HTC's Landmark 40th Season Begins in October

This fall, the Hampton Theatre Company will celebrate a milestone — the start of its landmark 40th season — with the first of four productions at the Quogue Community Hall.

The HTC’s 39th season concluded with the most ambitious production in the company’s history: the bawdy and buoyant musical “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” Season 40 will include three mainstage plays chosen to deliver high doses of both comedy and drama to East End audiences, with casts expected to include veteran HTC actors as well as talented newcomers.

The 2024-2025 slate includes: “Now and Then,” a comedy-drama set during “last call” at a bar (October 17 to November 3); “A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play,” a holiday reading of the Dickens classic (December 13 to 15); “Boeing-Boeing,” a madcap 1960s-era bedroom farce set in Paris (March 13 to March 30); and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (May 22 to June 8), Edward Albee’s stage masterpiece, with Andrew Botsford and Rosemary Cline marking their 40th season with the HTC in the roles of George and Martha.

“I’m really looking forward to our team integrating many of the newer actors we’ve met and worked with over the past couple of seasons into our play rotation this year,” says HTC president Roger Moley. “A key to the long-term success of this theater, or any regional theater that relies primarily on local talent, is its ability to cast fresh faces alongside our veterans and nurture them as best we can. We do that through the audition process, of course, but we also look to initiatives like the Diana and Peter Marbury Scholarship, which each year provides financial assistance to graduating high school students looking to continue their commitment to the performing arts in college.”

He added that several Marbury scholarship winners have appeared in HTC plays in recent years, including Jamie Baio, who had a principal role in “Forum” and has been climbing the Off-Broadway ladder the past several years.

First up in Season 40 is “Now and Then,” a 2018 romantic comedy/drama written by Sean Grennan, a prolific actor, librettist, lyricist and playwright whose works have been produced hundreds of times around the world. The play takes place over the course of one night in 1981, as bartender and aspiring musician Jamie and his girlfriend, Abby, get ready to close down the piano bar where they work. Suddenly, a desperate customer named Jimmy bursts in and makes the pair an offer they can’t refuse: a pile of cash just to sit and have a drink.

As the hours get later and later — and a second customer arrives with new insights into Jamie’s life and his future — it becomes clear that this won’t be a night that Jamie or Abby will soon forget. At its heart, “Now and Then” is a story about love, choosing to follow one’s dreams, and the costs of the decisions we all make. Mary Powers will direct, with 13 performances slated from Thursday, October 17 through Sunday, November 3.

Continuing a December tradition in Quogue, several HTC cast veterans will gather onstage for a one-hour reading of “A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play,” Joe Landry’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens holiday classic, with music by Kevin Connors. The QCH stage, evoking the look and feel of a 1940s radio station, will showcase five to eight costumed actors performing multiple roles, with musical interludes, vintage mics and sound-effects props adding to the fun. Andrew Botsford will again direct. Performances will be offered December 13 to 15, and will feature complimentary holiday refreshments.

In the new year, HTC will present the 1960s-era comedy “Boeing-Boeing,” a madcap farce by French playwright Marc Camoletti. The story centers on an inveterate bachelor named Bernard, who lives in a Paris flat and is engaged to not one, not two, but three airline flight attendants at the same time. Life gets bumpy when Bernard’s friend Robert comes to stay, and complications like weather delays and speedier jets threaten to disrupt Bernard’s carefully planned romantic schedule. The original London production, adapted by Beverley Cross for English-speaking audiences, racked up more than 2,000 performances over seven years. The HTC production will be directed by Catherine Clyne, with performances scheduled from March 13 to March 30.

Finally, as an apt coda to a special season, HTC mainstays Andrew Botsford and Rosemary Cline will celebrate their 40th season at the theater as George and Martha in a new production of Edward Albee’s stage masterpiece “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” Winner of five Tony Awards including Best Play, and revived many times over the past 60 years to great success, the play revolves around the caustic, brutally contentious relationship between George, a professor at a small college, and his wife, Martha, daughter of the college’s president.

Having just returned home from an alcohol-fueled Saturday night party, Martha announces she’s invited a young couple — an opportunistic new professor named Nick and his naïve new bride, Honey — to stop by for a nightcap. As drinks flow and inhibitions melt, the conflict between George and Martha escalates, with both comedy and tragedy surfacing at critical junctures. With the nerve endings in George and Martha’s marriage exposed, Nick and Honey become privy to the painful secret that lies at the heart of their complex relationship. Longtime HTC veteran George Loizides directs; performances are May 22 to June 6.

All plays are performed in Quogue Community Hall. Detailed schedules, tickets and subscriptions for all upcoming Hampton Theatre Company shows — including special discounts for three-play packages — are available at hamptontheatre.org, or 631-653-8955.