Lakewood Playhouse
The Lakewood Playhouse was founded in 1938. They currently have a 180-seat theatre in the Lakewood Towne Center. The Playhouse, the cultural heart of our diverse community, creates engaging and entertaining theatre celebrating the human experience through the stories they tell.
The troupe’s 80th season boasts everything from light, family entertainment to a six-hour-plus epic about America’s response to the AIDS crisis.
Opening the season is Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach. A live performance of vintage radio story, will stage Orson Welles’ disquieting adaptation of The War of the Worlds. In collaboration with its youth-theater program, the playhouse presents a beloved children’s yarn, The Velveteen Rabbit. Then comes the endearing Yuletide chestnut Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus, opening — as holiday shows often do — the weekend after Thanksgiving. January 11 brings the raucous, parodic musical Forbidden Broadway, heckling theatrical “war horses” from Hello, Dolly! to Wicked.
Considered by many to be the standout play of the 1980s, later a well-regarded HBO miniseries, Angels in America comes to Lakewood Playhouse starting February 22. Its two massive episodes, Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, view our nation through a lens of Reagan-era sociopolitics, especially with respect to LGBTQ Americans. This show’s aimed squarely at adults, including nudity, abusive behavior and frequent, unprintable language.
Lakewood Playhouse’s season concludes in high spirits with a behind-the-curtains comedy, Inspecting Carol, opening April 19, and Mel Brooks’ irreverent The Producers May 31.
Where: 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd. Lakewood (at Lakewood Towne Center) Information: 253-588-0042, lakewoodplayhouse.org. For ticket information/reservations, call (253) 588-0042.
Email: boxoffice.lakewoodplayhouse@gmail.com