Theater :: What's Coming to Rhode Island in 2013

2013 will bring a wide variety of theatre offerings for Rhode Island audiences. There will be classic Broadway musicals, dramas, comedies, and works from up and coming new playwrights.

From Jan. 1 through the 6th, Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) presents the smash musical "Jekyll and Hyde," starring "American Idol's" Constantine Maroulis and R&B superstar Deborah Cox.

After four years on Broadway and multiple world-wide tours, this dark love story from Tony and Grammy Award nominee Frank Wildhorn returns in a new pre-Broadway production that includes the classic songs ("This is the Moment," "A New Life," "Someone Like You").

From Jan. 15-20, PPAC will feature "Million Dollar Quartet," the Tony Award winning Broadway musical inspired by the electrifying true story of the famed recording session that brought together rock 'n' roll icons Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins for the first and only time.

This production features timeless hits including "Blue Suede Shoes," "Fever," "Great Balls of Fire," "I Walk the Line," and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On."

Green Day’s musical

"American Idiot," featuring songs from Green Day's Grammy Award-winning multi-platinum album, graces the PPAC stage from Feb. 8-10. "American Idiot" tells the story of three lifelong friends, forced to choose between their dreams and the safety of suburbia.

"Sister Act," the Broadway hit featuring a choir of singing nuns, will be performed at PPAC from Apr. 9-14. The songs were written by 8-time Oscar� winner Alan Menken ("Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid," "Little Shop of Horrors").

"War Horse," the Tony-winning anti-war drama set during World War One, will be presented from June 5 through the 9th.

U.S. premiere

Pawtucket's Gamm Theatre presents "Anne Boleyn" from Jan. 17 through Feb. 17. British playwright Howard Brenton ("Paul," "Pravda") puts a radically revisionist spin on the life and legacy of Anne Boleyn (Madeleine Lambert), Henry VIII's (Steve Kidd) notorious second wife, in this drama.

Traditionally portrayed as siren pawn or sexual predator, Brenton's "Boleyn" is witty and confident as she takes on the vicious world of Tudor Court politics to help create Protestant England and remake the world.

On Mar. 14, the Gamm will present "The Real Thing," from playwright Tom Stoppard. This multi-award winning play (Evening Standard, New York Drama Critics' and Tony awards) by the author of such masterworks as "Rock 'n' Roll," "Arcadia," and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" combines the playwright's brilliant wordplay and wit with poignant insights about the nature and mystery of love, commitment and authenticity. Fred Sullivan directs. The show runs through Apr. 14.

From May 2 through June 2, "The Beauty Queen of Lenane" will be performed at the Gamm. With savage irony, the first in Martin McDonagh's multi-award-winning "Leenane Trilogy" of tragicomedies - "The Beauty Queen of Leenane," "A Skull in Connemara," "The Lonesome West" (Gamm Season 21) - surprises audiences through to its horrifying conclusion.

Classic psychological tale

Providence's Trinity Repertory Company begins the year with a literary classic: "Crime and Punishment," by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Adapted by Curt Columbus and Marilyn Campbell and directed by Brian Mertes, the show runs from Jan. 17 through Feb. 24. The production will spin Dostoyevsky's classic psychological novel into a ninety-minute, three-actor tour-de-force with a modern, poetic flair.

"Social Creatures," from playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury, will be performed from Mar. 14 through Apr. 21. The show will be directed by Curt Columbus.

Warren's 2nd Story Theater presents a trio of prestigious shows, including "Amadeus," from Peter Shaffer, from Jan. 18 through Feb. 17, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," from playwright Dale Wasserman, from Mar. 8 through Apr. 7, and "The Rose Tattoo," from Tennessee Williams, Apr. 26 through May 26.

The Ocean State Theatre Company, based in Warwick, will present Neil Simon's comic fable "Fools," from Jan. 23 through Feb. 10.

"RENT," Jonathan Larson's Tony-award winning rock opera, will be presented from Feb. 20 through Mar. 17. "Rent" tells the story of a year in the life of a diverse group of friends and artists struggling to live in New York. It is a story of hopes and dreams, friendship and loss amid the chaos of HIV/AIDS in their community.

David Mamet's "Race," will be presented from Mar. 27 through Apr. 14. "Race" follows three attorneys, two black and one white, offered a chance to defend a white man charged with a crime against a black woman.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic musical "The King and I" will be presented from Apr. 24 through May 19.