The Great Pretender - TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
David West Read’s THE GREAT PRETENDER, which will kick off TheatreWork’s 45th season
with its World Premiere, received a staged reading starring Howard Swain (pictured here) at the company’s 2013 New Works Festival.

It’s season announcement week it seems for theaters across the San Francisco Bay Area. Yesterday, San Jose Rep took the wraps off their internationally-flavored season. And now, this just in: TheatreWorks’ 45th season is unveiled (an audience last night at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts was treated to a sneak peek) .

Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley and Managing Director Phil Santora of TheatreWorks, the nationally acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, unveiled the line-up for its 2014-2015 season.

Opening with a groundbreaking World Premiere developed at last season’s New Works Festival, the line-up will also give Bay Area audiences their first look at the 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, the West Coast premiere of the newest work by Rajiv Joseph (The North Pool), a chilling Sondheim revival, a rollicking bluegrass musical, and an elegant Noël Coward confection. Also announced is the company’s holiday production, a five-time Tony Award-winning recent Broadway hit.

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TheatreWorks’ 45th season will boast the West Coast Premiere of The Lake Effect, the newest play from Pulitzer Prize nominee Rajiv Joseph (The North Pool, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo). This razor-sharp family drama received the 2013 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play for its world premiere in Chicago last year.

The season launches in July 2014 with the favorite of last season’s New Works Festival, The Great Pretender, David West Read’s tale of a cherished children’s TV host and the lives behind the painted sets and colored lights of the small screen.

Quiara Alegría Hudes
Acclaimed playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes is the author of Pulitzer Prize-winning drama WATER BY THE SPOONFUL, which will receive its Regional Premiere in TheatreWorks’ 45th season.

Another season highlight is the Regional Premiere of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes (In the Heights). In this captivating tale, the real world and virtual world are woven together in a chat room for troubled souls, where a sensitive webmaster offers support and moderation while her offline relationships crumble.

The demon barber of Fleet Street returns to TheatreWorks in Stephen Sondheim’s chilling and hilarious Sweeney Todd, just in time for a Halloween production. Noël Coward’s effervescent comedy Fallen Angels will close the 45th season. In this sparkling and witty 1920s hit, two friends learn that a past lover is back in town and eager for a reunion. With their husbands out of the house and plenty of champagne to calm their nerves, commiseration turns into suspicion and competition, with hilarious results.

Music takes center stage in 2015 with the virtuosic coming-of-age play 2 Pianos 4 Hands by Canadian playwrights and pianists Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt. Skipping from Bach to Beethoven, Scott Joplin to Jerry Lee Lewis, this riotous tale tracks two young musicians from childhood to maturity as they strive for concert pianist stardom, facing hours of practice, stage fright, the agony of competitions, and the dream of greatness. Also featured is the Regional Premiere of Fire on the Mountain, a foot-stomping bluegrass musical from the creators of It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues. Told through projected images, live music, and a cast of singer/actors, the mining families of Appalachia come to life in this passionate revue.

ALSO SEE: San Jose Repertory Theatre announces 2014-2015 season

For the 2014 holidays, TheatreWorks announces the five-time Tony winner Peter and the Starcatcher. A madcap, whimsical romp through Neverland, this Broadway hit is a swashbuckling adventure that has been embraced by both the young and the young at heart.

Five productions will be mounted at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts and three will be staged at Palo Alto’s Lucie Stern Theatre.

San Francisco Theater news, reviews, photos, videosTheatreWorks Silicon Valley 2014/15 Season

The Great Pretender
By David West Read
World Premiere
July 9 – August 3, 2014 (Press opening July 12)
Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto

Water by the Spoonful
By Quiara Alegría Hudes
Regional Premiere
August 20 – September 14, 2014 (Press opening August 23)
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

Sweeney Todd
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Book by Hugh Wheeler
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Based on an adaptation by Christopher Bond
October 8 – November 2, 2014 (Press opening October 11)
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

Peter and the Starcatcher
Book by Rick Elice
Based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Music by Wayne Barker
December 3 – 28, 2014 (press opening December 6)
Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto

2 Pianos 4 Hands
By Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt
January 14 – February 8, 2015 (press opening Jan 17)
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

The Lake Effect
By Rajiv Joseph
West Coast Premiere
March 4 – 29, 2015 (press opening March 7)
Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto

Fire on the Mountain
By Randal Myler and Dan Wheetman
Regional Premiere
April 1 – 26, 2015 (press opening April 4)
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

Fallen Angels
By Noël Coward
June 3 – 28, 2015 (press opening June 6)
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

With Clinton Stark reporting from Silicon Valley.

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