Cape Rep Theatre’s 2024 Season Hits All The Marks

Cape Rep Theatre’s 39th season opens May 1 and features a must-see line-up of productions with something for everyone. Be sure to get your tickets in advance, because this season of American classics, swashbuckling adventures, award-winning musicals, comedy and new works is not to be missed.

The season begins on the indoor stage May 1 to June 2 with a fresh, small-cast contemporary production of “Our Town,” Thornton Wilder’s American classic, directed by Cape Rep Associate Artistic Director Maura Hanlon. There’s a very good reason why “Our Town” has been described as “the greatest American play ever written.” This exploration of the fictional American town of Grover's Corners between the years 1901 and 1913 through the lives of its citizens was meta before we knew what meta meant, produced on a mostly bare stage with a stage manager directly addressing the audience. If your last experience of “Our Town” was in a high school classroom, you really owe yourself another visit to Gover’s Corners. You’ll be surprised by what you find there.

Cape Rep’s production, under the direction of Hanlon, features a cast of only nine taking on 22 roles.

“I think every production of ‘Our Town’ is truly different,” said Hanlon. “It felt really modern when Wilder wrote it, and it’s so much about who we are in this moment of time. I reread it this year and realized I had to do this now. It felt immediate to me, and I wanted to focus upon his intention when he wrote it. To really lean into the fact that it’s a play, and to make it so small that everyone in the cast needs to turn on a dime. It gives me such joy.”

Cape Rep’s Producing Artistic Director Janine M. Perry described “Our Town” as nothing short of poetry.

“Without making it too precious — the whole point is that it’s not precious — it is poetry,” Perry said. “It’s so dense and evocative. It really is a remarkable piece of writing.”

“Our Town” will feature Jess Andra, Amanda Collins, Brian Lore Evans, Jared Hagan, Nick Nudler, Denise Page, Katherine Paulsen, Cam Torres, Lewis D. Wheeler and Kirsten Peacock, with scenic design by Ryan McGettigan, lighting design by Paul Miller, costume design by Robin McLaughlin and with stage management from Tori Mondello.

The second production in Cape Rep’s 2024 season will be “Trish LaRose: Come On-A My House” from June 20 to July 14, conceived and written by Trish LaRose, directed by Maura Hanlon, with musical director Michael Dunford and choreography by Bryan Knowlton. This hit of Cape Rep’s 2023 season is back by popular demand. Inspired by one woman shows by greats like Bette Midler and Chita Rivera, LaRose has woven story and song together into a candid, eclectic journey about her life as a New Yorker, becoming a mother and discovering that her connection to Puerto Rico goes deeper than she dreamed. Backed by a fabulous six-piece band and friends Jess Andra and Anthony Teixeira, LaRose’s diverse song list ranges from Sondheim to Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston to Rosemary Clooney, with plenty of laughter, heart and sass.

“We had so many requests to remount it, because so many didn't get a chance to see it in the fall of 2023,” Perry said. “It’s such a delight to do it.”

From July 30 to Aug. 25, a new version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” will take the Cape Rep indoor stage, as presented on Broadway by New York Shakespeare Festival, produced by Joseph Papp, directed by Wilford Leach, with musical adaptation by William Elliot and choreography by Graciela Daniele. Cape Rep’s production will be directed by Sarah Elizabeth Wansley, with musical direction by Scott Storr. This Tony-award winning version of the much-loved comic opera is raucous, rollicking and ribald; a classic suffused with a modern sensibility.

“This will be so much fun,” said Hanlon. “It’s an ensemble show, the harmonies are so much fun to sing, and the jokes are ridiculous. It’s so much fun, and we need fun. Scott Storr is coming back to be our musical director, he is so wonderful.”

“Whenever we stage a musical inside Cape Rep it comes out differently because of the nature of the space,” Perry said. “To sit in the audience and listen to the fresh energy without very much between you and the stage. With a cast of 16, they will deliver a hefty sound.”

Finishing up the summer 2024 indoor stage season is the world premiere of “Pickle Me Tink,” written by Brewster playwright Seton Brown, Sept. 18 to Oct. 13. Who doesn’t love a comedy, especially a comedy with music? Brown draws inspiration from some of the greatest physical comedy acts of all time, like Abbott and Costello, Lucille Ball and the Marx Brothers in this hilarious tale of thwarted love, mistaken identity, witty word play and pratfalls galore.

“Seton Brown has written a play based on his love of physical comedy and classic comedy,” Perry said. “When Mo and I read it, I kept thinking of those great routines of famous comedians like Abbott and Costello, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, the Marx Brothers, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and Your Show of Shows, Mel Brooks, all those elements of classic comedy. I said, ‘Let’s add some music! That will be fun!’”

Meanwhile, on the outdoor stage, “The Puppets, Paul & Mary Show: Puppets Pay It Forward” will delight kids of all ages June 25 through Aug. 27 on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. Duo Paul Kehoe and Mary Wilson are back with all their puppet friends in a brand new show filled with songs and silliness. In “Puppets Pay It Forward,” kids and grownups alike will learn the importance of sharing, kindness, friendship and love in an hour long musical adventure in the Outdoor Theater. Puppets, Paul and Mary are an annual favorite, interactive, inventive and extremely funny, perfect for ages 2 to 6 and great fun for ages 7 to 100.

On Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. on the outdoor stage, June 26 to Aug. 28, “Maya Mouse’s Madcap House of Music, Movies & Mayhem” takes the stage, written and directed by Holly Erin McCarthy, with music and arrangements by Henry Buck. In this thrilling adventure, Maya Mouse returns, along with her sidekick Lieutenant Whiskers, and transforms the slightly weird and scary sounds of her sleeping house into a movie extravaganza conquering alien foes, monsters and tapping tarantulas.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit caperep.org.