Hanover Little Theatre (HLT) will bring comedy and nostalgia to the stage with the four shows in the 2019-20 season, the 71st for Hanover’s only all-volunteer community theatre.
The season opens in the fall with a pair of comedies. In Kitchen Witches, a pair of “mature” cable-access cooking show hostesses with a nasty history have to learn how to work together on the same show with hilarious results. The show will run September 13-15 and 19-22.
In November, HLT will present Jailhouse Frocks by Devon Williamson, the author of The Old People Are Revolting, which sold out all seven 2016 performances in Hanover.The comedy, which will run November 15-17 and 21-24, follows the antics of Birchwood County police officer Dwayne on a chaotic night.
The second half of the season brings back memories, first with the March 20-22, 26-29, 2020, production of the Pulitzer Prize winning Harvey, which celebrates its 70 anniversary in 2020. Mary Chase’s classic brings Elwood P. Dowd and his friend Harvey – an imaginary six-and-a-half-foot-tall rabbit – to Hanover.
HLT will close the season June 12-14, 18-21, 2020, with Polyester the Musical, which will treat the audience to a reunion show by The Synchronistics, an ABBA wannabe group which reunites after 20 years to perform at a public access television telethon.
Information about memberships and season tickets will be released at a later date. Directors will be announced in the coming weeks. Auditions will be announced as they are scheduled.
The 2018-19 season will close July 13-15 and 19-22 with eight performances of the musical comedy Church Basement Ladies.
For more information on the current or upcoming season, contact HLT at info@hanoverlittletheatre.com or call 717-637-5297.
Kitchen Witches (Caroline Smith)
Isobel Lomax and Dolly Biddle are two “mature” cable-access cooking show hostesses who have hated each other for thirty years, ever since Larry Biddle dated one and married the other. When circumstances put them together on a TV show called The Kitchen Witches, the insults are flung harder than the food (and that’s flung, too)! Dolly’s long-suffering TV-producer son, Stephen, tries to keep them on track, but as long as Dolly’s dressing room is one inch closer to the set than Isobel’s, it’s a losing battle, and the show becomes a ratings smash as Dolly and Isobel top both Martha Stewart and Jerry Springer!
SHOW DATES: September 13-15, 19-22
Jailhouse Frocks (Devon Williamson)
Shattering dimwitted Officer Dwayne’s tranquil evening at the Birchwood County police station is the arrests of three unlikely women; the mayor’s wife, the local mad cat-lady, and a dangerous looking New Yorker. The already chaotic situation descends into mayhem with the arrival of a New York gangster, disguised as an FBI agent, hell-bent on exacting revenge on his wife. By the end of the night, the ladies have formed a gang, sang some songs, escaped from jail and locked the gangster up in their place, leaving Officer Dwayne wondering how on earth he’s managed to make the arrest of a lifetime.
SHOW DATES: November 15-17, 21-24
Harvey (Mary Chase)
Elwood P. Dowd insists on including his friend Harvey in all of his sister Veta’s social gatherings. Trouble is, Harvey is an imaginary six-and-a-half-foot-tall rabbit. To avoid future embarrassment for her family—and especially for her daughter, Myrtle Mae—Veta decides to have Elwood committed to a sanitarium. At the sanitarium, a frantic Veta explains to the staff that her years of living with Elwood’s hallucination have caused her to see Harvey also, and so the doctors mistakenly commit her instead of her mild-mannered brother. The truth comes out, however; Veta is freed, and the search is on for Elwood, who eventually arrives at the sanitarium of his own volition, looking for Harvey. But it seems that Elwood and his invisible companion have had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors. Only at the end does Veta realize that maybe Harvey isn’t so bad after all.
SHOW DATES: March 20-22, 26-29, 2020
Polyester The Musical (Phil Olson & Wayland Pickard)
The Synchronistics, an over-the-hill ABBA wannabe group reunites after 20 years to perform at a public access tv telethon, put their differences aside, and try to save the station from going under….The year was 1979 and The Synchronistics were big. Big enough to be on Johnny Carson. Their hit single, “Better Together” rose to number two on the Billboard Charts. Then something terrible happened that drove the group apart….Now, 20 years later, they’re back together in Maple Valley, their home town, to perform at the 1999 WKLN public access TV Telethon. Will they overcome their differences from 20 years ago, act professionally and help save WKLN from going under? Probably not. But you never know what to expect when this dysfunctional group gets together…one last time. A farcical 70s time warp.
SHOW DATES: June 12-14, 18-21, 2020