Theater News

In the Heights, Other Desert Cities and More Slated for Walnut Street Theatre

Walnut’s 2013-1014 season features lovable, homicidal spinsters and a disarmingly charming member of Santa’s crew.

The Walnut Street Theatre's box office.
The Walnut Street Theatre’s box office.
© Walnut Street Theatre

It’s a season with something for everyone, from a dramedy about a contentious Republican clan to a musical that brims with holiday cheer. Walnut Street Theatre has announced its mainstage lineup for the 2013-2014 season.

The company will open the year with In the Heights, the Tony Award-winning musical that drops audiences into the vibrant, Latino enclave of Washington Heights. With music and lyrics by Tony winner Lin-Manuel Miranda (Bring It On) and a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegria Hudes (Water by the Spoonful), the show will run from September 3 – October 10.

When the holiday season is once again upon us, Walnut Street Theatre will produce the musical Elf, based on the Will Ferrell film of the same name, with tunes by the Tony-nominated songwriting team of Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin (The Wedding Singer) , a book by Tony winners Thomas Meehan (The Producers) and Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone). Elf will be in performances from November 5 – January 5.

The theater has one more tuner on tap. A Pulitzer Prize-winning look at one man’s climb up the corporate ladder, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying — which came from the men behind another all-American classic, Guys and Dolls — is slated to play at the Walnut from May 13 – July 13.

The Theatre also has a couple of non-musical plays on the schedule for the coming season. First up will be Other Desert Cities, which garnered a Tony Award nomination for author and playwright Jon Robin Baitz (A Far Country) last year. This portrait of how a woman’s announcement that she’s written a tell-all book rocks the world of her Republican parents will play at the theater from January 14 – March 2.

A classic American comedy, Joseph Kesselring’s Arsenic and Old Lace, will round out the season, running from March 11 – April 17. This confection centers on two spinster aunts who help men avoid loneliness in their senior years by serving them a special blend of elderberry wine and arsenic.