Grooving the Lily
Another summer musical to watch out for is Wheelhouse (June 6–July 1 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts), the 60th world premiere to be produced by Theatreworks.
The tale of three musicians on a cross-country road trip, Wheelhouse is directed by Obie Award–winner Lisa Peterson and written and performed by power-pop trio GrooveLily, whose other credits include the musical Striking 12, first seen at Theatreworks 10 years ago and later an off-Broadway hit.
“There just isn’t any other musical theater exactly like it,” says Theatreworks artistic director Robert Kelley. “It combines elements of musical comedy and musical drama with elements of a concert that sort of interact and flow together in an absolutely fascinating way.”
Kelley adds that Theatreworks gets calls from subscribers who have worn out their GrooveLily CDs and want to know where to buy replacements.
For its second production of a busy summer, Theatreworks will unveil another world premiere, Upright Grand (July 11–Aug. 10 at the Lucie Stern Center in Palo Alto), which was a hit at the company’s New Works Festival last summer.
This story of a father and daughter bonding over a shared love of the piano is written by Laura Schellhardt (Auctioning the Ainsleys) and helmed by new-works master Meredith McDonough, recipient of the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for best director.
“It’s very touching,” Kelley says, “and very much a family drama, but told in an absolutely unique new way, with piano music interwoven throughout the piece.”
From Aug. 22–Sept. 16, at the Mountain View Center, Theatreworks will present Time Stands Still, a Tony-nominated drama about two lovers, both journalists, adjusting to the quiet life after covering a Middle Eastern war. Written by Pulitzer Prize–winner Donald Margulies (Dinner With Friends, Sight Unseen), it is, says Kelley, “a riveting, funny, up-to-the-minute drama. … [Margulies] has an uncanny skill with dialogue that is so amazingly real and yet has a lovely poetic flair. It’s a play that, the minute I saw it, I felt we had to do at Theatreworks.”
