WEEKENDER I THEATER
Variety of upcoming shows set for area theaters
1/3/2018
Sarah Bockel stars as Carole King in "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical."
Matthew Murphy
The ticket to fighting the cold, cold world of Toledo’s winter is in the worlds of imagination in area theaters.
Live theater productions can take audiences to the worlds of one of the queens of pop music, a pioneering scientist, a Broadway chorus line, and other exciting places, if just for an evening. Here are some of the shows to be presented in local theaters in January and February.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical will be onstage at the Stranahan Theater Feb. 6-11, part of the Theater League’s Broadway in Toledo series. The musical, which continues to run on Broadway, tells the story of singer-songwriter Carole King, a Brooklyn teen who grew up to write and perform many of pop and rock music’s biggest hits, including “I Feel The Earth Move,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and “One Fine Day.” Tickets are from 419-381-8851, broadwayintoledo.com, or the Stranahan box office, 4645 Heatherdowns Blvd.
WATCH: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
In Findlay, the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts on March 9 presents Jukebox Life, starring singer-actor Jarrod Spector, who was nominated for the Tony Award for outstanding featured actor in a musical for his performance as songwriter Barry Mann in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Spector, who also portrayed Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys for six years, presents an autobiographical set of pop and Broadway favorites. Tickets are from marathoncenterarts.org.
In the Valentine Theatre’s Studio A, its intimate black-box theater with an entrance on Adams Street, Lauren Gunderson’s play Silent Sky will be presented in six performances Jan. 12-14 and Jan. 19-21. The drama tells the true story of astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, who worked at the Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s, a time when she and other women were kept on the sidelines. The musical A Chorus Line, part of the Valentine’s Broadway series, arrives Feb. 18. Tickets are from valentinetheatre.com, 419-242-ARTS, or at the box office, 400 N. Superior St.
The Niswonger Performing Arts Center of Northwest Ohio in Van Wert will entertain the kids with Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo Live on Feb. 3. The tour through pre-historic Australia will offer the chance to meet and interact with a collection of life-like dinosaurs and other creatures in a theatrical presentation by a team of performers and puppeteers. The live show is by Erth Visual & Physical of Sydney, Australia. Tickets are from 419-238-6722 and npacvw.org.
Ripcord, a comedy by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, presented at the Toledo Repertoire Theatre, 16 10th St., is set in a senior living center, where one of the residents, the irascible Abby, has managed to keep her room all to herself, until cheerful Marilyn arrives and a bet takes a dark turn. Shows are Jan. 12-13, 19-21, 25-28. Tickets are from 419-243-9277 and toledorep.org.
The Village Players begin 2018 with Annapurna, a comedy by Sharr White centered on Emma, who hasn’t seen her husband, Ulysses, for 20 years, and maybe that has been for the best. Performances are Jan. 19-21 and 25-27 at the theater, 2740 Upton Ave. Tickets are from thevillageplayers.org, 419-472-6817, and at the door.
The University of Toledo Department of Theatre and Film presents Proof, David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama that centers on a family, a brilliant math proof, and the mystery that surrounds it all. Performances are Feb. 2-11 in the UT Center for Performing Arts. Tickets are from utoledo.tix.com and at the door.
Oregon Community Theatre presents Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Driving Miss Daisy, which became an Academy Award-winning film, Feb. 16-18 and 23-24 at Fassett Auditorium, 3025 Starr Ave. Tickets are from 419-691-1398 or oregoncommunitytheatre.org.
Cutting Edge Theatre presents Edges, a musical production with songs by Pasek and Paul about coming of age and personal growth, Jan. 19-20 at Olander Park Nederhouser Community Hall, 6930 Sylvania Ave. Tickets are from cuttingedgetheatre.org and 419-704-6184.
The Secret Garden, a musical adapted from the 1911 children’s drama by Frances Hodgson Burnett, will be staged by Bowling Green’s Black Swamp Players Feb. 16-18 and 23-25 at First United Methodist Church of Bowling Green.