Theater season offers lots of choices

It’s all about choice as the 2019/2020 community theater season opens this September. You can choose from traditional Broadway musicals, American theater classics, or something that will push the envelope and maybe your buttons.

The Las Vegas Little Theatre

The Las Vegas Little Theatre (LVLT) is kicking off its 42^nd Mainstage season with an encore of its sold-out “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” book by Rachel Sheinkin and score by William Finn, Sept. 6-22. This hilarious Tony Award-winning musical is the story of six misfit spellers.

►We’re all related to Kevin Bacon according to “Six Degress of Seperation,” the story of a sexy Manhattan con artist by John Guare, Oct. 18-Nov. 3.

All LVLT shows play Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and the second Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Get season tickets for the best rates, or if you want to see them all but need to be flexible about dates get a Flex Pass. Single show tickets are also available. To purchase single or season tickets, visit www.lvlt.org or contact the box office at 702-362-7996.

THEATER

Halloween choices to kick off fall

A Public Fit

A comparative newcomer to Las Vegas community theater, A Public Fit continues to prove itself as one of our most aspiring companies.

►Get a preview of the excitement at their staged reading of “The Ghosts of Lote Bravo” by Hilary Bettis. A magical realism look at the life and death of women in Mexico. At the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road on Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m., free.

►A Public Fit’s main season opens in October with the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning, “August: Osage County” by Tracy Letts, Oct. 25-Nov. 17.

It all happens at The Usual Place, 100 S. Maryland Parkway in the Fremont Village. Evening shows at 7:30 p.m.  Matinee shows at 2 p.m. Ticket information at tickets@apublicfit.org or call 702-735-2114.

The Nevada Conservatory Theatre

► The Nevada Conservatory Theatre (NCT) at UNLV opens with the 2015 Tony Award-winning musical “Fun House” with book and lyrics by Lisa Kron and music by Jeanine Tesori, based on the graphic novel by lesbian comic-strip artist, Alison Bechdel. At the Judy Bayley Theatre at UNLV, Oct. 4-13.

►“The Flick” by Annie Baker at NCT’s Black Box Theatre is the 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning play about digital change and its heartbreaking impact on the lives of three underpaid movie theater workers, Oct. 25-Nov. 10.

For more information on season tickets, contact the PAC Box Office at 702-895-ARTS (2787) or go online to www.unlv.edu/nct/season-info.

Rainbow Company Youth Theatre

Look beyond the surface to behold the magic on the other side of the Rainbow Company Youth Theatre’s 43^rd season.

►“The Witches,” by classic children’s author Roald Dahl and adapted for the stage by David Wood, will be the opener on Sept. 27-28 and Oct. 4-5 at 7 p.m. and Sept. 28-29 and Oct. 5-6 at 2 p.m. at the Charleston Heights Arts Center, 800 S. Brush Street, near West Charlestonn Boulevard. Extravagant costuming and scenery will spook this kids vs. witches adventure.

Two season ticket options include fixed dates and flexible, as well as single show tickets. For tickets, visit www.ArtsLasVegas.org or call 702-229-ARTS (2787).

 Majestic Repertory Theatre

► Majestic Repertory Theatre’s 2019-20 electrifying season opener is the hit rock opera, Green Day’s “American Idiot.”

►The two-time Tony Award-winning musical is based on the band’s Grammy Award-winning multi-platinum album. Directed by Artistic Director Troy Heard (“Chicago”), choreographed by Jenna Szoke (“Spring Awakening”) and with musical direction by Andrew Tyler (“Cabaret”), “American Idiot” will be like a caffeine shot into your veins complete with high-energy choreography and a live band. Runs Sept. 5-29 with shows at 8 and 5 p.m.

Purchase tickets at www.majesticrepertory.com.

Vegas City Opera is hitting a high note with its first concert of the season,

THEATER

Cockroach Theater adds new name

►”Viva Las Popera” Frank Sinatra, Queen, ABBA will be featured Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. at the Charleston Heights Arts Center, 800 S. Brush St. at W. Charleston Boulevard.

For tickets, visit www.ArtsLasVegas.org or call 702-229-ARTS (2787). This performance is funded in part by a grant from the Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

►“The Face on the Barroom Floor” by Henry Mollicone was commissioned by Central City Opera in 1978 based on the famous Herndon Davis 1936 painting on the floor of the Teller House Bar in Central City, Colorado. Vegas City Opera’s production is an immersive presentation of the opera which highlights a jazz and country music influenced opera score. Based on a true story, this intriguing opera tells two tales separated in time, but parallel in characters and theme. Events in the past repeat themselves in the present, continuing the legend of the face on the barroom floor.

The opera will be presented at the Artisan Hotel, 1501 W. Sahara Ave in Sept. 27-28 at 8 p.m.; Sept. 29, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and if you want to make it an all day, or even overnight excursion, see it performed at the famous Amargosa Opera House, 608 Death Valley Junction, Death Valley, California, Oct. 19.

Tickets are $10 – $30. For tickets call 760-852-4441 or go to vegascityopera.org.

Vegas Theatre Company

This year Cockroach Theatre Company will produce its MainStage season under the name Vegas Theatre Company, reserving the Cockroach name for more alternative/developmental programming at the Art Square Theater at Charleston Boulevard and 1^st Street in the Arts District.

► “The Thanksgiving Play” by Native American playwright Larissa Fasthorse is a wickedly funny satire about a troupe of terminally “woke” teaching artists scrambling to create a Thanksgiving pageant that celebrates Native American Heritage Month. It plays Oct. 2-17.

THEATER

Still time to catch Super Summer

► Jeffrey Hatcher’s ingenious new thriller, “Holmes and Watson,” receives its West Coast premiere in a boldly atmospheric production at Vegas Theatre Company.

Sherlock Holmes is missing. Suddenly…a newspaper clipping arrives. A remote mental institution on an island off the coast of Scotland reports that three patients have been recently admitted, each claiming to be the late detective Dr. Watson must find out the truth. Nov. 13-Dec. 8.

Super Summer Theater at
Spring Mountain Ranch

Another opening, another show. Some seasons are opening, others are ending. Don’t miss your last chance for theater under the stars in 2019 at Super Summer Theater at Spring Mountain Ranch.

►“Noises Off” by Michael Frayn is possibly the funniest farce ever written and in the hands of Benjamin Lowey with Poor Richard’s Players you will be spitting out your chardonnay in laughter as you enjoy your picnic supper on the Green. Sept. 5-21. Tickets are $15 at www.purplepass.com.

Utah Shakespeare Festival

Another overnight excursion to Cedar City, Utah and …

► You can still catch Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy, “Hamlet,” at the Utah Shakespeare Festival through Oct. 12.

►Also playing through Oct. 12 are Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber’s pre-“Jesus Christ Superstar” hit “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and a touching comedy about suicide, “Every Brillant Thing” by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahue. The Sept. 21, 2 p.m. performance of “Joseph” will be a sensory-friendly performance designed especially for individuals with autism spectrum disorders or other disabilities.

All tickets for this special performance are half-price. Tickets for this special performance are only available by calling the Ticket Office at 800-PLAYTIX.

►Opening Sept. 12-Oct. 12 at the festival is Arthur Miller’s late classic, “The Price.” about the prices we pay for the decisions we make.

For information and tickets go to https://www.bard.org/ or call 1-800-PLAYTIX.

Arizona Opera

Worth the drive. The world premiere of “Shining Brow,” composer Daron Hagen’s retelling of visionary American architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s operatically dramatic early life opens the Arizona Opera season, Sept. 27-29 at Herberger Theater in Phoenix and Oct. 5 and 6 at the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson.

Purchase series or single tickets at www.azopera.org.