It’s been 50 years since Stephen Sondheim’s A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM won its first Tony Award, and 50 years since the Chapel Street Players held their very first FUNdraiser, an annual fundraising event and show to benefit the CSP. 1963 also marked the year CSP fixture Renee G. O’Leary...
The cast of 12 ANGRY JURORS at Chapel Street Players. Some plays are designed to whisk you away to a fantastical world, an alternate reality where folks spontaneously break into song. And then there are plays like 12 ANGRY JURORS, Chapel Street Players’ spring production: an ultra-realistic fly-on-the-wall reality play. Originally set in 1956 and...
One of the measures of a successful Shakespearean production is the reaction of the audience — after all, poorly delivered Shakespeare loses both its poignancy and humor. Chapel Street Players’ THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, a straight-up comedy, leaves no confusion: it’s straight-up funny and entertaining, with few slow moments. The fast pace, a credit...
The Chapel Street Players’ (CSP) 49th FUNdraiser production is the horror-comedy midnight musical, The Rocky Horror Show. Richard O’Brien’s cult classic camp fest is about two conservative lovebirds (Brad Majors and Janet Weiss) who get entangled with a group of out-of-this-world freaks, led by the self-proclaimed sweet transvestite Dr. Frank N’ Furter. After leaving their...
I am not a fan of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW. I mean, I can understand why it’s campy, irreverent nature and out-of-control audience participation appeals to its ardent following, but it is simply not a show I enjoy seeing. So it is a tremendous testament to the quality and energy of the Chapel Street Players’...
Tom Stoppard’s 1982 play, The Real Thing, is a beautifully constructed kaleidoscope which shows us how relationships ebb and flow and gives us the fly-on-the-wall view that would never be possible to have in real life. The play has so many British cultural references that the cast took the challenge and all mastered some very...
Posted by Angela Dalecki Wendy Wasserstein’s comedic play ISN’T IT ROMANTIC follows two friends in their late twenties as they try to navigate the harsh waters of romance and careers in 1980s Manhattan. One is Janie Blumberg (Madi Houff), a Jewish freelance writer struggling to establish independence from her well-meaning but occasionally overbearing parents (Rachel...
Although Neil Simon wrote The Gingerbread Lady in 1970, many of its themes – dysfunctional relationships, co-dependency, alcoholism, unemployment, and the fear of growing older – will resonate with today’s audiences. All of these topics are fully explored during the dramedy now playing at Chapel Street Players. Evy, a once celebrated cabaret singer, returns to...
Neil Simon is best known for light comedies like The Odd Couple and Brighton Beach Memiors; THE GINGERBREAD LADY, the current offering from The Chapel Street Players in Newark, Delaware, is, by contrast, a heavy drama about addiction, abuse and fading youth. To be sure, there is wit and humor in the piece, but this...
Before we get to the gritty details, let’s get right to the point: if you have a free night this weekend, you should be headed to Newark, Delaware, to see THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE at Chapel Street Players. I think most of the audience expected the show to be a comedy (it isn’t, though...
