PREVIEW: 10 tHEATRE SHOWS TO ATTEND IN 2025
*This article originally appeared in our January 2025 issue*
Falsettos – Schenectady Light Opera Company is producing this Berkshire resident William Finn’s masterwork about family, relationships and the onset of the AIDS crisis. Director Melissa Mason-Lacijan has a cast of SLOC regulars and newcomers to play this beloved show which gets far too few productions. 1/17 - 1/26 @ Schenectady Light Opera Company
Once on this Island – Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York stages its largest production with this Ahrens/Flaherty classic folk tale. 25 BIPOC actors under Hettie Barnhill’s direction tell this mythical story of love and death. It marks a huge step in the growth of BTTUNY’s mission and happily, with their staging of this production, they have increased the diversity of the Capital Region’s stages tenfold. Must see! 2/6 - 2/16 @ theREP
The Witch – Union College is performing the latest play by newly minted Broadway playwright Jen Silverman (The Roommate) which is a feminist take on the powers and privileges of being thought to be a witch. Jasmine Roth who directed the kinetic You on the Moors last school year is helming this Jacobean adaptation and we are here for it even if we need to sell our souls for tickets in the studio space. 2/13 - 2/16 @ Union College Theatre
The Pillowman – Albany Civic Theater had an exceptional turnout of men, young and old, for their production of the rarely performed, pitch black, devilishly clever and wickedly funny comedy by playwright & screenwriter Martin McDonagh (The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Banshees of Inisherin). Director Ellen Cribbs had worried about the turnout of men (which all community and high school directors have worried about from time immemorial), especially after A Few Good Men cast over a dozen guys for their production 1/31 - 2/9 at Cohoes Music Hall, but it turned out not to be an issue. Hopefully, the interest in auditions will translate to the box office as well. 2/14 - 3/2 @ Albany Civic Theater
Heathers: The Musical – Playhouse Stage Company has taken the teen interest in Spring Awakening from last year and transferred it to Westerberg High where this movie adaptation musical was terrorizing its suburban school setting before mean girls could talk. “Dear diary, my teenage angst bullshit now has a body count.” 2/21 - 3/9 @ Cohoes Music Hall
Sunset Boulevard – Niskayuna High School is taking on the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical that is an adaptation of the Billy Wilder film about a faded silent film star who ensnares a young screenwriter to do her bidding in her Hollywood Hills mansion. Nicole Scherzinger of Pussycat Dolls fame is virulently receiving some flak on Broadway for being too young for the aging star Norma Desmond. We’re deeply intrigued how a high school is going to approach this story of a woman hanging on to her youth and vitality. 2/27 - 3/1 @ Niskayuna High School
Hamlet – Home Made Theater has been performing in numerous spaces since losing its home during the pandemic in The Little Theatre on the SPAC grounds. Instead of contracting and finding a small-cast play, they have gambled on the depth of the Capital Region talent and will stage arguably the greatest drama known to man. Director Dianne O’Neill and (in another roll of the dice) the fine actor Elizabeth Helmer is cast against gender type as the melancholy Danish prince. 2/28 - 3/9 @ Saratoga Music Hall
The Lehman Trilogy – theREP takes a big risk with this 3 1/2 hour long epic about the banking family that started out as humble immigrants and over the course of 200 years became a financial colossus whose failure brought the world economy to its knees. Three actors played out this epic on a frighteningly clever rotating unit set on Broadway and walked away with five Tony Awards including Best Play. It’s a huge challenge but you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. 3/7 - 4/6 @ theREP
Funny Girl – Proctors Theatre continues to bring the best of recent Broadway hits in 2025 with Parade, Shucked, and Come From Away among others scheduled but the one that everyone is buzzing about is Funny Girl directed by Michael Mayer because it features Albany High School & Carnegie Mellon grad and Regional Jimmy’s Award winner Annabelle Duffy. She is a Swing and understudying three roles including Miss Fanny Brice. Everyone knows she is the greatest star, she is by far! 4/1 - 4/6 @ Proctors
The Capital Region Festival of Theatre – The FIRST region wide celebration of the enormous depth of theatrical opportunities in our home counties. Four days, multiple venues from Fort Salem to Averill Park with stops in Albany, Schenectady & Troy involving thousands of participants with 100 events overwhelming all who don’t know how powerful theatre is in the Capital Region. 6/12 - 6/15 www.crftinc.org
