January's Triangle Theatre Guide

So a new year means a new set of entertaining theatrical plays hitting the theaters all throughout the Triangle! Below you can see a list of what the Triangle has to offer (If I'm missing anything, let me know and I'll add it up):

Broadway Series South @ Progress Eneregy's Center for the Performing Arts

A Chorus Line

National Touring Production! Straight from Broadway.

In an empty theatre, on a bare stage, casting for a new Broadway musical is almost complete. For 17 dancers, this audition is the chance of a lifetime. It's what they've worked for - with every drop of sweat, every hour of training, every day of their lives. It's the one opportunity to do what they've always dreamed -- to have the chance to dance. This is A Chorus Line, the musical for everyone who’s ever had a dream and put it all on the line. Winner of nine Tony Awards®, including “Best Musical” and the Pulitzer Prize for drama, this singular sensation is the longest-running American Broadway musical ever. Now A Chorus Line returns. Come meet the new generation of Broadway’s best. “A Chorus Line is back, and it’s thrilling!” - John Lahr, The New Yorker

Show dates: January 6th - January 11th, 2009

Suntrust Broadway Series @ Durham Performing Arts Center

Rent

Starring Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp from the Original Broadway Show and Film Adaptation of Rent.

Set in the East Village of New York City, RENT is about being young and learning to survive in NYC. It's about falling in love, finding your voice and living for today. Winner of the Tony Award® for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize, RENT has made a lasting mark on Broadway with songs that rock and a story that really resonates. Whether it's your 1st time or your 100th time, the time is now for RENT!

Show dates: January 20th - January 25th, 2009


North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theatre

Love Letters

Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner, both born to wealth and position, are childhood friends whose lifelong correspondence begins with birthday party thank-you notes and summer camp postcards. Romantically attached, they continue to exchange letters through the boarding school and college years—where Andy goes on to excel at Yale and law school, while Melissa flunks out of a series of "good schools." While Andy is off at war Melissa marries, but her attachment to Andy remains strong and she continues to keep in touch as he marries, becomes a successful attorney, gets involved in politics and, eventually, is elected to the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, her marriage in tatters, Melissa dabbles in art and gigolos, drinks more than she should, and becomes estranged from her children. Eventually she and Andy do become involved in a brief affair, but it is really too late for both of them.

Show dates: January 30-31, February 1, 6-8, 13-15
Show Times: Friday and Saturday Evenings at 8:00PM, Sunday Matinee at 3:00PM

Carolina Ballet

Balanchine - By George!

George Balanchine's natural curiosity and creativity led him to push boundaries that resulted in timeless classics that were so far ahead of their time, they are still amazing today. He embodied a passionate fervor that kept him working into his eighties, turning out a body of work that made him the Father of American Ballet. This season we present two of his amazing achievements: La Sonnambula and The Four Temperaments.

Show dates: January 29th - February 1st, 2009
Show Times: Thursday - Saturday Evenings at 8:00 PM, Saturday and Sunday Matinee at 2:00 PM

Burning Coal Theatre Company

Way to Heaven

A representative of the Red Cross is sent to investigate alleged atrociities in Germany at the start of World War II. What he finds is a beautiful, serene, model city, peopled with smiling Jewish citizens. Will his report to the Red Cross reflect what his eyes have seen ... or what his heart is telling him?

Show dates: January 22nd - February 8th, 2009
Show Times: Thursdays - Saturdays 7:30 PM, Sundays 2:00 PM

NOTE: The play alternates between being spoken in English and Spanish on various nights. You can view those nights here.

Common Ground Theatre

Souvenir: A Fanatasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins

An incapable coloratura and a down and out musical accompanist team up and achieve cult status fame. Their bizarre partnership yielded hilariously off-key recitals that became the talk of New York and culminated in a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall.

Show dates: January 9th - January 24th, 2009
Show Times: Thursdays - Saturdays Evenings at 8:00 PM, Sundays Matinees at 2:00 PM

Manbites Dog Theater

Hungry Ghost

A haunting winter tale featuring shadow puppetry, masks, bon raku, and marionette puppet styles comes to Manbites Dog this January, when Paperhand Puppet Intervention and Theater of Performing Objects present HUNGRY GHOST. Thematically based in ancient traditional (and contemporary) Asian religious belief and cultural myth, HUNGRY GHOST tells stories of the insatiable human condition. Intended for mature audiences.
Presented as part of Manbites Dog Theater's Other Voices Series

Show dates: January 14th - January 24th, 2009

Playmakers Repertory Company

The Young Ladies Of...

We’re thrilled to present the audaciously talented actor/playwright Taylor Mac in his moving exploration of a son’s desire to know his father. A father who led a very different life than the one the son has made for himself as a New York performance artist, who performs the show in drag, playing a ukulele and singing songs from Carousel. What can we say? It’s brilliant!

Show dates: January 7th - January 11th, 2009
Show Times: Wednesday - Sunday Evenings at 8:00 PM, Sunday Mantinee at 2:00 PM

Well

'Lisa’, the onstage playwright, attempts a memory play about her force-of-nature mother who though constantly ill manages to heal a community. Characters rebel at Lisa’s version of events, upending the story in a howlingly funny and emotionally powerful look at mother/daughter dynamics. This Tony-nominated Broadway sensation comes from the original voice of Lisa Kron, whose OBIE-winning 2.5 Minute Ride was a sold-out hit in last season's PRC2 series.

Show dates: January 24th - March 1st (In Rotation with The Glass Menagerie)

The Glass Menagerie

PlayMakers presents Williams’ masterpiece the way he always intended - as a break from “the exhausted theatre of realistic conventions.” A moving tale of a mother/daughter relationship complicated by the daughter’s disability, with universal themes of family conflict and dreams deferred, its groundbreaking theatrical form helped establish the memory play in the theatrical canon.


Show dates: January 25th - February 28th, 2009 (in Rotation with Well)