Forest Roberts Theatre Season Announced

The 2004-05 season at Forest Roberts Theatre – titled “Be Our Guest” – will feature a Neil Simon comedy, the world premiere of a new black comedy, the musical retelling of “a tale as old as time,” and a comedy from French neo-classic theater.

The season opens Oct. 6-9 with Simon’s The Good Doctor, a “Saturday-Night-Live-like” collection of sketches based on short stories by Anton Chekhov. Originally produced on Broadway in 1973, it starred Marsha Mason, Christopher Plummer and Frances Sternhagen.

Burning Mona Lisa in the Reptile House by Mark Rigney of Evansville, Ind., is the 2004 Mildred and Albert Panowski Playwriting Award Winner. It premieres Nov. 17-20. Erin, a young lady with a shadowy past, begins her first day as the new intern in the Reptile House at the local zoo. Within minutes, she encounters Joe Nighthawk, who is tracking down an escaped cobra named “Sniffles.” Shortly thereafter the garrulous zoo director Steve Coplin bursts in, followed by the gruff head reptile keeper, Alice Dodgson. Add a “shadowy figure” to the mix and you have all the fixings for an Agatha Christie mystery.
 

The centerpiece of the season will be the Broadway musical based on the Academy Award-winning animated feature, Beauty and the Beast. The stage version includes all songs from the film, written by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman, plus new songs written especially for the Broadway version by Menken and Tim Rice.

Because of expected demand for tickets, there will be seven performances of Beauty and the Beast from Feb. 22-27.

Wrapping up the season is Molière’s acerbic comedy about religious hypocrisy, the generation gap, and middle-class morality: Tartuffe. It runs April 20-23.

Season tickets are available for $30 ($18 for NMU students) at the Forest Roberts Theatre, the Superior Dome, or Willy’s Snak Shak in the University Center. Visa or Mastercard orders can be made through EZ Tickets at 227-1032.