Playhouse Stage Company has opened their 36th season presenting the beloved story of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Based on the children’s novel by Barbara Robinson, the musical adaptation will be presented at Cohoes Music Hall outside Albany.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever was first published in 1971, and has since become a children’s classic holiday story. After a nearly sold out run in 2017, Playhouse Stage Company continues to present the show each year for holiday audiences in the Capital Region.
The story follows the “horrible Herdmans,” a rowdy family keen on joining the local Sunday School Christmas pageant. With humor, song, and heartwarming moments, the production brings laughter and holiday cheer to audiences all over. This year’s cast features 7 local professional actors, alongside 13 local Playhouse Stage Academy students in age appropriate roles.
The show will run from December 1-23, with 7PM performances on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and 2PM performances on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever are on sale through The Cohoes Music Hall Box Office, by phone at 518-434-0776, or online at www.playhousestage.org.
Playhouse Stage Company has announced its 36th Season, presenting both professional and youth musical theatre to the Capital Region. The upcoming lineup features four shows to be presented at Cohoes Music Hall and Albany’s Park Playhouse, as well as productions for schools and young people in the community.
The season will kick off in time for the holidays with the musical adaptation of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, running from December 1-23 at Cohoes Music Hall. The classic story by Barbara Robinson follows the “horrible Herdmans,” the rowdy bunch who force their way into the annual Christmas pageant, and transform the story into an unexpected extravaganza.
The group will present Spring Awakening, running from April 12-28, 2024. Featuring a cast of advanced teen students alongside professional actors, Spring Awakening showcases a fearless approach to taboo topics. A winner of eight Tony Awards, the timeless musical is based on the 19th century German book of the same name.
Next summer will begin at Cohoes Music Hall with the musical The Marvelous Wonderettes. Running from June 28-July 24, 2024, this 1950s and 60s musical brings fabulous harmonies and fashions as four friends take the stage at their high school prom with a jukebox full of hits.
Finally, the company will return to Park Playhouse for the fan favorite Legally Blonde: The Musical. Based on the book and hit 2001 film, the musical follows Elle Woods, a fashion-forward, hard-working young woman as she embarks on a journey through Harvard Law. Legally Blonde will run from July 16-August 18, 2024.
With this season’s productions, our goal is to continue exceeding audience expectations with first-rate musical theatre that’s both entertaining and engaging. This season, we’re offering a lineup of shows that, each in their own way, invite audiences to reflect on, reconsider and redefine how they see the world around them. With a mix of the region’s most talented young performers from our Playhouse Stage Academy, local and regional professional actors and musicians, and a world-class design and creative team, we’ll once again work hard to prove to audiences why we were dubbed ‘Broadway in the Capital Region’s backyard’ when we were founded all the way back in 1989.
Playhouse Stage Co. Producing Artistic Director Owen Smith
In addition to the mainstage offerings, the Playhouse Stage Company will offer two shows geared towards children: Grace for President, and Disney’s Finding Nemo Jr. Both perfect for family audiences, Grace for President will run from February 26-March 22, 2024. Finding Nemo Jr. will run from August 21-25, 2024 at a new outdoor venue to be announced.
Four-ticket Flex Packs that can be used for any of the company’s mainstage productions will go on sale Saturday, September 30 online playhousestage.org and thecohoesmusichall.org, or by phone at (518) 434-0776. Tickets to individual productions will go on sale later in the season. For more information, audiences can visit www.playhousestage.org.
Beginning June 29, Playhouse Stage Company will present their 36th Anniversary musical production Something Rotten at Albany’s Park Playhouse, a Renaissance-set comedy about a down-on-his-luck writer trying to best William Shakespeare by writing the world’s first musical. The production plays Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8pm from June 29 through July 22. Playhouse Stage Company will hold an opening night Gala pre-show on June 29, where they will make a special announcement.
Playhouse Stage Company has been producing free summer musicals at Albany’s Park Playhouse in Washington Park since 1989, producing musicals year-round at Cohoes Music Hall since 2016, and took the reins as management of the historic Spindle City venue in 2020.
The Broadway premiere of Something Rotten took place in 2015, and it garnered a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Musical while enjoying a successful two-year run. The book is written by John O’Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick, with a score and lyrics by Karey & Wayne Kirkpatrick.
The story follows the Bottom brothers, Nick and Nigel, who struggle to find success in the theatrical world as they compete with the wild popularity of their pompous contemporary, “The Bard,” William Shakespeare. When Nick Bottom visits a Soothsayer to discover what the hottest thing in theatre will be in the future, he sets out to write a musical with disastrous results. The show sparks comparison to other bawdy, raucous Broadway comedies including Monty Python’s Spamalot, The Book of Mormon, and Mel Brooks’ The Producers. In an homage to its Renaissance setting, Time Out NY called the show “the funniest musical in at least 400 years.”
The show reunites frequent creative staff collaborators Michael LoPorto (Director), AshleySimone Kirchner (Choreography & Musical Staging), and Brian Axford (Musical Director). Together, the trio have helmed more than a dozen shows for Playhouse Stage. 22 local and regional performers make up the cast, and Axford will lead a twelve-piece band. 12 out of the 22 cast members are graduates of the Playhouse Stage youth theatre program.
The cast is led by Vincent DiPeri (Nick Bottom), who returns to the Playhouse for the first time in eight years after receiving critical acclaim for his performances in The Producers, Hairspray and others. Alongside DiPeri as Bottom’s nemesis William Shakespeare is Steve Raymond, who won strong reviews in the Playhouse’s productions of Spamalot, Spelling Bee and more. Since last appearing on the Playhouse stage, Raymond has developed a significant social media following for his comedy content, with more than three million followers across TikTok, Instagram and other platforms. Rounding out the cast are Playhouse veterans Molly Rose McGrath (Bea Bottom), Marc Christopher (Nostradomus), Daniel Jameson (Nigel Bottom), Brandon Jones (Brother Jeremiah), and Anna Sprau (Portia), in her PSC debut.
Amphitheater lawn seating at Park Playhouse is available for free on a first-come, first-served basis. Premium Reserved Seats are now on sale online, by phone and in person. For more information about the show and Playhouse Stage Company, visit their website here, or call the box office at 518-434-0776.
For media inquiries, to arrange press comps, or to receive production photos and video, please contact Owen Smith, Producing Artistic Director at owen@playhousestage.org or by phone at 518-434-2035, extension 100.
Playhouse Stage Company announced the regional premiere of the hit musical The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, featuring teens from the Playhouse Stage Academy training program, at the Cohoes Music Hall.
The Playhouse Stage Company has been producing free summer musicals at Albany’s Park Playhouse in Washington Park since 1989, producing musicals year-round at Cohoes Music Hall since 2016, and has since become manager of the historic Spindle City venue in 2020. They are celebrating their 35th anniversary with a great lineup of events for the season. The company makes theater an all-inclusive art form by providing free and affordable admission at each production, welcoming people from all walks of life and socio-economic backgrounds. The company also provides arts education programs to young people in the community with Playhouse Stage Academy.
The Cohoes Music Hall opened its door in 1874 in Cohoes. It was restored in 1974 to become what it is today, a historic music hall with a great lineup of events. In late December of last year, the venue was awarded $1.88 million in funding through New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation grants, transforming it into an energy-efficient building. The Lightning Thief production begins on April 13 and runs to the 23, reuniting Director Chuck Kraus, Choreographer Ashley Simone Kirchner, and Musical Director Brandon Jones, who has worked on more than a dozen teen productions at both Albany’s Park Playhouse and Cohoes Music Hall for Playhouse Stage Company.
The LightningThief is a rock musical adapted from the best-selling young adult novel by Rick Riordan of the same name. It was first produced by Theatreworks USA as a one-hour “theatre for young audiences” production in 2014, in 2017 an expanded two-act version premiered at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and was a critically acclaimed hit, and in 2019, there was a limited engagement on Broadway. The show features a thrilling rock score with music and lyrics by Rob Rikicki and a book by Joe Tracz.
The novel follows Percy Jackson, a troubled young man struggling with dyslexia and ADHD, who finds himself expelled from five schools in a few years. He comes to learn he is the half-blood son of a Greek God and finds himself at “Camp Half-Blood,” where he and his friends are sent on a quest by the Oracle of Delphi to uncover the truth behind the theft of Zeus’s lightning bolt. “The Lightning Thief is an epic story that is ideal to be performed by our gifted teen students,” said Owen Smith, Playhouse Stage Company’s Producing Artistic Director. “Fans of the book series will revel in the loyalty to the original book, while the average audience member will be enthralled not only by the cast of colorful characters and rock score but also how personal and relatable the story is.”
The cast is led by AJ Halsey (Percy Jackson) and Joshua Hoyt (Grover), who received strong reviews for their performances in last summer’s The Wedding Singer at Park Playhouse, as well as Molly Kantrowitz (Annabeth Chase) who is playing her first principal character for Playhouse Stage. The cast features eighteen of the area’s most talented teen performing artists, hailing from all corners of the Capital Region. Those who have graduated from the Playhouse Stage Academy have gone on to study in top collegiate theatre programs, and to appear on Broadway, film and television, or national tours.
The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical plays April 13 through 23, 2023, at Cohoes Music Hall. Performers play Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are now on sale online, by phone, and in-person through the Playhouse Stage Box Office at Cohoes Music Hall.
