Fame Takes a Holiday
Cassandra Danz, Mary Fulham
and Warren Leight

The story of the High Heeled Women, a four-girl cabaret act, takes place on the two worst nights of their show biz lives. Onstage, they perform a tight-knit madcap comedy revue; backstage, they struggle desperately to keep their act together. Fame is the story of a hopeful troupe of comediennes whose dreams of success are undermined by one of its members. Clever lyrics and tunes include a notable Edith Piaf parody (“Je Ne Regrout Rien”) and a torch song in which a jilted Jane, attired in a leopard cocktail dress, yearns for the return of her lothario, Tarzan. By play’s end the High Heeled Women have lost everything, including their clothing, but they have learned the true meaning of success. The New York Times called Fame “hilarious...[with] clever lyrics... entertaining, original tunes,” and WNYC Public Radio said that Fame “puts all those zillion dollar musicals uptown to shame.

Directed by Peter Clain

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Closer Than Ever
Music by David Shire and Lyrics
by Richard Maltby, Jr.

A 1989 Outer Critics Circle winner, Closer Than Ever is a rarely seen 1989 musical revue that collates unused Maltby/Shire material into a unified entity. As collaborators, lyricist Maltby and composer Shire have a rarefied gift for melodic, inventive, penetrating theater music. This typifies the musical’s exceptional songbook about gains, losses, relationships, and change in the Digital Age. With this revue the wit and wisdom of Maltby and Shire’s terrific lyrics and music has moved into darker and more mature subject matter. The songs are vignettes and within self-contained settings. Each song tells a story, and often with an ironic or unexpected twist at its conclusion. The songs are not raucous pop-chart disposable. They are wickedly satirical. They are reflective. They are civilizing. They are alternately and simultaneously upbeat and plaintive. Closer is sung by two men and two women and is equal parts sophistication, cynicism and raw emotional vulnerability.

Directed by Scott Levy

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Five Course Love
Book, Music and Lyrics by Gregg Coffin

In Five Course Love, Gregg Coffin’s light and campy musical comedy, we get an evening that is more than entertaining – it’s a ton of fun. The evening kicks off at a Texas BBQ restaurant where Matt, simple and clueless, meets hot, buxom, Barbie. All goes swimmingly until she finds out his name is not Ken. Five stories of romance and rejection, each with a different twist and in a different restaurant are served on a full plate of fabulous songs and lyrics at a Texas barbeque, Italian trattoria, German cabaret, Mexican cantina and American diner. The spotlight shines on three actors, a waiter and two romantic leads who stir up volcanic energy and a trunk load of humor as they sparkle in fifteen roles. They rip through costume changes and bolt through songs that reflect the different cuisines all with appropriate accents and at 120 miles an hour.

Directed by Tracy Lord

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