The Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami will have one world premiere, Karen by Leonard Berkowitz, in a 2000-2001 season of revivals that will also see pre-Broadway engagement of Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound.
In Karen, which is to be presented in the intimate Encore Room at Coconut Grove, a young writer goes to work as a driver for an elderly man and is happy to find the man's beautiful daughter is living with him. Attracted by the daughter, and repelled by what appears to be her father's inappropriate behavior, the young man soon learns that the family is sharing a disturbing secret about their past.
Karen plays March 13-June 3, 2001. Also in the Encore Room will be Nilo Cruz's A Bicycle Country (Nov. 7-Jan. 28, 2001). The Cuban American, former South Floridian Cruz offers a love story about a Cuban man and his physical therapist.
On the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Mainstage:
• Master Class (Oct. 17-Nov. 12) by Terrence McNally, the bio-with music set in a fictional master class run by the late diva (played by Elizabeth Ashley). • Little Shop of Horrors (Nov. 21-Dec. 24), the comic sci-fi musical spoof based on the film by Roger Corman, with book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and music by Alan Menken.
• The Price (Jan. 2-Jan. 28) by Arthur Miller, a emotional struggle about responsibility between two brothers sifting through the clutter of family memories.
• Brighton Beach Memoirs/Broadway Bound (Feb. 6-March 18, 2001) by Neil Simon, bookend plays in Simon's semi-autobiographical trilogy, starring Linda Lavin as the harried matriarch, in a pre-Broadway run.
• Side By Side By Sondheim (March 27-April 29, 2001), the revue of songs by composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim.
• A Delicate Balance (May 8-June 3, 2001) by Edward Albee, the edgy, Pulitzer Prize-winning drawing room comedy about a WASP-y couple whose life is interrupted by their 40ish daughter and their bewildered friends.
For information about Coconut Grove tickets or subscriptions, call (305) 446-3857.
-- By Kenneth Jones
