San Jose Stage Company this week revealed its upcoming 2019-2020 season.
The Rocky Horror Show kicks off the line-up which also features Stephen Karam’s The Humans, Broadway musical Chicago and Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County. See below for all the details and dates.
“Our 37th Season is filled with award-winning plays exploring the social, economic, and cultural forces at work in the new American consciousness,” said Founding Artistic Director Randall King. “Humanity’s innate sense to uncage or liberate ourselves is at the root of our season.”
SJ Stage Company is now in its 37th season and is located in the heart of downtown San Jose here in Silicon Valley (MORE: Stark Insider coverage of SJ Stage including reviews, videos, news).
Per the announcement The Stage is a “multi-award-winning theatre company, including the 2018 Paine Knickerbocker Award for continued contributions to Bay Area theatre from the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. The Stage has produced over 165 productions, including 16 world premieres and 47 new works and is ranked as the 2nd largest professional theatre and 8th largest performance arts organization in Silicon Valley (Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal).”
Regarding the 2019-2020 season, King had this to sum up:
“Richard O’Brien’s iconic rock musical THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW launches our Season and has paved the way to awakening the spirit for decades. Stephen Karam’s THE HUMANS – the 2016 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama – examines the provocation of our existential fears clashing with our resolve to do better. Bob Fosse’s musical masterpiece CHICAGO cannily exploits the seduction of sensationalized media and Tracey Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winner AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY explosively rocks the terrain of escaping the inescapable.”
WHAT’ S HAPPENING:
CULTURE & ARTSSAN JOSE STAGE COMPANY
2019-2020 Season
THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW
Book, Music and Lyrics by Richard O’Brien
October 2 – November 3, 2019This iconic cult-classic, ROCKY, has been paving a path to self-identity for decades as it follows sweethearts Brad and Janet on a journey to liberation. When the couple cozies in for the evening at the freakish mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a “sweet transvestite” scientist, they discover a much weirder and exhilarating version of life than they previously knew. An immersive experience— this rock-musical has audiences doing the “Time Warp” again and again.
THE HUMANS
Written by Stephen Karam
November 20 – December 15, 2019Driven by empathy and humor, this Tony Award-winning play creates a hyper-realistic view of life and the complexities of the “American Dream”. Breaking with tradition, Erik Blake has brought his Pennsylvania family to celebrate Thanksgiving at his daughter’s apartment in lower Manhattan. Unfolding over a single scene, THE HUMANS is a “delirious tragicomedy” (Chicago Sun-Times) by acclaimed young playwright Stephen Karam who “infuses the traditional kitchen-sink family drama with qualities of horror in his portentous and penetrating work of psychological unease” (Variety), creating an indelible American family portrait.
CHICAGO
Book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins
Script adaptation by David Thompson
February 5 – March 15, 2020Viscerally modern, CHICAGO — the longest-running show on Broadway — explodes with energy. In roaring twenties Chicago, Roxie Hart lands on murders row along with famed nightclub star Velma Kelly. Chicago’s slickest lawyer, Billy Flynn, is set to defend them and soon turns their stories into a media circus filled with flare to gain the public’s sympathy. As a timely satire on American justice and sensationalized journalism, Chicago relies on “fake news” to reconstruct public reality. This sharp-edged musical mixes the immortal style of Bob Fosse with infamous songs like “The Cell Block Tango”, “Mr. Cellophane”, & “All That Jazz” into a powder keg of a show.
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
Written by Tracy Letts
April 8 – May 3, 2020This Pulitzer-prize winning play erupts with biting wit. After the disappearance of their alcoholic patriarch, three sisters along with their partners, reunite in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY to console their razor-tongued, drug-addled mother Violet. As the family careens toward near-apocalyptic meltdown; old grievances are aired, family secrets unearthed, and new wounds are sowed. This provocative new American play unflinchingly—and uproariously—unmasks the challenge of escaping the inescapable.
Stark Insider hopes to see you out on the town at The Stage this Fall!
