“Moon Over Buffalo”

The 2006-2007 season concluded with comic invention, running gags and a superb sense of absurdity.

A megalomaniac and often drunk leading man, George, and an aging leading lady, Charlotte, tour in Buffalo in 1953.  Hilarious misunderstandings pile on madcap adventures while fate has given these thespians one more shot a starring roles in "The Scarlet Pimpernel" epic.  Will Charlotte appear, or run off with their agent, who has always loved her and will George be sober enough to stand, much less emote.

Dennis Rutter directed this Playhouse production.

Ken Ludwig’s backstage farce, “Moon Over Buffalo,” presents a modern-day comedy of errors as it focuses on a hapless acting company in which things constantly go wrong. The era is the early '50s, and the main characters, George and Charlotte Hay, are a down-at-the-heels theatrical couple still performing old-fashioned repertory in Buffalo, New York.

The Hays think nothing of doing “Cyrano de Bergerac” with a cast of five (that’s all they can afford) and run it in repertory with “Private Lives.” It never seems to have occurred to Charlotte that—with a daughter in her 20s—maybe she's a trifle too old to play Roxanne opposite her husband's Cyrano. Their agent is smitten with Charlotte and the company ingénue is pregnant by George. Add to this mix an almost deaf grandmother and a forgetful fiancée and things really get complicated.

The original Broadway production was called “wildly funny” by ABC News. Author Ludwig has had several Broadway and London hits. His “Crazy for You” won the Tony, Olivier, and Drama Desk awards as Best Musical of the Year. His “Lend Me a Tenor” won two Tonys and an Outer Critics Circle Award. On Broadway, “Moon Over Buffalo” starred Carol Burnett and, later, Lynn Redgrave.

The Playhouse of Wilson
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