The Huntington Theatre Company 2001-02 season included names and Boston premieres, and they will follow suit with the upcoming 2002-03 season. Artistic director Nicholas Martin and company have announced five of the six plays set to play their Boston stages. Robert Sean Leonard and Valerie Harper are the names slated to headline the season.
Among the productions chosen were: (all subject to change)
Kia Corthron's Breath, Boom — which premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre then played Playwrights Horizons under the direction of Marion McClinton (King Hedley II, Jitney) — will receive its Boston premiere. The coming-of-age story spans 14 years in the life of a girl-gang leader through a rough home life to prison and back.
Broadway in Boston/Clear Channel Entertainment collaborate once again at the Wilbur Theatre — following this season's Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme — to bring The Tale of the Allergist's Wife. Emmy Award-winning Harper reprises her Broadway role in the Charles Busch comedy about a depressed Manhattan wife and the childhood friend who shakes up her life.
Tony Award-winning actor Leonard is slated to play Henry Dewlip in the Benn Levy comedy Springtime for Henry. Artistic director Martin directs the production about a party-hearty playboy who is on the road to becoming a better man, or is he? Irish playwright Brian Friel adapts Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country for a production also helmed by Martin. Set on a quiet Russian countryside, a woman spurns her husband and her lover for the passion of her son's summer tutor.
Huntington will also debut the world premiere of The Blue Demon written and directed by Darko Tresnjak. The play with music by Michael Friedman follows the stories of a Jew, a Muslim, and a Christian who are all accused of the murder of the Sultan’s storyteller. If they cannot please the angered leader, they will be sentenced to death.
In an interview with Playbill Boston's Christopher Wallenberg in February, Martin spoke of the upcoming season, mentioning all of the plays above and a new Broadway-bound Arthur Laurents play to be a co-presentation with the Lyric Stage.
For subscription information or more on the Huntington Theatre Company at 264 Huntington Avenue in Boston, MA, call the Box Office at (617) 266-0800. Also visit the website at www.huntingtontheater.org.
— by Ernio Hernandez
