Post Tagged with: "Hedgerow Theatre"

Hedgerow is sweeping in Spring—and starting their 90th birthday celebration—by staging Georges Feydeau’s classic farce, A FLEA IN HER EAR.   Written in 1907, at the height of France’s Belle Époque, this comic masterpiece has been performed around the world ever since its debut.   Hedgerow has opted to use a new [...]

Yeah, this is about right for my life—sitting alone on Valentine’s Day watching a romantic comedy… But, in a way that was kind of the perfect mindset to see Larry McKenna’s new comedy, STRICTLY PLATONIC. It’s a clever piece about that age old search for true love, something we can [...]

Hedgerow Theatre, the venerable repertory theater in suburban Philadelphia, continues its fall tradition of bringing mystery to the Halloween season this year with SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CRUCIFER OF BLOOD, by Paul Giovanni. This clever piece is based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1890 novel The Sign of the Four, [...]

Writer’s block threatens to fade into obscurity the once-famous and now washed-up mystery playwright, Sidney Bruhl.  That is, until one of his former students, Clifford, mails an outstanding, never-before-read script to his mentor for review.  In a transparent bout of jealousy, the sardonic Sidney muses with his wife Myra the [...]

Doors to slam? Check.    Philandering husband? Check.   Mistaken identities? Check.   Scantily clad young lady? Check—and check.   And a poor schlemiel caught in the middle of it all? Check. Hedgerow is spending yet another summer with British master farceur Ray Cooney—and his sometime collaborator, John Chapman.    This time they’ve gone back [...]

What defines a friendship? Is it shared values?  Similar interests?  Common social background?  It’s kinda hard to pin down, isn’t it?  Another question: do all friendships run their course?  Is it inevitable that eventually we’ll drift apart?  Will life circumstances change us in some fundamental way so that we no [...]

John Brown was an abolitionist who attempted to start a slave uprising (and the Civil War) by invading Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia in the fall of 1859. He did not succeed and was captured and hung later that year. Brown’s deeds inspired an irreverent song in that era (Brown was [...]

Separated twins is a plot device that Shakespeare explored in a few of his plays; COMEDY OF ERRORS was the earliest.  Written in 1594 (the year before Romeo & Juliet), it’s one of the Bard’s shortest plays.  Shakespeare drew inspiration from two plays by Plautus: “Menaechmi “and “Amphitruo.”  There is [...]

Neil Simon is America’s most prolific playwright.   He’s a real crowd pleaser, so Hedgerow has made a great choice to close out the summer with THE GOOD DOCTOR, directed by Louis Lippa and starring Jared Reed.   King of the snappy one-liners, Simon first hit Broadway in 1961 with the domestic [...]

In 1988, my mom took me to England and then Ireland to see where my grandfather was from.  We decided to take in a show during our brief stay in London, so we went to the half-price ticket booth in Leicester Square.  There were tickets for a large variety of [...]

Nagle Jackson’s career path has gone from actor to director to playwright.   In between, he served as Artistic Director for Princeton’s McCarter Theatre.  It was during this time that he met and worked with Hedgerow’s Artistic Director Penelope Reed.  A lifelong friendship was forged and now Jackson is Hedgerow’s Playwright-in-Residence.  [...]

For those who need a laugh after dealing with this winter’s weather, and are tired of watching Democrats and Republicans in Washington behaving badly, Rose Valley’s Hedgerow Theatre is a good place to be. Barrymore Award winner, Tony Braithwaite, who has been called “Philadelphia’s funniest comic actor,” is staging his [...]

Long before Marc Cherry created the hit ABC series, playwright Willy Russell mined the territory of a housewife wanting more out of life than which detergent gets your laundry whiter.   In the interest of full-disclosure, I have to admit to a huge soft spot for Russell’s characters; one of my [...]

It’s fun and laughs at Neil Simon’s comedy, PLAZA SUITE at Hedgerow in Rose Valley, PA. I’m not sounding very convincing even to myself. This production, directed by Janet Kelsey, was done in two acts with there being no connection between the two acts other than they both take place [...]

  For one hour, and one hour only, we have the opportunity at Hedgerow to meet THE FIRST LADY OF PHILADELPHIA: DEBORAH FRANKLIN as she reminisces about her colonial life with her husband, Benjamin. However, while she is ruminating about all this, she is also living the hour in real [...]

“I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right.” Sojourner Truth was the name Isabella Baumfree gave herself in 1843 when she embarked on a journey from slavehood to renowned abolitionist.  Richard LaMonte Pierce, Playwright-in-Residence at First World Theatre [...]

First of all, if you have to ask, you’ll never know.  But I’ll tell you anyway.  NUNCRACKERS The Nunsense Christmas Musical (book, music and lyrics by Dan Goggin) is being performed in our neck of the woods at Hedgerow, America’s first repertory theatre (Rose Valley, PA near Media).  It is [...]

This time of year brings forth all sorts of adaptations of Charles Dickens’ beloved holiday tale.   There are dozens of film and TV adaptations, and theatres all over the world mount various and sundry versions.   Hedgerow’s own Jared Reed has gone back to the source—Dickens’ novella, published in 1843—to  present [...]

There are two things I’d like to share with you, readers, before I begin. One, my knowledge of Agatha Christie and her writings is very limited, I’m almost ashamed to say, or I’m simply forgetting what I’ve read or seen pertaining to her expansive literary career. Two, I haven’t been [...]

Far-ce: from the French “To stuff.” For their 9th annual Ray Cooney farce, Hedgerow has gone back to an earlier work in this prolific playwright’s canon: CHASE ME, COMRADE. Written in 1966, this bit of silliness certainly stays true to the form; it is stuffed full with pretty much every [...]