avenge his father’s most certain murder.
Eleanor Roosevelt: Her Secret Journey
September 2016A winning entry in last season’s Rose Play Festival, this personal story of Eleanor Roosevelt is back by popular demand. On a limited run of nine performances, Sue Struve, who played the role last season, will recreate this personal journey of Eleanor at a time when we are deciding our next President. As the play reveals, women and politics were matched long ago. Discretion was the friend of power, and Eleanor Roosevelt became the first and greatest of influential women politicians and statesmen.
The Diary of Anne Frank
March 2016A simple diary discovered after World War II shares the inmost thoughts and wishes of a young girl, Anne Frank, penned up in an attic hiding from the Nazis. The story is too real, too poignant to be fiction. This Pulitzer Prize and Tony award winning play not only shares a young girl’s life during wartime, but also explores the longings and dreams of all young girls. Innocence and youthful spirit are unquenched by circumstance, as Anne still discovers the world looking at the sky through a crack in the roof.
Roar of the Greasepaint, Smell of the Crowd
May 2016An upper class gent and a lower class commoner compete for the top of the heap in this play contest of wills. Add a band of rowdy urchins and this un-story dances into our hearts. Running on Broadway in the late nineteen sixties, this play is less a story than an allegory. Featuring such hit songs as “Who Can I Turn to” and “Feeling Good” this play is a circus romp of good and bad, up and down. Let us entertain you, and enjoy the ride.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
January 2016This steamy southern drama, filled with characters whose lives are torn with passion and lies won a Pulitzer Prize and was one of Tennessee Williams favorite plays. From the cat-like Maggie, the repressed Brick, with his latent longings, to the shadows of Big Daddy and Big Mama, this powerful story twists and turns our hearts and stirs our own longings. Come with us as we inhabit their world and watch it explode.
Brigadoon
November 2015Emerging from the mists of Scotland just once in a century is the town of Brigadoon, a place of wonderment and adventure. This love story beguiles us as it leads two American travellers into the world of long ago. There is danger and darkness in this place out of time, but love abides in the end. The outstanding score by Lerner and Loewe thrilled Broadway audiences long ago and will now grace the Compass Rose stage, with its tribute to simplicity, true love, and goodness.
Greater Tuna
April 2015A howlingly funny play about the folks of the fictitious town of Tuna, Texas. Two actors play twenty different colorful characters of the town. An irreverent satire on politics and family in middle America.