October 5-20 2007 (Weekends)

Book by Terrence McNally Music & Lyrics by John Kander & Fred Ebb Directed by Gregory Allen

This innovative musical is set in the “Coney Island of the mind," on the ragged fringe of the New York show-biz world. Anna, the owner of a dilapidated roller skating rink on the boardwalk of a decaying seaside resort, has decided to sell her rink to developers and have them demolish the entire thing along with her sour memories.  Complicating her plans is her prodigal daughter Angel, who returns to town seeking to reconnect with the people and places she long ago left behind.  The rink becomes the arena in which mother and daughter examine their past, present and future.  The show showcases some of Kander and Ebb’s best musical numbers.

"A serious musical ... Terence McNally’s book is lean and hard even in its sentimentality McNally uses a very fluid time warp for his story ... The Rink ... provides much pleasure as well as real emotion." New York Post 

"A family relations saga that can be both tough and sentimental ... The Rink looks back at the period culminating in the 1970s with a perspective touched with humor." The Christian Science Monitor 

"Since the music and lyrics were supplied by John Kander and Fred Ebb, who wrote Cabaret, it is not surprising that the score is stuffed with bouncy, melodic songs that echo the jagged rhythms of Kurt Weill and the jaunty aura of the fairground." London Evening Standard

January 31 February 1 & 2 2008

4th Wall's New Musical Series Continues! 

Heaven Knows Book, Music & Lyrics by Charles Bloom Directed by Gwen Ricks-Spencer Visit Charles Bloom site.

This series will take a new "musical work in progress" and put it up on its feet in a bare-bones production, complete with a talk back with the creative team after each show. This season's production was chosen from a large selection of submitted scripts. 

 

Meet Kate...God is going to.

A neurotic NY actress, who thinks she knows it all, gets to spend 24 hours with Someone who really does: “all” as in the “Almighty,” that is. In an assortment of hilarious incarnations, God takes Kate on a “Holy Roller”-coaster ride through her life, loves & lunacies & helps her to learn, through tears & laughter that, about some things, "Father" really does know best. If there ever was a show with "mass" appeal, this is it!

 

New Series March  28 & 29 2008

Philemon Music & Words by Harvey Schmidt & Tom Jones Directed by Bruce McCandless

Our new series "Off The Wall," is a two night only event  that will explore the unusual and  the seldom seen.  This series takes 4th Wall's mission of producing lesser known works to a new level.  We start this year with Philemon.  This chamber musical set in the Roman city of Antioch traces the life of the clown Cockian. Having sunk to the depths of collaborating with the Romans he redeems himself (disguised as a Christian bishop from Egypt) by allowing himself to be martyred. A small cast and simple staging re-creates the concept of the mediaeval morality plays.  Schmidt and Jones are the incredible team behind The Fantasticks, I Do! I Do! and 110 in the Shade.

June 6-21 2008 (Weekends)

Book and Lyrics by Jim Luigs Music by Scott Warrender Directed by Bob Cline

4^th Wall invites you to kick back, laugh and have a good 'ole time!  Set in various locations throughout present day Texas, Das Barbecu is loosely based on Richard Wagner's massive four-part 20-hour opera cycle DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN - neatly compressed into a fun little two-hour musical comedy with 30 different characters portrayed by five actors.  Opera-lovers and opera-haters alike will enjoy this witty fable of love conquering greed set in the Lone Star State. Hilarious scenes spin around two sets of mismatched lovers who meet on the day of their shotgun double wedding and three generations of outrageous characters from two feuding families.  Complete with a magic ring, dwarfs, Siegfried, Brunhilde, Valkyries and guacamole, this is one opera (with Songs running the gamut from Broadway to Texas swing, from jazz to twangy country and western) not to be missed!

“…has been given nearly perfect form in "Das Barbecu," a slick, affable and perky retelling of Wagner's "Ring" cycle (or, more specifically, "Gotterdammerung") with a Texas twang.” Ben Brantley NY Times

"Conjure up your basic Texas hootenanny, complete with lassos, long neck beers, fringed leather and steel guitars. Now, if you can, marry that image with Wagner's Ring Cycle, in all its operatic, melodramatic intensity. These improbable, no impossible, bedfellows come deliriously together in this splendidly giddy musical." - Hollywood Reporter