Hey, freeFall announced their new season last Friday night — and it looks like their theme, A Brighter Tomorrow, is intended to give us some hope for the future.
“The characters in each play leave the world a better place than when the play began,” freeFall's Artistic Director Eric Davis wrote in a press release. “The selections encompass diverse genres, settings and themes, but each finds a way to remind us of our common humanity.”
Let's take a look.
The Fantasticks
This is the longest-running musical in the world, with books and lyrics by Tom Jones, and it deals with two kids from dueling families who fall in love. No, it's never been criticized for being too original, but the themes are universal and the songs are ones you know, even if you don't know you know them. Sept. 22-Oct. 21.
Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some)
John K. Alvarez, Michael Carleton and James Fitzgerald have written the ultimate Christmas crossover play. Rudolph, Charlie Brown, Ebenezer, you get the idea — all come together to perform, as the title suggests, every Christmas story ever told. That includes traditions from every corner of the globe, ancient icons and a buttload of Christmas carols. Not that we don't all want to see It's a Wonderful Life again... Dec. 1-Dec. 30.
Perfect Arrangement
Topher Payne's play about two State Departments staffers ordered to uncover "moral turpitude" inside the government during the Red Scare era sounds not-so-bright at all, but consider this: the two staffers are not only gay, they're married to each other's partner. freeFall describes it as a "bubbly cocktail party-meets-TV sitcom" — with a "shared closet door." That last part is literal: the couples share a closet door. #ArtisticLicense, we guess. Jan. 26-Feb. 24., 2019.
Crumbs From the Table of Joy
Pultizer Prize-winning Lynn Nottage travels back to the 1950s, where a widowed African-American father seeks peace with a mission, going so far as to move his teen girls from Florida to Brooklyn to be close to the mission — and remarries a German woman. This melodrama is told from the elder teen's perspective. Mar. 23-Apr. 14, 2019.
Buyer & Cellar
A one-man show about a struggling actor working in the basement of a "beloved megastar" (Barbra Steisand). The two bond and face the sorts of foibles one does when one falls for Babs and one is not James Brolin, Elliott Gould or Pierre Trudeau. May 11-June 9, 2019.
World Premiere: Under Fire
War photog Rusell Price burns out after covering one African civil war after another, so he meets up with two other journos to report on a revolution in El Mirador. When they get caught up fighting alongside the revolutionaries, the journalists must face ethical questions about journalistic integrity and the greater good. Although fictionalized, this is based on the true story of Bill Stewart, an ABC news reporter killed by the Nicaraguan National Gard during the Nicaraguan War. Jul. 13-Aug. 4, 2019.
