[caption id="attachment_46578" align="alignnone" width="480"] Jonathan Tolins’ “The Forgotten Woman” will open Bay Street Theater’s Mainstage season. Joey Stocks photo.[/caption]
On Thursday, Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor announced two of its three 2016 Mainstage Summer Season productions. “The Forgotten Woman,” a world premiere, and “My Fair Lady” will be two theater offerings for South Fork residents this summer.
The Mainstage season will open with “The Forgotten Woman,” a new play by Jonathan Tolins, on May 31. The production will be directed by Noah Himmelstein.
Margaret Meier is a gifted soprano on the verge of a major operatic career. And she’s terrified. When a handsome reporter shows up at her Chicago hotel room, this anything-but-diva-like diva is forced to grapple with every aspect of her life – her less-than-passionate marriage, her child, her ambition, her weight, and the price she must pay in a most demanding and irrational art form.
The second Mainstage show announced is “My Fair Lady,” with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, music by Frederick Loewe, and adapted from George Bernard Show’s play and Gabriel Pascal’s motion picture “Pygmalion.” Considered by many to be one of the greatest musicals of all time, “My Fair Lady,” tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower seller who takes speech lessons from Henry Higgins, a Professor of Phonetics, in order to pass as a lady. Their relationship, which starts on a bet as student and pupil, becomes much more than either of them could ever have expected. This timeless romance is about transformation, the battle of the sexes, and class. Bay Street’s intimate production will feature a two piano arrangement of the beloved score and an up close perspective that will bring out the humanity and complexity of the characters and relationships for a new vision of this classic musical.
A third play or musical to complete the 2016 Summer Mainstage Season will be announced soon.
“I am thrilled to announce two of the three shows for the 25th Anniversary Summer Mainstage Season at Bay Street,” says Artistic Director Scott Schwartz, “These two productions continue to affirm Bay Street’s commitment to new works and visionary new productions of great classics. They also both focus on strong and complex women, and in Margaret Meier and Eliza Doolittle we will get to spend the summer with two great female characters. Our 25th season will be full of an exciting array of diverse work, and will be one of our best yet.”
For more information or to o purchase a 2016 Mainstage Season subscription, log on to baystreet.org or call the Box Office at (631) 725-9500.