Past Performances

Set at an elite university and explores political correctness and the reaction to triggers on campus in America today. When a star African-American professor faces accusations of racism from a student, the head of the college must intervene, setting off an explosive chain of events where each of them must navigate an ever-changing minefield of identity politics, ethics, and core beliefs.

A Raisin in the Sun teaches us about the value of dreaming big, the urgent need to fight racial discrimination, and the importance of family. Join the unforgettable members of the Younger family as they experience both tragedy and triumph in 1959 Chicago.

Irving Berlin’s ANNIE GET YOUR GUN is one of the most beloved musicals of Broadway’s Golden Age. It tells the story of sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and her tempestuous romance with fellow sharpshooter Frank Butler.  Acclaimed director Sarna Lapine will bring a fresh, modern approach to the story, incorporating elements from Dorothy Fields’ original book to create the strongest and most revolutionary Annie Oakley you’ve ever seen.  This musical includes such beloved songs as There’s No Business Like Show Business, Anything You Can Do, and I Got Sun in the Morning which will be performed by a country western, bluegrass band.

A legendary diva who forgets her lines. The non-famous, sometimes-actor paid to remember them. 

By popular demand, the hit of Bay Street’s 2018 New Works Festival takes its premiere bow! THE PROMPTER follows veteran actress Irene Young, who, after a forty-year absence, is returning to the Broadway stage. But now, she can’t do it alone; so the production hires a young actor to be her prompter. But, this isn’t her story, it’s his. Based on real events, THE PROMPTER is a funny, heartfelt, untold, behind-the-scenes look at Broadway through the eyes of a young dreamer.

Set during Hollywood’s notorious Blacklist, FELLOW TRAVELERS examines the relationship between legendary theater artists Arthur Miller and Elia Kazan and their close connection to Marilyn Monroe. Kazan directed several Miller plays, including DEATH OF A SALESMAN, and Tennessee Williams dramas, including A STREETCAR  NAMED DESIRE. Miller also wrote the modern classics THE CRUCIBLE and A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE. FELLOW TRAVELERS explores how the politics of the McCarthy era affected their friendship and how their friendship affected their work.

Set in the Jazz Age around New York City and the fictional Long Island towns of West Egg and East Egg, The Great Gatsby tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a self-made man who dreams of turning back time to regain his first love, Daisy Buchanan. In the process, the novel explores the culture of the Roaring Twenties, class in America, and the dangerous allure of the American Dream.

FROST/NIXON revolves around the landmark series of interviews between British journalist David Frost and former President Nixon three years after he resigned. It’s a battle of wits that pits a broadcaster against one of America’s most complex and wily presidents; a riveting story of the collision of politics and the media.

The revival of the beloved musical EVITA, will take a new look at the iconic Eva Perón and her ascent to the top as the First Lady of Argentina. Bay Street Theater will offer its signature treatment of a large scale musical – an intimate experience in a thrust theater that allows the audience to get close to the iconic characters and dig deep into the world of and story of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s masterpiece. The classic score features some of Webber and Rice’s biggest hits, including “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” “High Flying, Adored” and “Another Suitcase in Another Hall.”

It’s a delicate line between love and desire…

Esther Mills is a skilled African American seamstress and has her own successful business in 1905 making lingerie for both society ladies and “ladies of the night.” But she is lonely. As she searches for something more in her life, she unearths truths long hidden in the deepest recesses of her heart. All her relationships will be changed forever, from a poetic love with a Caribbean laborer working far away on the Panama Canal, to complicated friendships with different women in her life, to a growing bond with a Hasidic shopkeeper who shares his exquisite finds of fabrics and maybe something deeper.

Death of a Salesman, considered to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century, is a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play written in 1949 by the renowned American playwright Arthur Miller. Set in the late 1940’s, Death of a Salesman follows Willy Loman, a failing salesman, and his family as they face the harsh reality of their lives that they have been denying. As Willy spirals into mental disarray and fails to achieve his own dreams, he criticizes his son Biff for not being successful. As Biff faces his own disappointments, he confronts the family on his father’s unrealistic expectations for him and his inability to face the truth about their lives. Ultimately, Miller explores themes surrounding the uncertainty of the American Dream and the struggles that families face in the wake of a changing economy, both of which are as contemporary today as when the play was written.

Everyone needs to escape to the country sometimes! Join Rosalind, one of Shakespeare’s greatest heroines, as she travels into the merry Forest of Arden leaving behind the politics of the city. Disguising herself as a man and accompanied by her cousin Celia and Touchstone the clown, she embarks on a hilarious and romantic journey where she finds love, laughter, and maybe even herself. Shakespeare’s beloved comedy will be brought to joyful new life in a production filled with Jazz Era inspired music performed by a masterful cast.

When Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower seller, meets the imperious and attractive Professor Henry Higgins one night in Covent Garden, they agree to embark on a daring experiment together. Higgins wagers that he can transform the “deliciously low” Eliza into a lady fit for society by teaching her to speak more beautifully. Sparks fly in what becomes a funny and ferocious battle of the sexes, a struggle of classes, and a rollicking romance. Acclaimed director Michael Arden’s innovative new production will feature two pianos and fifteen actors who will bring the classic story to life in ways you’ve never seen before.  One of the greatest musicals of time, with a magnificent score featuring the beloved songs “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Wouldn’t It be Loverly” and “On the Street Where You Live,” this Fair Lady is a perfect musical for the whole family.

Margaret Meier is a gifted soprano on the verge of a major operatic career.  And she’s terrified.  When a handsome reporter shows up at her Chicago hotel room, this anything-but-diva-like diva is forced to grapple with every aspect of her life: her less-than-passionate marriage, her child, her ambition, her weight, and the price she must pay in this most demanding and irrational art form. Will Margaret succeed in mastering her career, men, and her own self doubt to release the star within?

Set in the 1600s in a Puritan village, THE SCARLET LETTER is an account of the life of Hester Prynne, a married woman who becomes a social outcast, when after an adulterous affair she conceives a daughter during her husband’s long absence. She is required to wear the letter “A” for adultery on the breast of her gown. Refusing to name the father, Hester is forced to live a life set apart from nearly everyone she knows. Thanks to the intervention of the Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester and her daughter Pearl are permitted to stay together. When Hester’s missing husband, posing as a doctor, secretly returns as Roger Chillingworth, the stage is set for a story of sin, tragedy, and redemption. This show explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

Atlanta, 1939. The premiere of Gone with the Wind. The party of the year. And everything is about to change. The wealthy and important Freitag family is looking forward to Ballyhoo, the lavish German Jewish country club ball, and all it will mean for daughters Lala and Sunny. But life turns upside down when their uncle brings home his new employee, a handsome Eastern European bachelor from Brooklyn. Everyone must confront their own beliefs, prejudices, and desires. The family will never be the same as they take a journey filled with comedy, romance, and surprising revelations.

The story follows a nearly 30-year-old writer named Rose Spencer who has just begun working for a literary journal called Asymptote. Her editor, Benjamin, knows he’s working in a doomed industry, but he can’t escape the requirements that he publish the drivel requested by his silent partner, who controls the magazine’s finances, or the philosophical sway of his fiancée, Sadie, who believes all new social movements are doomed to failure. 

When Rose suggests he allow her to cover the Occupy movement, Benjamin originally scoffs at the idea, then becomes excited by it, and then ends up taking credit for Asymptote’s role in the protest as it grows, morphs and eventually is cleared out of the park by the police. 

This funny and incisive new drama is about the meeting of America’s most exclusive club – the ex-presidents. Obligated to gather together on the day of Richard Nixon’s funeral, four “exes” and one “current” vent frustrations, revisit old grievances, and reveal the toll that it takes on any person foolish enough to seek the highest office in the land.

GREY GARDENS tells the story of Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, the eccentric aunt and cousin of Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis. It is based on the 1975 documentary by Albert and David Maysles, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2015. Set at the Bouvier mansion in East Hampton, this bold musical follows a mother and daughter on their hilarious and heartbreaking journey from glamorous aristocrats to notorious recluses in a crumbling house filled with memories and cats.

John Steinbeck’s classic American novel, Of Mice and Men is a compelling tale of friendship and survival in the time of the Great Depression. George and Lennie are two migrant farm workers who dream of one day owning their own piece of land. But when Lennie gets too close to the wife of the boss’s son, George must choose between protecting his friend and staying the course towards his version of the American Dream.

This Tom Stoppard classic will be directed by Gregory Boyd. Stoppard creates a smashing theatrical extravaganza with the wit of Oscar Wilde crashing headlong into song-and-dance, strip-tease, pie-fights, and brilliant wordplay. Set in 1917 and 1974 in Zurich, Switzerland, the play fantasizes how a British consul named Henry Carr (Richard Kind) encounters some of the most famous figures of the 20th century, including James Joyce, Tristan Tzara and Lenin, through an amateur production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Stoppard takes on the role of the artist in society in this exuberant and freewheeling comedy about art and revolution that is as fresh and thought-provoking as it is uproarious.

The drama explores the effects on family, friendships and sense of self after the young actress playing Juliet in a high school performance of Romeo and Juliet accuses her teacher Tom of what the newspaper calls “an inappropriate sexual relationship with an underage female student.” The play focuses on the four adults and on Nicholas, the teenage son of Tom and his wife Leigh, as they cope with accusation and trust. The show asks an avalanche of questions from the obvious “did he or didn’t he?” characters also discuss what “underage” means, since different states have different definitions, and what should be considered inappropriate behavior for a teacher and student. There is further consideration of how much drug use a parent should tolerate in a teenager, what friendship is about, how far spousal allegiance should go and how much doubt an outsider to the family should express.

Parker is a shy accountant with a big secret: his life is a musical. While everyone else lives their normal lives, he sees them bursting into song and dance numbers, accompanied by an invisible orchestra. His worst fears are realized when his boss sends him on the road as a tour manager for a singer-songwriter named Zach—what if his bizarre condition is discovered?

Instead, on the sly, Parker gives Zach the tunes from his own musical life…the tunes become hits, and Zach becomes a national sensation. J.T., Zach’s manager, is entranced by Zach’s newfound artistry and she starts to fall for him…while Parker finds himself falling for J.T. As the tour arrives on a national stage, Parker must choose whether to keep his secret, or the love of his life.

A fast-paced comedy set in a hotel suite in Cleveland, Ohio on the night of a major opera performance in 1934. The story revolves around the character Tito Merelli, a famous tenor who fails to appear, prompting a series of misunderstandings and chaotic events. The plot thickens as Max, a young man, is coerced into impersonating Tito to avoid financial losses from the audience’s tickets. This mistaken identity leads to humorous situations involving romantic entanglements and frantic attempts to manage the fallout.

A satire of several theatrical, literary and film genres, including Victorian melodrama, farce, the penny dreadful, Wuthering Heights and the Alfred Hitchcock film Rebecca (1940). Mandacrest Estate is the home of Lord Edgar, an Egyptologist, and Lady Enid. Lady Enid is Lord Edgar’s second wife, though he has yet to recover entirely from the passing of his first wife, Irma Vep. The house staff, a maid named Jane Twisden and a swineherd named Nicodemus Underwood, have their own opinions of Lady Enid.

Pseudolus, a Roman slave who is yearning for his freedom, learns that his young master, Hero, is in love with Philia, a virgin courtesan from the house of Marcus Lycus. Pseudolus sees an opportunity and strikes a deal with Hero: if he can procure Philia for Hero, he will earn his freedom. This sets in motion a series of comedic events as Pseudolus embarks on his ambitious plan.

In this brilliantly observed one-woman play, middle-aged Angela attempts to find a new life when husband Max leaves for a younger woman. Using a wonderful mixture of comedy and pathos, she recounts her journey back to happiness.

Set in a Cleveland, Ohio psychiatric hospital/rehab facility where she spent the last years of her life, Big Maybelle tells the audience the story of her breathtaking rise to world renown against odds almost impossible to believe.

Loosely based on the life of Carl Reiner, the story takes place in 1938 and focuses on a stage-struck, woman-loving young Jewish boy from New York named David Kolowitz. David works as a delivery boy in a sewing machine factory. His boss, Mr. Foreman wants to train him to take over the business. Meanwhile, David’s domineering parents want him to become a druggist. But David has other ideas; even though he has no experience, he dreams of being an actor. At his friend Marvin’s suggestion, David tries out for a part in a play, and somehow manages to get cast. Although discouraged by his parents and boss, he leaves their dreams and his devoted girlfriend Wanda behind and is soon performing as the leading man in a third-rate theatrical company while being seduced by the resident less-than leading lady, the daughter of the hammy artistic director. In his first performance, everything that can go wrong, does so in hilarious ways.

Betty is looking forward to spending a nice summer relaxing in a rented seaside house. Her plans quickly go awry when Betty realizes she is sharing the house with some disturbed individuals, including a possible serial killer and a man who flashes everyone. To top it off, there are odd voices coming from the ceiling that no one can shut up. A farce on America’s obsession with murder and scandal, Betty’s Summer Vacation is a disturbing yet darkly humorous play.

It’s December 1975 and Truman Capote is alone in his New York apartment, reeling from a crisis that cost him the elite social circle he adored. Drawn entirely from Capote’s own words, this funny and heartbreaking one-man play is an unflinching portrait of an artist at his breaking point, confronting the consequences of his most scandalous work.

A courtroom is presided over by The Judge, whose allergy medications make him so drowsy he repeatedly falls asleep. Later, he becomes so manic he eventually ends up stripping in the middle of the court. Meanwhile, The Prosecutor has to deal with his flamboyant and often difficult-to-control boyfriend Bernard, nick-named Bunny. Bunny unexpectedly comes to the court room, “bringing out the inner Queer Guy in the Judge and his Bailiff.[6] The gentile Defense Attorney is swapping racial slurs with his Jewish client, The Defendant. The Defendant suddenly comes up with a brilliant idea to solve all the problems in the Middle East.

Ken and Jed are living in Ken’s family home in Lebanon, Missouri, with Ken now having second thoughts about teaching English at the local high school this coming year. Longtime friend Gwen is heiress to a copper conglomerate who hopes to purchase Ken and Jed’s home, convert it into a recording studio, and kickstart a singing career. June is Ken’s unmarried sister, whose thirteen-year-old daughter Shirley may be John’s real motivation for returning to Missouri, the now married man having been one of June’s lovers a baker’s dozen or so years ago. Sally is Ken and June’s aunt, who has been carrying her late husband’s ashes in a candy box for the past year, prompting nephew and niece to suggest that now might be a good time to scatter them. Weston is stoned throughout the weekend. Oh, and there’s going to be someone’s funeral on the Fifth Of July

Focused on the Bradley String Quartet, created and overseen by the abrasive and tyrannical James Bradley. Beth, the cellist, has been approached by a rock superstar who has offered her, at a huge salary, an opportunity to teach him classical music, with the idea of incorporating it into his next album.

Jonny, the rock star, sweetly and winningly played by Gregory Wooddell, is a gentle soul, and not at all the archetype of a degenerate, drug-soaked, self absorbed pop celebrity, despite the gargantuan self portrait that dominates, like a rumpled guru, his Tribeca apartment.

He has depth, compassion and an honest desire to learn the music he has so far avoided in his gigantically successful life. Mr. Wooddell strikes all of these notes and more, and makes of Jonny a sympathetic and lovable person and—as it happens—a catalyst to uncover the many dissonances both between and within the members of the string quartet.