via GIPHYThree is a magic number. Playhouse on the Square begins and ends its 2017-18 season with musicals about female trios, doing things their way, and taking care of business. Circuit — housed in the old Memphian Theater — goes cinematic with The Flick, and Heathers the Musical then does a trip through theater history with Stupid Fucking Bird and Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf.
Combined, It’s a season of solids, sleepers, and certifiable groundbreakers.
Playhouse on the Square
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season
9 to 5
Not to be all Danny Downer, but pretty much everything you know about women’s awesome progress across the 20th-Century is bunk. Yeah, good stuff happened, but every time a glass ceiling shattered, an iron window shade slammed shut. Or something like that. The 1980 comedy 9 to 5 was full of silly laughs, but it’s a straight up expression of ERA-era rage. — a screwball revenge fantasy about three working gals bucking the male dominated pet-along-to-get-along office politics. You knew there had to be a musical lurking in there somewhere, right?
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season (2)
Shakespeare in Love
You know that movie with the Gwyneth, right? Where she needs poetry in her life? That, basically.
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season (4)
Peter Pan
The story of the little boy who won’t grow up and who also, apparently, won’t go away.
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season (3)
Once
You know what would be awesome? One surprise performance of this show in a little joint like Murphy’s. Just screw all theatrical convention and let this music-forward story of an Irish Street musician and the woman who gives his songs meaning happen however it happens with pint-wielding patrons all around, and in the way. Yeah. That’ll never happen, but on stage will be nice too.
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season (5)
Laughter on the 23rd Floor
I could go the rest of this life, and most of the afterlife without any more Neil Simon. But for this one, a fictionalized account of his time in the writers room on Your Show of Shows, I’ll make an exception. It’s no My Favorite Year, but it’ll do.
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season (6)
Fun Home
Comic books come to the stage. But no superheroes here. Based on the best-selling graphic novel of the same name, Fun Home is a story about modern life modern love, sexual orientation, family, and the place you live. The author takes you on a tour of her life, and it’s a sweet, sweet ride.
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season (7)
Dreamgirls
And I am telling you… I’m pretty sure y’all know where this is going.
The Circuit Playhouse Season
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season (11)
The Flick
Employees at a run down movie theater argue about cinema is a terrible synopsis This form-pushing Pulitzer winner deserves better.
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season (9)
Heathers
Does your teen angst have a body count? Do you love your dead gay son? Do you think Stranger Things has coat tails?
Junie B. Jones: The Musical
Everybody’s favorite first grader, and stuff.
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season (10)
The Santaland Diaries
Sedaris’ sassy Elf discovers the true meaning of ruining Christmas.
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season (12)
Perfect Arrangement
An Atomic age comedy inspired by true and horrible stories of the Red Scare, this is the story top US spooks employed to root out sexual deviance. Top covertly gay spooks, that is. Tales from the American closet.
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season (13)
James & the Giant Peach
If you don’t know what this is I feel sorry for you.
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season (14)
Stupid Fucking Bird
The fucking Seagull. It’s just the fucking Seagull. Only they went and fucked it up. Not in a bad way.
The Flick, Fun Home: Playhouse on the Square Announces 2017-18 Season (15)
Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf: A Parody
If Stupid Fucking Bird wasn’t meta enough for you, this silliness from Second City is a mashup of Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Our Town, etc. I can already predict that the word “romp” will appear in most reviews.
