Theater News

John Doyle to Direct Three Sisters for Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Season Announced

John Doyle
(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)
John Doyle
(© Joseph Marzullo/WENN)

Tony Award winner John Doyle will direct a revival of Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, featuring a new translation by Sarah Ruhl, for Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park, October 24-November 21.

Doyle previously directed Company at the Playhouse, with that production transferring to Broadway and earning him a Tony nomination. He won a Tony Award for his direction of Sweeney Todd, and also directed A Catered Affair on Broadway. The design team will include Scott Pask (set), Ann Hould-Ward (costumes), and Jane Cox (lighting). Casting will be announced at a later date.

The Playhouse is celebrating its 50th anniversary season, with productions in two theaters. The Robert S. Marx Theatre will showcase Anthony Shaffer’s thriller Sleuth (September 5-October 3), directed by Michael Evan Haney, followed by The Three Sisters. The theater’s holiday production will be Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (December 3-30), adapted by Howard Dallin, and also directed by Haney.

The new year will begin with the world premiere of Walter Mosley’s The Fall of Heaven (January 23-February 20), based on his novel The Tempest Tales. Paul Gordon and John Caird’s new musical Daddy-Long-Legs will follow, March 13-April 10, about an orphanage trustee who offers a college education to an 18-year-old girl, with his only request that she must never know who he is and that she write to him monthly, though he will never respond. The final production in the Marx will be the Fats Waller revue, Ain’t Misbehavin’ (May 1-29).

The Thompson Shelterhouse season will begin with the world premiere of Victoria Musica (September 26-October 25), Michele Lowe’s play about a music critic who begins to suspect that a recently deceased cellist’s legacy and all of her extraordinary recordings are frauds. Edward Stern will direct. Next up will be the comedy, Sanders Family Christmas: More Smoke on the Mountain (November 7-December 31), written by Connie Ray and conceived by Alan Bailey.

Humorist and popular National Public Radio contributor Kevin Kling performs his play How? How? Why? Why? Why? (February 13-March 14), examining how tragedy can positively define a person’s life. It will be followed by David Bar Katz’s new play, The History of Invulnerability (April 3-May 2), about Jerry Siegel, the creator of the comic book character, Superman. Haney will direct. The Shelterhouse season will close with the popular Tom Jones-Harvey Schmidt musical, The Fantasticks (May 15-June 20).

For more information, visit www.cincyplay.com.