What the Constitution Means to Me Heidi Schreck Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory At the age of fifteen, Heidi Schreck remembers “in addition to being terrifyingly turned on all the time" and obsessed with Salem witch trials, theatre, and “most importantly” Patrick Swayze,” “I was a zealot” of the Constitution. As then a high school sophomore in Wenatchee, … [Read more...] about What the Constitution Means to Me
Hillbarn Theatre
Writing Fragments Home
Writing Fragments Home Jeffrey Lo Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory Forty-year-old Jay awaits anxiously with luggage in hand for his mom to get home from work, nervously practicing various ways of saying, "Hi, Mom, it's good to see you/How was work?/I'm sorry ... can I move back home?" When Mary Beth walks in, her first reaction? "What's wrong?... What are you … [Read more...] about Writing Fragments Home
Fly by Night
Fly by Night Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick & Kim Rosenstock, Writers; Conceived by Kim Rosenstock Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory A love triangle between two sisters and a sandwich maker. A gypsy whose crystal ball reveals one sister's future-certain "mountain life" of rise and fall. A grieving husband who finds solace hugging a record player and … [Read more...] about Fly by Night
Daisy
Daisy Sean Devine Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory A three-year-old, blonde girl stands in a meadow, holding a daisy and counting to ten in her sweet, high voice as she plucks off petals, charmingly making a few mistakes along the way. As she hesitates after nine, a booming male voice begins counting backwards from ten, much like heard in a rocket launch. Just as … [Read more...] about Daisy
Something Rotten
Something Rotten Karey Kirkpatrick & John O’Farrell (Book); Wayne & Karey Kirkpatrick (Music & Lyrics) Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory With eyes sparkling their excitement and a spry body moving almost like a stringed puppet, the Minstrel sings, “Welcome to the Renaissance, where we ooh and ahh you with ambiance ... where everything is new.” Touting … [Read more...] about Something Rotten
Once
Once Enda Walsh (Book); Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglov (Music & Lyrics) (Based on the Movie by John Carney) Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory For over fifty-five years of its eighty-three-year history, Hillbarn Theatre has performed in its highly versatile and intimate black box setting, transforming its close-at-hand audiences to locations wonderful, wild, … [Read more...] about Once
Rent
Rent Jonathan Larson (Book, Music & Lyrics) Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory In January 1996, onto a Broadway stage burst a sexy, soaring musical daring to bestow unforgettable faces and personalities to seven artists struggling to survive not only their 1989, East Village poverty, but also the plague of AIDS/HIV that appeared ready to wipe out an entire … [Read more...] about Rent
The Producers
The Producers Mel Brooks (Book, Music & Lyrics) Hillbarn Theatre and Conservatory Perspective #1: Raunchy, crass, insulting, insensitive. Horrible stereotypes that in 2023 seem particularly out of place in light of Me-Too, Don’t Say Gay, dramatic increase in antisemitism, and attacks in state after state aimed at transgender people. Perspective #2: Riotous, … [Read more...] about The Producers
Perfect Arrangement
Perfect Arrangement Topher Payne Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory The red stage light comes on, accompanied by a resounding ring; theme music fills the air; and lights come up on what could almost be a recreation of Lucy and Desi’s apartment. Canned applause joins in ushering to the stage another episode of Perfect Arrangement. But what starts out as a … [Read more...] about Perfect Arrangement
Clue: On Stage
Clue: On Stage Sandy Rustin Based on Screenplay by Jonathan Lynn, with Additional Material by Hunter Foster & Eric Price Based on Paramount Pictures film, Clue Based on Hasbro Board Game, CLUE Hillbarn Theatre Six guests arrive at a New England, country mansion in 1954; and soon each receive from the host a plain-paper-wrapped gift – either a dagger, a wrench, a … [Read more...] about Clue: On Stage
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change Joe DiPietro (Book & Lyrics); Jimmy Roberts (Music); Doug Katsaros (Orchestrations) Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory For someone who has seen well over 150 live theatre shows every, pre-COVID year for at least the past twenty years, how is it I have missed seeing the 1996-premiering, second-longest-running Off-Broadway … [Read more...] about I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
Ain’t Misbehaving: The Fats Waller Musical Show
Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show Richard Maltby, Jr. & Murray Horwitz (Book) Luther Henderson (Musical Adaptations, Orchestrations & Arrangements) Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory Maybe we do not get musical confirmation until the last and fifteenth song of Act One that “this joint is jumping;” but there is no doubt as the … [Read more...] about Ain’t Misbehaving: The Fats Waller Musical Show
Anything Goes
Anything GoesCole Porter (Music & Lyrics)P.G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton, Howard Lindsay & Russell Crouse (Original Book)Timothy Crouse & John Weidman (New Book)Hillbarn TheatreNathaniel Rothrock & Caitlin McGinty Beginning with the ship’s captain and sailors raising full-voice and rousing harmonies in “There Is No Cure Like Travel” and the full cast blending … [Read more...] about Anything Goes
“Mamma Mia!”
Mamma Mia!Catherin Johnson (Book); Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (Music & Lyrics); Stig Anderson (Additional Songs)Hillbarn Theatre Christine Capsuto-Shulman, Merrill Peiffer & Jacquie McCarleyThe sheer joy of this Mamma Mia! is the big-stage quality we as an audience get to enjoy in the intimate, close-up space of the Hillbarn Theatre. The cast of … [Read more...] about “Mamma Mia!”
“Leading Ladies”
Leading LadiesKen LudwigHillbarn TheatreSamantha Ricci, Adrienne Kaori Walters & Monica CappucciniWhile the Shakespeare-mimicking situations in Ken Ludwig’s Leading Ladiesare overall amusing, it is Director James Knipple’s gender-fluid, casting decisions that make Hillbarn Theatre's Leading Ladies well worth a night of forgetting all the day’s troubles and letting … [Read more...] about “Leading Ladies”
