PHILADELPHIA PERFORMING ARTS
Theatre
Exile
The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh
February 17 - March 13, 2011 | Call for Ticket Prices | Plays & Players Theatre | theatreexile.org
Meet Mad Padriac, the most lethal soldier of
the Irish National Liberation Party. When Padriac is called home to his
small town of Inishmore to find that his only true friend, Wee Thomas
the cat, has been assassinated there will be blood.The Ugly One by Marius von Mayenburg
February 22 - March 13, 2011 | $30.00 | Walnut Street Theatre | walnutstreettheatre.org
Who do you see in the mirror? It's time to
take a deep look into the world of beauty with this scintillating
comedy about success, fame and plastic surgery. Our hero thought he was
normal. When his future is put on hold because he's deemed too ugly to
sell his own product, he turns to a plastic surgeon for help. When the
bandages come off, his world is turned inside out. Individuality is
under the scalpel in this modern day, cut-and-tuck fairy tale.King of Prussia
Players
Guys & Dolls by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows
February 25 - March
12,
2011 | $10.00 - $17.00 | Shannondell at Valley Forge
Arts Center
| 610.277.9505
Desperate to find money to pay for his
floating crap game, Nathan Detroit bets Sky Masterson a thousand
dollars that Sky will not be able to take a local Mission girl, Sarah
Brown, to Cuba. While Sky tries to get Sarah to surrender to his
charms, Nathan battles with his fiancée of fourteen years, Adelaide.
But Sky soon learns that love may be the biggest gamble of all. In the Next Room, or The
Vibrator Play by Blanka Zizka
March 2 - April 3, 2011 | Call for Pricing | The Wilma Theatre | 215.546.7824
Hailed
as “one of the most gifted and adventurous American playwrights” by The
New York Times, Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House, Eurydice) crafts a new
play The New Yorker called “her best to date!” It’s the dawn of
electricity. Mr. Thomas Edison has become a personal hero of Dr.
Givings who begins harnessing this newfound power to treat hysterical
patients at his home with an experimental electric apparatus. But
as
the peculiar buzzing sounds from his office grow louder, Mrs. Givings’
curiosity gets the best of her, exposing cracks in the very foundation
of their marriage. A 2010 Tony® Nominee for Best Play and a
Pulitzer
Prize finalist, In the Next Room boldly explores sexuality and intimacy
by combining historical facts with deep emotion and mischievous humor.Pennsylvania Ballet Swan
Lake by Christopher Wheeldon
March 3 - 12, 2011 | Call for Ticket Prices | Academy of Music | 215.790.5800
Premiered
in 2004 to national acclaim, Christopher Wheeldon's stellar production
of Swan Lake was created and performed to sold-out audiences for
Pennsylvania Ballet's 40th Anniversary Season. Wheeldon's Swan Lake is
based on the original Ivanov/Petipa classic and set to the timeless
Tschaikovsky score but has been re-imagined for today's audiences. The
million-dollar production features spectacular sets and costumes set in
the 19th-century milieu of the Paris Opera Ballet of Edgar Degas.
Dazzling choreography and visual complexities illuminate this version
of the world's most beloved ballet.Superior Donuts by
Tracey Letts
March 3 - April 3,
2011 | Call for Ticket Prices
| Arden Theatre Company | ardentheatre.org
The
neighborhood, the donut shop, and Arthur have all gone to pot. When
young Franco Wicks busts in with fresh dough and even fresher dreams,
Arthur can no longer pretend he doesn’t care. Tracy Letts, author of
the Pulitzer and Tony award winning August: Osage County, turns up the
comedic heat on a man and a community grappling with change.Philadelphia Orchestra
Dutoit Conducts Strauss
March 4 - 8,
2011 | Call for Ticket Prices
| Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts | 215.790.5800
One of the most distinctive young American
voices is that of Jonathan Leshnoff, a composer still in his 30s, whose
music Strings magazine described as "richly tonal" but "quite distinct
from anything else that's out there at the moment." Philadelphia
Orchestra Principal Flute Jeffrey Khaner has commissioned a concerto
from the New Jersey native, which he presents in its world premiere.
Maestro Dutoit rounds out the program with Ravel's sun-splashed
Rapsodie espagnole, brimming with the rhythms and colors of Spain, and
Strauss's quasi-autobiographical orchestral showpiece A Hero's Life,
with its extravagant musical depictions of Strauss himself, his wife,
Pauline, and his carping critics.Showtimes Fri 2:00 PM, Sat 8:00 PM, Tue 8:00 PM.
The Men of Mah Jongg by Richard Atkins
March 8 - April 17, 2011 | Call for Ticket Prices | Society Hill Playhouse | societyhillplayhouse.com
Recent widower, Sid Weinberg, tries to
convince his poker playing buddies to replace their Friday night game
with the more famous game of Mah Jongg (he’s received a sign from his
dearly departed wife!). A play that touches the heart in a profound
way…funny and poignant all at the same time. A feel-good evening is
guaranteed.A Midsummer Night's
Dream by William Shakespeare
March 10 - April 10, 2011 | $10.00 - $36.00 | Lantern Theater Company | lanterntheater.org
One of
Shakespeare's most exuberant and effervescent comedies! Young lovers
Hermia and Lysander, kept apart by strict Athenian law, escape to the
woods where tyrannical parents can't find them – but mischief can.
Elsewhere among the trees, the fairy king and queen are having a
marital spat with disastrous consequences for one Nick Bottom.
Rediscover your favorite characters in a lively production that puts
you in the middle of all the mid-summer romance and magic, brought to
you by "the city's most consistent producer of the Bard's work."
–Philadelphia WeeklyAlfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps
March 15 - May 1, 2011 | $10.00 - $85.00 | Walnut Street Theatre | walnutstreettheatre.org
Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy
novel, add a dash of merry mayhem and you have The 39 Steps, a
fast-paced mystery for anyone who loves the magic of theatre! This
award-winning treat is packed with nonstop laughs, over 150 zany
characters played by a ridiculously talented cast, an on-stage plane
crash, handcuffs, missing fingers and some good old-fashioned romance!
In The 39 Steps, a man with a boring life meets a woman with a thick
accent who says she's a spy. When he takes her home, she is murdered.
Soon, a mysterious organization called "The 39 Steps" is hot on the
man's trail in a nationwide manhunt that climaxes in a death-defying
finale! A riotous blend of virtuoso performances and wildly inventive
stagecraft, The 39 Steps amounts to an unforgettable evening of pure
comedic pleasure!The Cunning Little Vixen
Curtis Opera Theatre
March 16 - 20,
2011 | Call for Ticket Prices
| Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts | 215.790.5800
Humans and
creatures of the forest mingle together in a delightful tale about the
circle of life. Follow a clever young fox—cunning little vixen—on her
journey through forest and town, love and rebellion. Composer LEOŠ
JANÁÈEK based his whimsical opera on a series of newspaper comic
strips. Director Chas Rader-Shieber and designer David Zinn, who
created the enormously successful Lyric Opera of Chicago production,
re-imagine the work for Perelman Theater. Maestro Corrado Rovaris leads
the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. Performed in Czech with English
translations.Showtimes Wed 7:30 PM, Fri 8:00 PM, Sun 2:30 PM.
Philadelphia Orchestra
All Russian
March 17 - 19,
2011 | Call for Ticket Prices
| Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts | 215.790.5800
Many who love Tchaikovsky's ubiquitous First
Piano Concerto may know nothing of his Second. Extroverted, ingeniously
constructed, and possibly more demanding for the soloist than the
First, it contains some of Tchaikovsky's finest music. British-born,
Juilliard-trained pianist Stephen Hough, whose career was launched in
1983 with a Naumburg Competition victory, has become one of its most
ardent champions. He is joined by the dynamic Vasily Petrenko in his
Philadelphia Orchestra debut. In 2006 the Russian-born Petrenko became
the youngest-ever principal conductor of the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic, and in 2009 he was named its chief conductor. The program
concludes with Prokofiev's fierce Fifth Symphony, written in the summer
of 1944 as "a hymn to free and happy Man," as the composer said, "to
his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit."Showtimes Thu 8:00 PM, Fri 2:00 PM, Sat 8:00 PM.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
March 18, 2011 | 8:00 PM | Call for Ticket Prices | Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts | Website
Always a
sell-out, Ladysmith Black Mambazo returns to the Annenberg Center for a
special one-night-only performance bringing hits from their forthcoming
album, Songs From A Zulu Farm. A collection of original and traditional
songs that sing of life on the farm, the album is part one of a planned
trilogy of albums that chronicle the group’s life experiences in South
Africa. Since Paul Simon’s Graceland catapulted Ladysmith Black Mambazo
to worldwide fame, this nine-member vocal group has opened doors to
South African culture through music, dance and singing. For more than
40 years, they’ve married the intricate rhythms and harmonies of their
native South African musical traditions to the sounds and sentiments of
Christian gospel music. The result is a not-to-be-missed musical and
spiritual alchemy that, according to Simon, emanates “sheer joy and
love” and has touched a universal audience representing every corner of
the religious, cultural and ethnic landscape.The Complete History of
America
(abridged)
by Adam Long, Reed Martin and
Austin Tichenor
March 18 - April 2,
2011 | Call for Ticket Prices | Footlighters
Theater | 610.296.9245
Come out
and join us for a thrill ride through American history. Our three
"experts" will take you back all the way to the discovery of the new
world! Then in just 90 minutes we'll cover all the major events in
American history from that kooky duo Lewis and Clark, to the First
World War and the Second World War.Philadelphia Theatre
Company
Let Me Down Easy by Anna Deavere Smith
March 18 - April
10,
2011 | 8:00 PM | Call for Ticket Prices
| Suzanne Roberts Theatre | 215.985.0420
A virtuosic and moving exploration into the
power of the human body, the price of health, and the resilience of the
spirit, Smith takes an honest look at some difficult topics including
the steroid scandal, cancer therapies, the tragedy of Katrina and the
ailing American healthcare system with her trademark journalistic
precision and poignancy.Zakir Hussain
March 19,
2011 | 6:00 PM | $30.00
| Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts | 215.790.5800
One of the living legends of classical tabla,
world renowned Zakir Hussain, returns to the Bride. The Bride is the
only venue in Philadelphia to present Hussain for two decades, in the
most intimate concert setting possible. A sure sell-out, get your
tickets today!
