Pasadena Playhouse introduced a 2025-26 season Thursday led by Jonathan Spector’s satire “Eureka Day,” a newly minted Tony Award winner for finest revival of a play, which facilities on a mumps outbreak at a progressive personal faculty in Berkeley whose PTA tries to give you a vaccine coverage that fits everybody — to hilarious leads to an period of vaccine skepticism.
“In these times we need laughter and we need to be able to think critically about ourselves,” Playhouse inventive director Danny Feldman mentioned. “An audience laughing together is such a good entrance to heavy themes and big ideas.”
Subsequent up will probably be Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus,” which opened in 1979 and gained the Tony for finest play in 1981 with Ian McKellen successful lead actor honors. Director Miloš Forman made it right into a 1984 movie, which gained eight Oscars together with finest image. Shaffer additionally gained an Oscar for finest tailored screenplay. The story is a fictional account of the contentious relationship between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his rival, Antonio Salieri, the courtroom composer of the Austrian emperor.
Calling “Amadeus” one of many nice items of historic fiction for theater, Feldman mentioned it’s a present he’s been planning for the Playhouse for fairly a while.
One other Feldman favourite, and the third present on subsequent season’s calendar, is a world-premiere adaptation of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s 1947 musical, “Brigadoon.” The difference, by Alexandra Silber, stays true to the unique, Feldman mentioned, however “really puts it forward for today’s audience … with covert but impactful changes that sharpen it in an exciting way.”
The 2-person hip-hop musical, “Mexodus,” rounds out the principle stage choices. A fifth present will probably be introduced at a later date.
Written by and starring Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, “Mexodus” explores the little identified historical past of the Underground Railroad to Mexico. Utilizing looped musical tracks that the boys lay down reside throughout the present, the manufacturing follows the journey of an enslaved man who flees south and meets a rancher.
“It’s more of a musical experience than a traditional musical, so it’s very genre busting and innovative,” Feldman mentioned of the method used to carry the music to life. “It’s a bit of a magic trick.”
Two household exhibits are on the schedule: “The Song of the North,” created, designed and directed by Hamid Rahmanian for kids ages 6-12; and “The Lizard and El Sol,” initially developed and produced by the Alliance Theater in Atlanta for ages 5 and youthful.
The previous will probably be introduced on the Playhouse’s principal stage, which is a departure from previous household programming. “The Song of the North,” primarily based on a traditional Persian love story and introduced close to the Iranian New 12 months, guarantees breathtaking visuals via the usage of 483 handmade shadow puppets wielded by proficient puppeteers.
“The Lizard and El Sol,” staged at native parks in addition to within the Playhouse courtyard, tells the charming story of a lizard in the hunt for the newly lacking solar. It’s primarily based on a Mexican folktale and introduced largely in Spanish, though it may be loved by non-Spanish audio system too, Feldman mentioned.
“We don’t look at our family programming as separate,” says Feldman. “It’s really core to our mission.”
The season announcement comes throughout a banner yr for Pasadena Playhouse. The State Theater of California celebrated its one hundredth anniversary in Might, and in April it introduced it had raised $9.5 million to purchase again the historic campus it misplaced to chapter in 1970 — placing the corporate in command of its destiny for the primary time in additional than 50 years.
“As we purchased our building and came into this moment of thinking about the next century, it felt like there was a very big assignment with this season,” Feldman mentioned. “How are we turning the corner into our next chapter?”
His reply: “An expansion and continuation of what I think we do best at the Playhouse,” which is to consider the presentation of artwork and theater via a California lens.
Feldman mentioned that with it being the state theater, he feels a singular accountability to make sure that the work introduced on the Playhouse stage engages with the world — however that it’s also theater for everybody.
“What I love about this year is that it really is the full spectrum,” Feldman mentioned. “Comedies and tragedies and musicals and plays — old things and new things and kids’ things.”
For tickets and extra details about the upcoming season, go to pasadenaplayhouse.org.
