The Huntington Theatre Company 2001-02 season included names and Boston premieres, and they will follow suit with the upcoming 2002-03 season. Artistic director Nicholas Martin and company have officially finalized dates and the final of the six-show season — as previously reported (May 16), the musical Marty — set to play their Boston stages.
The dates and productions as are follows:
- Irish playwright Brian Friel adapts Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country for a production also helmed by artistic director Martin. Set on a quiet Russian countryside, a woman spurns her husband and her lover for the passion of her son's summer tutor. The production runs Sept. 6-Oct. 6.
- Marty, the Charles Strouse-Lee Adams-Rupert Holmes musical which has been in development for several years, will finally see the stage in Beantown. Tony Award nominated choreographer Rob Ashford (Thoroughly Modern Millie) told Playbill On-Line he is choreographing Marty starring John C. Reilly in the title role under the direction of Mark Brokaw. Based on the Oscar-winning 1955 film, the show focuses on a homely, unassuming Bronx butcher who wins a new lease on life through an unexpected romance. The tuner will play Oct. 18-Nov. 24.
- Broadway in Boston/Clear Channel Entertainment collaborate once again at the Wilbur Theatre — as with this season's Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme — to bring The Tale of the Allergist's Wife. Emmy Award-winning Valerie Harper reprises her Broadway role in the Charles Busch comedy directed by Lynn Meadow about a depressed Manhattan wife and the childhood friend who shakes up her life. The show will run in December.
- Huntington will debut the world premiere of The Blue Demon written and directed by Darko Tresnjak. The play with music by Michael Friedman follows the stories of a Jew, a Muslim, and a Christian who are all accused of the murder of the Sultan’s storyteller. If they cannot please the angered leader, they will be sentenced to death. Dates are set for Jan. 3-Feb. 2, 2003.
- Kia Corthron's Breath, Boom — which premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre then played Playwrights Horizons under the direction of Marion McClinton (King Hedley II, Jitney) — will receive its Boston premiere. The coming-of-age story spans 14 years in the life of a girl-gang leader through a rough home life to prison and back. The Boston staging will run March 7-April 6, 2003.
- Tony Award-winning actor Robert Sean Leonard is slated to play Henry Dewlip in the Benn Levy comedy Springtime for Henry. Martin also directs this production about a party-hearty playboy who is on the road to becoming a better man, or is he? Find out May 16-June 15, 2003.
For subscription information or more on the Huntington Theatre Company at 264 Huntington Avenue in Boston, MA, call the Box Office at (617) 266-0800. Also visit the website at www.huntingtontheater.org.
— by Ernio Hernandez
