Best foot forward into the new theater season

The exciting lineup of Curtain Up! shows seems to hold promise for a dynamic theater season ahead. The offerings are diverse and abundant. To give readers a better idea of their choices, Artvoice offers the following descriptions of each show.

Remember, the evening starts at 5pm with cocktails at Shea’s, then dinner from 7-7:30pm, and the performances are at 8pm. The street party goes from 10pm until 1am in the theater district. See curtainup.com for more detail or call 829-1172 if you’re interested in the gala dinner, which requires advance purchase.

MusicalFare Theatre Company
Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story
September 10-October 12

A musical celebration of the legendary singer/songwriter involving a loosely structured retelling of his career, featuring many of his hits, and culminating with a recreation of his final concert with Ritchie Valens (“La Bamba”) and the Big Bopper (“Chantilly Lace”).

Studio Arena Theatre
An Evening with Stephen McKinley Henderson
September 19 & 20

Studio Arena welcomes back a veteran the stage, screen, and television, including a dozen performances on their stage, Stephen McKinley Henderson. This discussion is scheduled to be moderated by former Studio Arena Theatre artistic director Kathleen Gaffney and will be followed by Henderson presenting scenes from some of his memorable performances. Following both performances, there will be a “Flynn’s” style celebration in the Stage Left Lounge, which promises to include the former Flynn’s bartenders, the old bowling machine, and the old dart board.

Alleyway Theatre
Rabbit Hole
September 11-27

The availability of this Pulitzer Prize winning script by David Lindsay Abaire inspired the Alleyway to make a slight departure from their usual mission of producing only world premieres. This play, which on Broadway originally starred Cynthia Nixon (who won a Tony Award for her performance) and Tyne Daly (who was robbed of a Tony Award for hers), here stars Joyce Stilson as the mother of a recently deceased child and Pamela Rose Mangus as her mother. Imbued with unlikely humor and provocative insight, Rabbit Hole is the first play by this celebrated playwright ever to be produced in our region.

Irish Classical Theatre Company
Star Quality
September 12-October 12

The Irish Classical Theatre Company features Josephine Hogan in this backstage comedy, adapted from Noel Coward’s unpublished final play, which he adapted from his own short-story of the same title. Set in the English theater world of the 1950s, the play follows a beleaguered playwright as he tries to see his play, Dark Heritage, through to a West End opening. Coward’s play is populated with a litany of theatrical egos from the scheming leading lady to the merciless director.

Road Less Traveled Productions
A Little Bit of Paradise
September 12-October 5

A new play by local playwright Annette Daniels Taylor set in Buffalo’s East Side, circa 1924. The play examines the complications that come to a successful African-American man when a competitive predator mistakes his wife for white.

The Kavinoky Theatre
Mauritius
September 12-October 12

Theresa Rebeck’s recent Broadway drama about sisters fighting over an inheritance is brimming over with deceptions and reversals. Possibly the most thrilling play ever written about stamp collecting, Mauritius provides the anchor to an exciting Kavinoky season of plays that have recently completed runs in New York. With Studio Arena closed, the floodgates for new Broadway plays have opened to other theaters in Buffalo and Kavinoky artistic director David Lamb was quite amazed. “We had publishers calling us for the first time. I mean, that had never happened before. In the past, we would be begging for rights, and this year, we were turning scripts down.” Mauritius provides five well-contoured characters, perfect for the acting ensemble cultivated at the Kavinoky over many years.

Kaleidoscope Theatre Productions
Something to Hide
September 12-27

A murder provides the backdrop for this British suspense thriller by Leslie Sands. The script reminded Kaleidoscope artistic director Keith Wharton of film noir, and that’s precisely the style in which he has elected to tell this story of a police investigator who, in the words of the New York Times, “begins to peel away layers of circumstantial evidence as though he is preparing a plate of oranges.”

Shea’s Smith Theatre
Girl’s Night: The Musical
September 16-October 12

It’s retro night as a woman whose untimely death leaves her back in the 1980s returns as an angel to provide commentary on the friends who survive her as they relive their receding youth by belting out the old pop tunes from the 1980s and 1990s at a karaoke bar.

New Phoenix Theatre on the Park
Dusty Springfield…With You
September 17-October 11

Loraine O’Donnell navigates this 90-minute retelling of the life of the British pop diva through her hit tunes with uncanny Dusty Springfield wig and eye makeup. Go, Dame Dusty!

Ujima Theatre Company Inc.
In De Beginnin’
September 19-November 16

Ujima Theatre Company makes its welcome return with the return of the popular musical about Adam and Eve with music by Oscar Brown, Jr. and his son. The score is a fusion of gospel and R&B. Ujima scored a huge success with In De Beginnin’, under Brown’s direction and his son Bobo’s musical direction, back in 1989. The show features “The Lawd who is a lady (again played by the incomparable Beverly Dove), a likable fellow named Adam, a pretty and defiant Eve and the smooth-talking Debil—backed up by an eloquent preacher and soulful choir.”

Alt Theatre Group
LIT401: A School Shooting in One Act
September 11-October 4

Harrowing drama about a school shooting, based on the killings at Virginia Tech. The play takes us into a classroom during a shooting, as well as into the mind of the victims and the killer. A talkback follows.

Lancaster Opera House
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
September 12-28

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s popular biblical musical about a guy who gets on his brothers’ nerves until they try to get rid of him, only to have him return as a pal of Pharaoh (and as a better guy for the experience).

Theatre of Youth / O’Connell & Company
Diva by Diva: a Celebration of Women
September 19 & 20

Mary Kate O’Connell’s long-running celebration of women through readings and songs is brought back for Curtain Up! with a lineup of well-known Buffalonians, including Buffalo News editor Margaret Sullivan; Mary Friona of Channel 2; Buffalo Spree Editor Elizabeth Licata; Buffalo Zoo president Donna Fernandez (Saturday shows only); former Studio Arena artistic director Kathleen Gaffney (Saturday at 3pm only with daughter Kerrieanne, a cancer survivor living with autism, who inspired Kathleen and her husband to form the organization Artsgenesis); Ujima Theatre Company founder and artistic director Lorna C. Hill, (Saturday at 3pm only with daughter Zoe); Artie-Award-winning actress and president/CEO of the Erie Niagara Health Education Center Mary Craig; writer and poet Christina Abt; Beth Lasky, vice president of Theatre of Youth’s board of directors and communications manager at Sodexo; and Meg Quinn, artistic director of Theatre of Youth (and Saturday at 3pm with daughter Amanda, a nurse at Children’s Hospital and a member of the current class of Leadership Buffalo).