Philadelphia Spotlight: November 2009

The Walnut Street Theatre’s holiday show is always an event in Philadelphia and this year should prove no different with the company’s production of the award-winning musical Oliver! (November 18-January 10). Hugh Panaro stars as Fagin with the young Gregory Smith and Sam Preston alternating in the title role. The musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic tale of a young London orphan includes the show-stopping number “Consider Yourself” and the memorable “I’d do Anything.” The show should be the perfect holiday outing for a family with young theatergoers.

In the Walnut’s small Independence Studio on 3 is the wacky comedy Red, White and Tuna (November 24-December 3). Yet another installment in the Greater Tuna Series of plays about life in a small Texas town, the play concerns a group of former classmates attending a Fourth of July high school reunion. The Arden Theatre Company continues their winning campaign with David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2007 Pulitzer Prize winning drama Rabbit Hole (through December 20), which recounts the story of a family whose happy life is suddenly torn apart after suffering an almost unbearable tragedy. Director James J. Christy’s production stars the wonderful Grace Gonglewski in the role that earned Cynthia Nixon a Tony.

11th Hour Theatre Company and Theatre Horizon present Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s popular musical Little Shop of Horrors (Prince Music Theater’s Black Box, November 27-December 20). The romantic comedy focuses on a flower shop clerk whose search for love is hampered by a carnivorous plant with a voracious appetite for human blood. Amaryllis Theatre Company opens their new season with Samuel Beckett’s 20th century masterpiece Waiting for Godot (November 10-22). One of drama’s most influential dark comedies, the play concerns two drifters waiting for the mysterious and unseen Godot. A mesmerizing search for meaning in an absurd universe, the production stars veterans Michael Toner and Buck Schirner as the patient pair of vagabonds.

Grab your date and head for the Bristol Riverside Theatre where you’ll find the likeable little musical I Love you, You’re Perfect, Now Change (November 3-22). Featuring a book and lyrics by Joe Di Pietro and music by Jimmy Roberts, the comic musical revue takes a humorous look at dating and marriage with songs like “Single Man Drought” and “Marriage Tango.”