There are at least nine opportunities for theater on local stages this weekend. If you’re looking to make some choices, let me sketch out several that are just opening or only available for a few days.
Want an American classic? Look no farther than Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, offering Lorraine Hansberry’s great 1959 award-winning play, A Raisin in the Sun. It’s about a working-class African-American family in 1950s Chicago. A financial windfall enables them to pursue a better life in a new neighborhood, but generational tensions and discrimination derail their pursuit of the American dream. Hansberry was the first black female playwright to have a play produced on Broadway. Through April 15. Tickets: 513-381-2273.
If you prefer something lighthearted, you should check out Disenchanted at the Carnegie, opening on Saturday evening. It’s about a clutch of fairy tale princesses — Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Pocahontas and several more — who come together for an evening of irreverent humor and satirical snipes. Poisoned apples, glass slippers and tiaras go right out the castle window in a show that’s definitely not for the kids. Tonight, there’s a pre-opening, pay-what-you-can benefit preview performance for GLSEN, the Cincinnati chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, at 7:30 p.m. Through April 9. Tickets: 859-957-1940.
Broadway in Cincinnati is presenting something different than a touring musical. The Illusionists is a team of seven great magicians in a big, noisy, breathtaking showcase, performing at the Aronoff just through Sunday. In two one-hour acts, audiences are treated to everything from a Houdini-inspired escape and a blindfolded guy shooting a crossbow to a Scotsman using his mental powers to deduce personal details about audience members. There’s close-up magic (made easily visible via projected video) and the darkly amusing “Anti-Conjuror” (Dan Sperry looks like he’s on leave from a Heavy Metal band), whose macabre tricks are both shocking and amazing. It’s an entertaining evening at the Aronoff Center, but take your earplugs. The music is stupendously loud. Tickets: 513-621-2787.
How about an immersive theater experience in a venue where you’ve probably never seen theater? Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding will be at Memorial Hall in Over-the-Rhine through April 2. The audience watches the happy couple tie the knot and then attends the wild reception, including dinner, a champagne toast and wedding cake. You might even get to kiss the bride or dance with the groom. This show has been an Off-Broadway fixture since 1988 and it’s toured to hundreds of cities around the world. It should be an evening of laughs that uses many facets of the recently restored Elm Street facility. Tickets ($65 includes dinner): 513-977-8838.
A showcase at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music this afternoon (2 p.m.) and this evening (7 p.m.) offers the chance to see the CCM Acting Class of 2017 in a performance they’ll be taking to New York and Los Angeles. CCM Acting (they used to call it CCM Drama, but many grads are working in TV and film) has alumni showing up on stages and screens as a result of these showcases. Stars in the making! Free admission, no reservation required. Performances are in CCM’s Robert J. Werner Recital Hall.
Also opening tonight is Falcon Theatre’s production of Rabbit Hole, a searing drama that won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for drama. David Lindsay-Abaire’s play is about the emotional fallout after a couple loses their only child in a tragic car accident. Falcon performs at 636 Monmouth St. in Newport. Through April 8. Tickets: 513-479-6783.
Already up and running are productions of Heavier Than… at Know Theatre (through April 1), Leading Ladies at the Covedale Center (through April 2) and Jane Eyre at the Cincinnati Playhouse (through April 8). This weekend the Playhouse is offering previews of Jen Silverman’s All the Roads Home, a world premiere that officially opens in the Shelterhouse Theatre next week.
Rick Pender’s STAGE DOOR blog appears here every Friday. Find more theater reviews and feature stories here.
This article appears in Mar 22-29, 2017.
