With a multitude of costumes and a musical tour-de-force ending, A Chorus Line veteran Priscilla Lopez portrays the six diverse mothers of a graduating class of high school students in Eric H. Weinberger's one-woman comedy, Class Mothers '68, opening Dec. 9 following previews from Nov. 25 at Off-Broadway's Clurman Theatre.
Lopez embodies disparate mothers planning a musical production to be performed in tribute to their kids, who are graduating from high school in 1968. They are a varied group of women: a frustrated community theatre director, a marriage-making yente, a sexy, seductive divorcee, a Holocaust survivor, an overwrought sculptor's wife and a Puerto Rican seamstress. Performance continue to Feb. 9, 2003.
The children are seen only through their yearbook photos. Lopez changes characters and costumes in full view of the audience. The finale of Class Mothers is the actual musical production, featuring Tony Award-winner Lopez singing and dancing her way through all six parts.
Jeremy Dobrish directs. Among Dobrish's most recent credits are the recent version of the farcical comedy revue, The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) and Prague-nosis by Jeff Goode, the latest bit of tomfoolery from Off Broadway's adobe theatre company, where Dobrish is artistic director.
Lopez was, of course, in the original production of A Chorus Line (for which she was Tony nommed as Morales). She won a Tony Award for A Day in Hollywood…. Lately, she's appeared Off-Broadway in such shows as The Passion of Frida Kahlo and newyorkers. Lopez worked with playwright Weinberger in creating Class Mothers, basing the seamstress' experiences on her mother. The Holocaust survivor is based on Weinberger's mother.
Thommie Walsh, Tommy Tune's frequent collaborator, is providing the choreography. Walsh and Lopez worked together on A Chorus Line and in A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine.
Class Mothers '68 tickets are $45. The Clurman Theatre is located at 410 West 42nd Street at 9th Avenue. For reservations, call (212) 279-4200.
— By Robert Simonson
and Christine Ehren
