Theater News - September

STAGEFRIGHT by JAVIER

At Torn Space with Matt Rittler, Dan Shanahan, and Kalub Thompson

Well, another summer has gone by as quickly as ever, and another theater season is about to begin. There was certainly quite a lot to enjoy over the past three months.

Torn Space Theater offered Reveal, a new site-specific performance party celebrating the completion of the latest phase of construction at their space at the Adam Mickiewicz Library and Dramatic Circle on the East Side. It was a grand occasion! Intimate performances brought audiences to the Green Room, Back Bar, Lounge, Studio, Black Bathroom, Main Bar, and Dance Hall. Then, a few days later, Visit Buffalo Niagara hosted their most recent Industry Night at the venue: fifty guests from across the hospitality industry -- museums, theater, film, fashion, artists, special event promoters and volunteers -- came to learn how Torn Space connects with its diverse neighborhood while creating pioneering avant-garde performances. 

I mentioned months ago that prolific playwright Donna Hoke probably had it in her mind to perform one of her plays at every single space in town. Well, it is now time for the Lancaster Opera House, where her play Once in My Lifetime is running through September 6^th. The play’s subtitle is “A Buffalo Football Fantasy,” and I don’t want to jinx it but … go Bills! Smartly directed by Victoria Perez (de Maggiolo), the show features a superb ensemble cast: Pamela Rose Mangus (channeling the bartender Marie from the Flynn’s days), Devin Klumpp, John Vines, Nick Lama, Jon May, Melanie Stang, Johnny Rowe, and Michael Galante. Steve Brachmann and Davida Talbert brilliantly provide the off-stage commentaries.  This is not just a play for Bills fans (Aren’t we all? Even if I don’t usually understand what’s going on, I love it when they win!) but for all fans of Buffalo itself.

Shakespeare in Delaware Park triumphantly celebrated its 50th season while also mourning the loss of its founder, Buffalo star Saul Elkin, who passed away the day after the closing of Twelfth Night (which featured his daughter Rebecca as Olivia). The show must go on, and the 51^st season is already in the planning. Brendan Didio, who adapted and directed the fast paced and delightfully cast touring production of Romeo and Juliet, will be directing the main stage production of The Taming of the Shrew. Is there no end to that man’s talent? The 51^st season will also feature the seldom performed Pericles. And … save the dates, SDP’s holiday offering will take place on December 8th at Desiderio's Dinner Theatre, and the Fabulous Feast will be on March 14^th 2026 at Rich’s Atrium.

So, Shakespeare is not just a summer thing. Road Less Traveled Productions and Shakespeare in Delaware Park will be co-producing the Curtain Up show, The Book of Will.  Amidst the color and tumult of Elizabethan London, The Book of Will tells the true story of the publication of the First Folio after the death of Shakespeare, “a tale of love, loss, and laughter, that sheds new light on a man you may think you know.” Directed by John Hurley, starring David Marciniak, Gregory Gjurich, Peter Palmisano, Rebecca Elkin, Lisa Ludwig, Jeremy Kreuzer, Amanda Funiciello, Jake Hayes, Isaiah Brown, Norm Sham, Melinda Capeles, and David Lundy, the show runs September 19^th - October 19^th 

With Scott Behrend 

Speaking of Road Less Traveled, our best wishes and heartfelt prayers to my pal Scott Behrend who is on his way to a healthy recovery. Behrend was scheduled to direct Uncle Vanya in the fall, which has understandably been postponed to next season. In its place (November 14^th – December 14^th) will be Rajiv Joseph‘s Mr. Wolf, directed by Peter Palmisano, starring David Hayes, Peter Horn, Kristen Bentley, Camilla Maxwell, and recent NU graduate Lauren Farrow. Joseph also wrote Guards at the Taj, which had a successful run at RLTP starring Darryl Samira and Afrim Gjonbalaj in 2022.

The hilarious The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) is part of the Kenan Center’s Taylor Theatre 2025-26 season. Directed by Kevin Leary, the production will star a first-rate team of funny men: Jeremy Kreuzer, Brendan Didio, and Kevin Craig. Some interesting developments at the Kenan Center which has assembled an all-star Repertory Company for the 2026/27 season comprised of Aleks Malejs, Lynne Koscielniak, Ricky Needham, Sabrina Kahwaty, Christine Turturro, and Didio. The members are with the company during 25/26 for planning and selecting productions for the 26/27 season. The season opens with the gorgeous musical revue Rodgers and Hammerstein’s A Grand Night for Singing, directed by Leary, starring Anthony Alcocer, Aaron Gabriel Saldana, Brittney Leigh Morton, Heather Holden, and Sydney Conrad, October 2^nd-12^th.

Tickets are on sale for Starring Buffalo’s upcoming staged concert of Young Frankenstein, the hilarious musical based on the Mel Brooks movie, which opened (can you believe it?) 50 years ago! Leading the cast will be Broadway performers AJ Shively, Lindsay Nicole Chambers and Brandon Espinoza. They are joined by Jeffrey Coyle, Sam Crystal, Lily Jones, Kristen-Marie Lopez, Jamil Kassem López, Ricky Needham, Ashleigh Chrisena Ricci, and Matt Rittler. The show plays October 2^nd-4^th at Shea’s 710 Theatre, directed by Drew Fornarola, with music direction by Alison d’Amato, and choreography by Jeanne Palmer Fornarola. And, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Jonathan Larson's Rent, Starring Buffalo will present a one-night only concert production on Saturday, May 9^th at p.m. at Shea’s (yes, the mainstage!).

While the O’Connell & Company theater space is going through some renovations, the company will kick off their season at Shea’s Smith Theatre, November 21^st -- December 7^th with The Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes, directed by Todd Warfield, starring the regular “girls” Michael Seitz, Joey Bucheker, Michael “Bebe” Blasdell, and Matt Rittler. In case you don’t remember, the TV show first aired in the fall of 1985 (forty years ago!), just as Bucheker was graduating from college.

In anticipation of the upcoming production of Dreamgirls at Shea’s 710, there will be a panel discussion on Saturday, August 30 titled “Creative Power & the Business of Black Music.” The event, celebrating the artistry, entrepreneurship, and cultural impact of Black music, is inspired by the story behind the musical. Panelists include Naila Ansari Catilo, Yayi Dia, Shantelle Patton. Yuki Numata Resnick, Karen Saxon, and Ron Walker. Doors open at 5 p.m.; panel begins at 6 p.m. at Shea’s Smith Theater.  Free and open to the public. Originally created by Buffalo’s Michael Bennett and inspired by Motown and R&B legends of the 1960s-70s, Dreamgirls runs from September 10^th to 28^th.

With Russell Salvatore

David Bondrow and John Kaczorowski will be back together on stage (after starring in The Producers) in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, which opens at the Lancaster Opera House in February, directed by Tom LaChiusa. The company will open its season in October with the thriller Night Watch, directed by Bondrow, starring Candice Kogut (now Kogut-Lockie), Rick Lattimer, Gabrielle Nunzio, Scott Borish, Johnny Rowe, and Tara Kaczorowski. The play runs October 10^th - 26^th.  And it’s now confirmed, Buffalo’s John Scherer and Carter Riccio will be reprising their roles in A Christmas Story in December. The theater will be going through a multi-phase renovation which will include new seats, thanks in part to Russell Salvatore’s generous $50,000 donation.

Brazen-Faced Varlets will kick off the 2025-26 season with Gidion’s Knot, a play by Johnna Adams, directed by Lara D. Haberberger, starring Kristen Tripp Kelley, and the new darling of the Varlets, the fabulous Caitlin Coleman -- November 2^nd-22^nd at the Compass Performing Arts Center.

Ujima is kicking off the new season with their reimagining of Godspell, September 5 - September 19th, and they’re closing the season in June with the one-woman play Yalla Bitch, written by Ujima’s legendary founder, Lorna C. Hill. Acquiera Oshun will be playing the role originated by Hill herself, and marking an important milestone, for the first time in many years, Ujima will go on tour, performing the show in gardens across the Buffalo Area.

Alleyway is preparing to tickle our funny bones with The Cottage a "brand-new old-fashioned British farce" by Sandy Rustin that will play from September 6-27. Think Noël Coward in the 21^st century. Set in a lavish English country estate in 1923, romantic chaos erupts when Sylvia boldly confesses her year-long affair to both her husband and her lover's wife. Director David E. Shane helms an ensemble cast featuring some of Buffalo's most dynamic performers: Todd Benzin, Kelly Copps, Chris J Handley, Anna Krempholtz, Tracie Lane, and Dan Lendzian.

Coming up at Desiderio’s Tom Dudzick’s Shorts, three one-act comedies by Buffalo’s Dudzick featuring, Between Lives,  On The Road with Hank the Horse, and the world premiere of There’s no Business. Directed by Jay Desiderio, starring Brian Tabak, Marie Costa, Ian Michalski, Mira Stever, Randy Reese, Geno Delmaro & Collin Pellerin, the production opens September 10^th. The premiere play is set in “a rat-ass dinner theatre in Buffalo New York.”

Irish Classical Theatre Company starts their season with Or, by Liz Duffy Adams, running September 12 -- 28. The show promises a "deliciously dizzying (semi)-historical romp" through one pivotal night in 1666. The neo-Restoration comedy follows Aphra Behn, England's first professional female playwright, as she races against dawn to finish a play that could launch her theatrical career while navigating romantic entanglements with actress Nell Gwynne, complicated royal attention from King Charles II, and a potential assassination plot involving her ex-lover. Alexandria Watts stars as Behn, with Anna Fernandez as Gwynne, and Ryan Cupello in multiple roles including the merry monarch himself. The production is co-directed by Keelie A. Sheridan & Jorge Luna. Now Artistic Director of Brazen Light Theater Company in New York City, Cupello is a UB and Harvard alum and was locally seen years ago in the BUA production of The Temperamentals.

The fabulous Roslyn Ruff, a Buffalo Theatre District Plaza of Stars inductee, is back at Lincoln Center in New York, now starring in the U.S. premiere of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Good Chance production of the 2025 Olivier-nominated play Kyoto. Directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin, it begins October 8 prior to an official opening November 3. The show also stars Kate Burton and Natalie Gold. Ruff was last at Lincoln Center as Mrs. Antrobus in the revival of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of our Teeth in 2022.

By the way, a musical adaptation of The Skin of our Teeth, called The Seat of Our Pants, is set to open at the Public Theatre in New York this coming season. It won’t be the first time a Wilder play has become a musical. The Matchmaker became Hello, Dolly! Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones of The Fantasticks fame created a musical version of Our Town titled Grover’s Corners, which premiered at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, Illinois, in 1987. A live musical version of Our Town was broadcast on television in1955 starring Frank Sinatra as the Stage Manager, Paul Newman as George Gibbs, and Eva Marie Saint as Emily; the song "Love and Marriage" was written by Jimmy van Heusen and Sammy Cahn for this production. There is also an operatic version of Our Town, composed by Ned Rorem with a libretto by J.D. McClatchy.

Sneak preview! Everything is in place for actor Anne Gayley be honored with a star in the Plaza of Stars in the Theatre District. The official unveiling will take place on Monday, September 15^th at 5:30 p.m.

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