THE LADIES MAN
By Charles Morey (adapted from the comedy by Georges Feydeau)
Directed by Carl Wallnau
WHEN: February 17 through March 4. Performances times are Friday and Saturday nights at 8 PM, Sundays at 2 PM, Thursdays (Family Nights) at 7:30 PM, with two additional matinee performances on Friday, Feb 17 (Preview) and Wed, Feb. 22 at 2 PM. A student matinee is offered on Wednesday, February 29 at 10 AM with discounted ticket prices for school groups with advance reservations.
WHERE: Sitnik Theatre, David and Carol Lackland Center,715 Grand Ave in Hackettstown.
TICKETS: $20 - $25, with discounts for seniors and students. Thursday evenings are “Family Nights” with two-for-one “rush” tickets available at the door. Tickets can be purchased online at www.centenarystageco.org, by calling (908) 979-0900, or in person at the Lackland Center at 715 Grand Ave in Hackettstown, with box office hours from 1-5 Monday through Friday, and two hours prior to performances.
Set in the golden age of Paris, the action of the play evolves around a charming doctor and the madness that ensues after he tells “one, tiny, little, hardly noticeable lie” to cover an innocent but embarrassing indiscretion. Soon pandemonium breaks out, and no one is left unscathed as the plot unravels and mistaken identities and unexpected connections run rampant. Adapted from Georges Feydeau’s comedy The Ladies’ Dressmaker, the author once said, "Whenever two of my characters absolutely, positively under any circumstances shouldn't meet, I put them in the same room together."
“This is as close to ROTFL (Rolling on the Floor Laughing) as you will probably ever experience at a live show,” raved critic Larry Murray of Berkshire Fine Arts about The Ladies Man, and The Wall Street Journal declared “I can’t recall the last time I laughed so hard.”
The production will be directed by CSC Artistic Director Carl Wallnau (right), who is known for his masterful comedic direction of numerous plays over the past two decades. Wallnau, who will also lead the cast as the doctor, is a veteran theater professional, having performed in the first national Broadway tour of the musical Titanic, performed many seasons with the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, and been seen on regional stages of the Paper Mill Playhouse, NYC’s Second Stage, People’s Light, The Lark Theatre, Hartford Stage, Bristol Riverside, and Orlando Shakespeare Company. Wallnau has won numerous awards over the years, including outstanding direction in productions of Springtime for Henry, Quartermaines Terms and Pygmalion.
Direct from the Broadway run of Mike Nichols, Ethan Coen and Woody Allen’s Relatively Speaking, Allen Lewis Rickman, returns to CSC to star as the doctor’s sputtering patient, Bassinet. CSC audiences will remember Rickman from his performances in CSC’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue, My Three Angels, Below the Belt and The Small Empire Music Hall which he co-wrote and directed. Rickman’s film and television work includes the Coen Brothers’ Oscar-nominated A Serious Man, Martin Scorsese’s HBO series Boardwalk Empire, and Barry Levinson’s Emmy-nominated You Don’t Know Jack.
The Ladies Man’s elegant set will be designed by Emmy Award winner Bob Phillips, who designed CSC’s recent productions of Moss Hart’s Light Up the Sky and Theresa Rebeck’s Bad Dates. Phillips designs regularly for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, The Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, Alpine Theatre Project, Florida Studio Theatre, and numerous New York and regional theatre companies. He has been the Resident Designer at the Orlando Shakespeare Festival for the past 17 years, where he has designed over 75 sets. Phillips has received Outer Critic Circle, Madison, Village and Lillian Stoates awards for his theatre work, and six Emmy awards for his television designs, including 4 for his work on Sesame Street, where he has designed for more than a decade.
The Centenary Stage Company is a not-for-profit, professional Equity theatre, in residence at Centenary College, dedicated to serving as a cultural resource for audiences of the Skylands Region, with professional music, theatre and dance events and arts education programs throughout the year. All programs at the Centenary Stage Company are made possible in part through the visionary support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, as well as CSC Premium sponsor Heath Village and Skylands Community Bank, and our silver sponsors, the Marriot Residence Inn and Hackettstown Regional Medical Center.
