Apple Tree Theatre will reunite Daniel J. Travanti and Tom Daugherty, the original cast of its 1999 hit, Old Wicked Songs, for a four-week remount of Jon Marans' play, at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights, IL, Oct. 18-Nov. 12. The critically-acclaimed play, about a Viennese vocal teacher and a young American pianist, has been a favorite of Travanti lately: He played the role May through July at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre.
Apple Tree Theatre artistic director Eileen Boevers directs. Travanti is best known for the TV series, "Hill Street Blues." His stage credits include A Touch of the Poet at American Repertory Theatre; The Aspern Papers in London's West End; Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Ambassadors Theatre, London; Othello at the New York Shakespeare Festival; Rhinoceros and Only Kidding at the Cleveland Play House; and The Taming of the Shrew at Old Globe Theatre. He also toured with I Never Sang for My Father, which was later filmed for PBS' American Playhouse.
Set in Austria in 1986, Old Wicked Songs tells the tale of an aging Viennese voice professor with a mysterious past and a new challenge to invigorate him. Travanti plays Josef Mashkan, the arrogant and combative instructor who takes on an equally strong willed young student, Stephen Hoffman, played by Daugherty.
Critics embraced the actors in the 1999 Apple Tree staging. Designers are Lindsay Jones (sound), Judith Lundberg (costumes), Shannon McKinney and Gina Patterson (lights) and J. Branson (set).
Tickets are $32. Metropolis Performing Arts Centre is at 111 W. Campbell Street in Arlington Heights. For tickets, call (847) 577-2121.
— By Kenneth Jones
