This season, NY's Second Stage Theatre hopes theatregoers will look in on its Madhouse, listen to Two Pianos, and stay for some Bad Sex.

Three of the four production for Second Stage's 1997-98 season have been chosen, with the first, Two Pianos, Four Hands, already up and running at the Promenade Theatre space in the same building. [For more information on that musical show, see the news story, "Two Pianos Tickles Off-B'way Ivories, Oct. 30."]

The unannounced fourth slot at Second Stage may go to a revival by Wallace Shawn or Christopher Durang, or a new play by Wendy Kesselman or Susan Kim.

A Madhouse In Goa by Martin Sherman, began previews Oct. 21 and will opens Nov. 17.
The long-awaited American debut of Martin Sherman’s 1987 drama about political and sexual deception. According to Chris Burney, literary manager of the Second Stage, act one occurs on a Greek island, where a recent college graduate runs away from his life. He meets an older woman but has a gay encounter with a waiter. Act two happens 25-years-later -- and we learn that what we saw in act one was just a story written by a man who's suffered a stroke and can't communicate.

Judith Ivey (Steaming, Park Your Car In Harvard Yard, 1996's A Fair Country) will star. In London, Vanessa Redgrave played the lead. Also in the NY cast are Daniel Gerroll (Tony Walton's staging of The Importance Of Being Earnest, Psychopathia Sexualis), Denise Faye, Mark Kevin Lewis, Rick Stear and Russ Thacker. Sherman is the author of 1977's Bent and 1984's When She Danced, as well as Some Sunny Day and Passing By. Nicholas Martin (Oblivion Postponed, Full Gallop) directs. Burney has said that Goa had been planned for the previous year but was delayed to this season so Judith Ivey could star.

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After Goa comes Bad Sex With Bud Kemp by Sandra Tsing Loh (March 1998)

Slacker & yuppie alert -- it's a comedy about bad dates, bad restaurants and bad sex. Aliens In America was performed at Second Stage spring 1996. Loh a regular commentator on National Public Radio, recently did a solo show at the Mark Taper Forum titled Depth Becomes Her.

Second Stage shows are staged in the McGinn/Cazale Theatre above the Promenade Theatre on West 76th St. For subscription and ticket information on shows at the Second Stage Theatre, call (212) 787-8302.

-- By David Lefkowitz