Audiences have five plays of note to choose from this weekend, which amounts to the opening of the 2006-07 theater season in the Tampa Bay area. The choices range from Broadway hits to edgy thrillers to a commemoration of those lost on Sept. 11, 2001.
Three Days of Rain
American Stage has the most recent Broadway offering, Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain, which played to sold-out crowds in New York this past season because Julia Roberts was in the cast.
Julie Rowe has the Roberts role, playing Nan Janeway, who gets together with her younger brother, Walker (Brian Shea), for the first time since the death of their famous architect father, Ned Janeway, for a reading of his will. They're joined by their best friend from childhood, Pip (Scott Lucy), son of their father's architectural firm partner, Theo Wexler.
At the center of the play is a house, and not just any house but "one of the great private residences of the last half-century.'' It's Janeway House, a lunar-looking structure on Long Island, a landmark in modern architecture.
In the second act, the actors are sent back in time and transformed into their parents: Theo and Ned and Lina, a Southern Belle who eventually married Ned. This encounter takes place during three days of rain in April 1960 when the design of Janeway House was conceived and, Walker believes, some kind of betrayal took place.
Here's the deal: Three Days of Rain opens Friday (9/8) and runs through Oct. 1 at American Stage, St. Petersburg. $26-$35; $10 student rush tickets 30 minutes before curtain. Pay what you can night is Sept. 26. (727) 823-7529; americanstage.org.
Frozen
This Bryony Lavery play began off-Broadway but soon made its way to Broadway in 2004 and was nominated for four Tony Awards.
In the Stageworks production, Monica Merryman plays Nancy, a mother whose 10-year-old daughter is abducted, raped and murdered. She shares the stage with Ralph (Richard Coppinger), a convicted child murderer, and Agnetha (Janet Salem), an academic who studies serial killers.
"Nancy's ultimate forgiveness proves more torturous to the killer than revenge,'' wrote Anne Marie Welsh in an essay on Lavery's play in The Best Plays Theater Yearbook 2003-2004.
Here's the deal: Frozen opens at 8 p.m. Friday (9/8) and runs through Sept. 24 in a Stageworks production at Shimberg Playhouse of Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa. $19.50-$24.50. (813) 229-7827; stageworkstheater.com.
The Guys
Anne Nelson's homage to New York firefighters who died in the destruction of the World Trade Center will be performed on the anniversary of the attacks by Jobsite Theater.
Paul and Roz Potenza appear in the production, which the company originally performed in 2003. This two-night revival benefits the Tampa Firefighters Museum.
Here's the deal: The Guys has a performance at 8 p.m. Saturday (9/9) at Clearwater Central Catholic High School and at 8 p.m. Monday (9/11) at the Jaeb Theater of Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa. $30. (813) 229-7827; jobsitetheater.org.
Bug
This play was postponed when it was supposed to be performed immediately after 9/11. The producers feared that Tracy Letts' dark comedy would be too unsettling for audiences because of its less-than-patriotic point of view.
In the Gorilla Theatre staging, Tim Seib plays Peter, a Gulf War veteran who thinks his body has been invaded by bugs as part of a government conspiracy. He's joined in a seedy motel room by Agnes (Jessica Ferrone), a crack addict on the run from her abusive husband. Paranoia ensues.
Here's the deal: Bug opens at 7 p.m. Thursday (9/7) and runs through Sept. 24 at Gorilla Theatre, Tampa. $15-$25; $10 student rush tickets 30 minutes before curtain. (813) 879-2914; gorillatheatre.com.
City of Angels
Cy Coleman was one of the great Broadway composers, with Sweet Charity, Barnum and The Life among his credits, and perhaps his greatest show was City of Angels, an exuberant score of 1940s swing, blues and jazz. Jason Tucker conducts and directs a community theater production at St. Petersburg Little Theater.
Here's the deal: City of Angels by Cy Coleman (music), David Zippel (lyrics) and Larry Gelbart (book) opens at 8 p.m. Friday (9/8) and runs through Sept. 24 at St. Petersburg Little Theatre, St. Petersburg. $10, $20. (727) 866-1973; splt.info.
