Performances to run March 2 - 18, 2012
Neil Simon’s Tony Award-winning comedy, The Odd Couple, which introduced the memorable characters of Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison, is coming to the Woodstock Opera House for three weekends (March 2-18), thanks to McHenry County’s oldest community theatre group, TownSquare Players (TSP).
Director Betsy Stemple of Marengo is leading the cast in the classic story of two friends – a neurotic neat freak newswriter (Felix) and a messy sportswriter (Oscar) – who find their friendship tested when they share an apartment after their marriages fall apart. Their different personalities, regular poker games with friends, and attempt at double-dating a couple of British sisters all provide the laughs in a show that won five Tony Awards during its original Broadway run of almost 1,000 performances. The Odd Couple has been the inspiration for everything from a female stage version to movies to TV shows to a cartoon series.
Performances of the comedy are scheduled for Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. from March 2-18. To purchase tickets, go to www.woodstockoperahouse.com, call the Woodstock Opera House box office at 815-338-5300, or visit the box office. Group discounts are available.
Curtains drop on TSP's rousingly successful production of
The Pirates of Penzance!
For a Jolly Roger good time, set sail for ‘Penzance’
Review by Deborah Skozek
The Woodstock Independent
For one evening, forget your financial worries, leave behind news of political unrest and allow the TownSquare Players to lift your spirits and transport you to a simpler and happier time — Victorian England. TSP’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance or The Slave of Duty,” with stage direction by Roger Zawacki and music direction by Betsy Stemple, proves a most pleasant diversion. The lively, fast-moving comic operetta showcases the musical talents of several individuals as well as an ensemble cast and orchestra conducted by Cody Halberstadt. With 2012 being a leap year and Johnny Depp‘s Captain Jack Sparrow popularizing piracy, TSP’s production is aptly fortuitous.
The simple and easy-to-follow plot makes this a family-friendly production. The 21-year-old Frederic, who was mistakenly apprenticed at age 8 to a band of tender-hearted pirates, instead of pilots, by his 47-year-old hard-of-hearing nursemaid Ruth, is released by the pirates in Cornwall where he falls in love with Mabel, one of the retired major-general’s nine daughters. In a twist of fate, the pirates discover Frederic must serve as a pirate well into his 80s since he was born Feb. 29 and apprenticed for 21 birthdays, not years. Returning for Frederic, the pirates want to abscond with the major-general’s daughters but spare him and his daughters because the major-general claims he is an orphan. Complications arise, the police are summoned, and swordplay ensues, but all ends happily. Read full article
