In “Violet,” a musical that opens Friday at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre, it’s 1964, and Violet is about to travel by bus from her North Carolina home to Tulsa, Okla. The play’s themes are reflected in music that spans gospel, Memphis blues, bluegrass and jazz, with the cast singing to recorded backing tracks. Christian faith is an ongoing theme, as is race, judgment and life’s scars, visible and invisible.
City Repertory Theatre
Who Do You Think You Are? Here’s Why You Should See ‘The Niceties’ at CRT
“The Niceties,” which opens tonight at City Repertory Theatre, is familiar to our ideologically poisoned times, raising questions about whether there is such a thing as objective truth. It subverts assumptions about American and Black history, generational divides, and power. It will make you angry only if you’re not honest with yourself as it also subverts your own assumptions about who you think you are.
“Shut up and Listen!” City Repertory Theatre’s Production of “The Niceties” Explores the Mis-Education of Black History
In “The Niceties,” Eleanor Burgess’ 2018 two-person play, Zoe – a Black millennial Ivy League student – heatedly confronts her white, female Boomer history professor: “Listen, there is one appropriate way to respond to a woman of color when she says ‘I have an idea to assert,’ and that is to shut up and listen because she has experiences that you cannot possibly know and insights you can learn from.” The play, running from Thursday to Sunday at City Repertory Theatre, challenges conventions of Black history, the generational divide, and the meaning of objective truth.
In ‘Every Brilliant Thing,’ City Rep Produces the ‘Most Hilarious Show About Depression You’ve Ever Seen’
“Every Brilliant Thing” a one-man play, is the story of a man who as a child sought to cope with his mother’s depression and suicidal tendencies, and to find a way to cheer her up. At first glance, “Every Brilliant Thing” may seem to be a play that labors and strains under the profound, harsh realities of depression and suicide. But a critic called it “the most hilarious show about depression you’ve ever seen.”
Addiction v. Redemption in City Repertory Theatre’s Production of Clifford Odets’s ‘Country Girl’
Clifford Odets’s play, opening at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre Thursday and running as a staged reading through Sunday, tells the story of Frank Elgin, a once-lauded actor who’s become mired in booze even as he’s hoping to return to his past glory, while his ever-faithful wife, Georgie, struggles to keep him from tumbling into an alcoholic abyss. CRT is staging some of its leading stars and veterans, including Director John Sbordone.
The Sex Wars Through Neil Simon’s Wit: City Rep Stages “Jake’s Women,” a Comedy in Dramatic Acts
In Neil Simon’s “Jake’s Women,” opening tonight at City Repertory Theatre in Palm Coast, Jake is a novelist who has issues with intimacy, guilt, trust and all sorts of other familiar themes of the sex wars as he navigates the shoals of upper-class middle-age American dynamics, back when those problems were all we had to worry about. But it’s not a traditional play, as Neil Simon has a lot of fun breaking the fourth wall–that imaginary divide between the stage and the audience.
Singer Laniece Fagundes in Concert at City Repertory Theatre on Oct. 18
Laniece Fagundes, one of City Repertory Theatre’s most beloved performers and a member of CRT since its first season, is in concert on Oct. 18 at CRT. Along with CRT’s Music Director, Benjamin Beck, and drummer Denise Elisha, Fagundes will sing Broadway and popular favorites as well as original music in an evening that shows how her theater life has influenced her as a performer and a composer.
Jesus Christ – He’s a She! City Repertory Theatre Stages All-Female Version of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’
Here comes City Repertory Theatre with its all-female version of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which opens the Palm Coast troupe’s 14th season with performances tonight and through Sept. 29 in its newly renovated black box theater at City Marketplace. The she-Jesus – at least the one based on Webber’s musical – first reared her head in the 20-teens when Juilliard grad and soul-jazz-musical theater singer Morgan James had a dream that she was singing the role.
A Gender-Miracle Superstar, Shakespeare, Neil Simon and More fill City Repertory Theatre’s 14th Season
When City Repertory Theatre opens in 14th season on tonight with “Jesus Christ Superstar,” patrons will be greeted by a newly renovated venue space at CRT’s black box theater in Palm Coast’s City Marketplace. The new seating risers and new paint, says founding director John Sbordone, are courtesy of a $69,000 gift bequeathed to City Rep by the Palm Coast Arts Foundation. Here’s a look at City Repertory Theatre’s 2024-2025 season.
Alien Menace and Combustible Dancing Shake Up City Repertory Theatre with “The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals”
“The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals,” which opens tonight at City Repertory Theatre in Palm Coast, takes its cue from the body snatching school: After an extraterrestrial presence stealthily arrives via a meteor that crashes into a small-town theater and proceeds to uncork “some kind of blue” something, the townsfolk are suddenly and inexplicably breaking into song and dance routines in everyday life situations. Soon the infected townsfolk begin acting more and more like zombies.
Palm Coast Arts Foundation’s Parting Legacy: a $69,000 Gift to City Repertory Theatre
Ending its 20-year-run, the Palm Coast Arts Foundation today handed over a $69,000 gift to City Repertory Theatre, the largest gift the theater troupe has ever received and one of the largest cultural gifts ever recorded from a non-governmental organization to another in Flagler. PCAF was required to disburse its remaining funds to a kindred non-profit before closing its books.
Freudian Slip: City Rep’s ‘Hysteria’ Takes Farcical Look at Dali’s Meeting with “Father of Psychoanalysis”
British playwright Terry Johnson reimagined an actual, historically documented meeting between the 81-year-old Freud–father of psychiatry–and the 34-year-old Salvador Dali–the indomitable surrealist–into “Hysteria,” an intellectual farce that City Repertory Theatre’s John Sbordone calls “one of the funniest things that CRT has ever done.”
City Rep Theatre’s ‘Vinegar Tom’ Explores the Psychology of Witch-Finding
“ ‘Vinegar Tom’ uses the hunt for witches in the 17th century as a tool to investigate the subjugation of women in a male-dominated society,” says City Rep director John Sbordone. “The lessons of the past are reflected in many aspects of our own society.”
Taking Liberties: City Repertory Theatre Goes Beyond Boomer Musical with ‘Edges’
“Edges,” that song cycle (not a traditional musical, mind you) crafted by two Millennials when they were both 19 years old, is not just for Millennials. Its 17 songs about navigating the crossroads of life will appeal to all generations, say the cast and director of the City Repertory Theatre production that opens Friday Jan. 19 at the troupe’s Palm Coast venue.
Flagler County Cultural Council Wants You To Know: ‘We’re Here To Stay.’ But It’s Going to Need Help.
FC3, the Flagler County Cultural Council, has big ambitions–among them, to be known as the county’s designated arts agency, as the driver, supporter, coordinator and promoter of local arts, culture and history, and as a magnet for state and national grants that will help local cultural agencies thrive, or incubate new ones. But for all its giddiness, the organization, after three years, remains cash-poor and mostly in the organizational stage.
Grim Year for Local Arts as 3 Big Organizations Vanish and Palm Coast Drops Grants to Lowest-Ever Level
Palm Coast government on Tuesday scaled back its Cultural Arts Program almost by half, offering $20,000 to 13 organizations the coming year. It is the lowest nominal level since 2012, and the lowest level in the city’s history when adjusted for inflation. The retreat takes place in a year that has seen the disappearance of three major cultural organizations in Palm Coast and the county.
City Repertory Theatre’s Double Bill of Dares: Albee’s ‘Zoo Story,’ and an Unpredictable ‘Rabbit’
“White Rabbit Red Rabbit” will be staged with no rehearsals, no director, no set and performed over four nights by four different actors who will have never before read the script. Also on the double-bill, Edward Albee’s very first play, “The Zoo Story,” making it one of City Repertory Theatre’s more daring evenings.
City Repertory Theatre’s Audacious New Season Runs from ‘Perfect’ Love to Witch’s Cat to Freud’s Lingerie
Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre’s news season includes heady classics rarely staged in East-Central Florida: “Educating Rita” and Edward Albee’s unnerving “The Zoo Story.” There are acclaimed but off-the-radar, even experimental works: “Vinegar Tom,” Caryl Churchill’s Brechtian take on 17th-century witchcraft trials, and Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour’s bizarro, undirected “White Rabbit Red Rabbit.” Contemporary works include “Edges: A Song Cycle” and the comedy “Hysteria,” wherein Salvador Dalí meets Sigmund Freud.
“Firebringer,” the StarKid Production, at City Repertory Theatre Aug. 4-7
A unique collaboration of comedians and song writers comes to the City Repertory Theatre (CRT) in August with a robust production of “Firebringer.” The production is noted as a hilarious take on what happens to the stone age when a life-changing discovery is made.
Sacrifice for the American Dream: Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre Stages Arthur Miller’s ‘All My Sons’
“All My Sons,” opening for a two-weekend run at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre Friday, embodies Miller’s critique of the “American dream,” that credo which asserts that every U.S. citizen, regardless of their station or societal factors, can bootstrap him/herself to success and prosperity through initiative, hard work and determination.
Scapino Walks This Way Into City Repertory Theatre’s Farce, Ameliorating Molière
In “Scapino!,” the servant Scapino schemes to manipulate his authoritarian master Geronte and a rival patriarch away from disrupting the romances of their offspring. It’s a “a free-for-all farce,” in the words of City Repertory Theatre Director John Sbordone.
Jason Woods Brings His Whirlwind ‘Jasper & Casper’ 1-Man Show to Palm Coast’s CRT
Jason Woods’s “The Near Disaster of Jasper & Casper” is a fantasy story about Jasper, your average-joe sort of guy, and his brother Casper, a narcissist with an affected blue-blood accent. Woods portrays all of the umpteen characters in the one-man show. There are no costume changes and no props – just Woods and his toolbox of accents and myriad vocal and physical mannerisms.
Taking the Edge Off, ‘Honky Tonk Angels’ Countrify City Repertory Theatre
In a bit of a departure for Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre, this musical features three women with Southern roots, who are variously bored or frustrated or antsy about their lives, and who decide to pursue their country music dreams in Nashville, and they meet and take up singing at a bar appropriately named Honky Tonk Heaven.
City Repertory Theatre Presents Festive Revue for Launch of Flagler County Cultural Council
City Repertory Theatre, a Palm Coast community theater troupe, will present “A Holiday Treat: A Special Night of Story and Song” as a fundraiser for the Flagler County Cultural Council, which in October was designated the county’s official local arts agency.
City Repertory Theatre and Beau Wade Drag ‘Charley’s Aunt’ Onto the Stage
“Charley’s Aunt,” a favorite farce for over a century, the play is laugh-out-loud fun from start to finish. Written by the Liverpool-born British playwright and actor Brandon Thomas, the play premiered in England in 1892, broke the then-current record for longest-running play worldwide, landed on Broadway in 1893 and later toured internationally. It has been revived ever since, as well as adapted for films and musicals.
Sondheim’s ‘Assassins’ Opens City Repertory Theatre’s New Season, and Dares Go From There
“Assassins,” the 1990 play with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by John Weidman, weaves the true-life histories of nine presidential assassins and would-be assassins into a bizarro musical fantasy. The characters include John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, the shooters of Ronald Reagan and Ford, and other rogues.
City Repertory Theatre Hopscotches Through Love’s Multiverse with ‘Constellations’
The play, running Thursday through Sunday at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre, is a 2012 comedy-drama by British playwright Nick Payne about the romantic ups and downs of a beekeeper and a theoretical physicist. The couple in “Constellations” take a trip down the rabbit hole of the multiverse, that freaky theory that posits there are an infinite number of parallel universes which exist simultaneously, and may be quite similar to or radically different from the one you and I inhabit.
Pay Attention, Class: CRT’s ‘Schoolhouse Rock!’ Is In Session at Flagler Auditorium
“Schoolhouse Rock Live!” will be presented by City Repertory Theatre at 7 p.m. Wednesday June 22 and Thursday June 23 at Flagler Auditorium in Palm Coast. Proceeds will benefit both City Rep and the nonprofit auditorium. The play tells the story of the teacher Jan, who is nervous as her first day of school teaching is approaching. But her nerves are calmed when she turns on “Schoolhouse Rock!” and the characters come to life to help her prepare her lessons.
‘Waiting for Godot’ Finally Arrives as Palm Coast’s City Rep Stages Beckett’s Absurdist Masterpiece
Beckett’s 1953 play – which is often and rightfully tagged as part of the “Theater of the Absurd” movement – depicts two men, Vladimir and Estragon, who engage in conversation as they wait for a mysterious figure named Godot who (or that) never shows up. Detractors (and there have been fewer and fewer of them as the decades have progressed) howl “There’s no plot!” Admirers howl “There’s no plot!”
A Fund-Raiser for City Repertory Theatre at Chez Jacqueline on April 7
The popular Chez Jacqueline Boutique is staging one of its celebrated fashion shows on April 7, this time as a $25-a-ticket fund-raiser for City Repertory Theatre, Palm Coast and Flagler County’s cutting edge theater company.
Badass “Revolutionists” Guillotine France’s Reign of Terror in City Repertory Theatre Comedy
“The Revolutionists” features four women of revolutionary France, three of them famous in their own right, all of them feminists before their time, as they navigate the chaos, intrigue, treachery and murderous violence of France’s Reign of Terror in 1793 Paris.
Reimagining Martin Luther King Jr.’s Last Night Before Assassination in CRT’s ‘The Mountaintop,’ Warts and All
“The Mountaintop,” Katori Hall’s 2009 play staged by Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre starting Thursday, imagines imagines King during his last night on earth, as a pretty motel maid named Camae visits him to deliver room service and finds the civil rights icon in a very un-glorious state: Smokin’. Cussin’. Drinkin’. Flirting. Stinky feet.
Justice Blinded and a Heroin-Stuffed Doll Spark Thrills in City Repertory Theatre’s ‘Wait Until Dark’
True to part of its mission, City Repertory Theatre once again is offering a play that is typically off the radar of the local theater scene: a genuine, suspense-filled thriller. Susy has just been blinded in a car crash. While Susy’s husband Sam is away, three sadistic thugs track a heroin-stuffed doll they’re looking for to Susy’s apartment. A harrowing cat-and-mouse game ensues and soon involves Gloria, a young girl who lives in a nearby apartment.
City Repertory Theatre’s ‘Blithe Spirit’ to Honor the Late Anne Kraft, Veteran CRT Performer
When City Repertory Theatre presents a staged reading Dec. 2-5 of Sir Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit,” which the English playwright called “a light comedy about death,” the poignancy of the production will be plain to see: CRT is paying tribute to Anne Kraft, who’d performed with most of the company’s actors over the years.
‘All Together Now!’ Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre Musical Revue Joins a Global Fundraising Event
Music Theatre International is one of the world’s most prominent theatrical licensing agencies, representing hundreds of musicals ranging from Tony-winning classics to children’s fare. It is allowing theaters worldwide to perform “All Together Now!” license-free to help raise money for the theaters themselves. In this case, Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre will benefit.
‘Urinetown,’ an Unserious Musical For Our Times, and For Our Town, at City Repertory Theatre
The satiric barbs of “Urinetown” come fast and furious, taking aim at fascism, capitalism, authoritarianism, corporate greed, police brutality, political corruption, abuse of the poor, and the tensions between personal freedoms versus societal good. “Everywhere you turn, it’s poking fun at something,” says Director John Sbordone.
Being Billie: Laniece Fagundes Embodies Jazz singer Lady Day as City Repertory Theatre Opens 11th Season
Laniece Fagundes stars in the role of Billie Holiday in “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,” the play that opens City Repertory Theatre’s 11th season tonight. Written by Lanie Robertson, “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” premiered in 1986 at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and landed Off-Broadway soon after, winning a Tony on Broadway in 2014.
City Rep Theatre’s 11th Season of Leviathans: Martin Luther King, Billie Holiday, Godot and that Reign of Terror
Covid permitting, the 11th season of Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre proposes its most ambitious line-up yet, with Martin Luther King Jr., Billie Holiday, a vengeful dead wife, a blind woman battling murderous intruders in her home, and a rebel fighting the tyranny of pay toilets in a dystopian world all gracing City Rep’s stage.
From ‘Hamlet’-Writing Chimps to Erotic Miniature Golf, It’s ‘All in the Timing’ for City Rep’s Latest Production
Whether it’s the three chimpanzees of “Words, Words, Words” discussing the crafting of high literature, the miniature-golf-as-metaphor-for-sex shenanigans of “Foreplay, or The Art of the Fugue,” or the multiple replays of murder in “Variations on the Death of Trotsky,” the “All in the Timing” one-acts are soaked in bizarro scenarios.
McCarthyism In Our Time: City Rep Stages Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’
Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theater stages “The Crucible,” Arthur Miller’s play about witch-hunting in 17th-century Salem and –- allegorically — Joseph McCarthy’s Communist sniffing in mid-20th-century America, starting Friday at the Palm Coast Arts Foundation big tent in Town Center.
Stampeding Elephants! Raging Typhoons! Runaway Trains! City Rep Theatre Goes ‘Around the World in 80 Days’
A handful of actors play dozens of roles in City Repertory Theatre’s new production of Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days” at the outdoors, socially distanced stage in Palm Coast’s Town Center of the Palm Coast Arts Foundation this weekend.
Go To the Theatre in Comfort of Your Home: “Two for the Seesaw” Benefits CRT and Arts Foundation
City Repertory Theatre and the Palm Coast Arts Foundation have teamed up for a co-production of “Two for the Seesaw,” filmed at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre and available over the next two weekends from home for $30, which benefits the arts organizations.
Audrey II Puts Bite in City Rep’s “Little Shop of Horrors,” Opening Outdoors on Thanksgiving Weekend
“Little Shop of Horrors” is City Repertory Theatre’s most expensive production in 10 years, and is intended in part to give theater-goers a break from pandemic fatigue even as the show easily invites allegorical leaps to the present-day.
Abridged by Pandemic, City Rep Theatre Season Kicks Off with Wacky Shakespeare in the Socially Distanced Park
Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre returns for the first time since the pandemic with “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” in an outdoors production at the Palm Coast Arts Foundation’s venue in Town Center, with socially distanced seating.
Flagler Auditorium Hopes to Re-Ignite Arts Support, and Concert-Going, with Outdoors Hayfire Concert
All proceeds from the Sept. 13 benefit concert by Hayfire, the first at the Auditorium since the pandemic, will go to the Palm Coast Arts Foundation, Flagler Playhouse and City Repertory Theatre.
From Verona to Brooklyn, With Love: Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Parks It at City Rep
Brent Jordan and Lillie Thomas are in the lead roles in City Repertory Theatre’s and the Palm Coast Arts Foundation’s “Romeo and Juliet,” originally planned for the big tent in Town center, but moved to CRT’s indoor venue after last week’s storm.
Critical Lack of Exhibit Space Hobbling Palm Coast Art Scene Even as Organizations Thrive
For the first time in 20 years, the Flagler County Artist of the Year will not have a show, for lack of space. The critical lack of exhibit space is on the radar of the Flagler County Art League, the fledgling Palm Coast Arts Foundation and the Grand Gallery at Grand Living Realty.
City Rep Theatre is Playing Neil Simon’s ‘Song’ in Bow to Broadway Romance
Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre stages Neil Simon’s “They’re Playing Our Song,” the popular, semi-autobiographical story of Marvin Hamlisch and songwriting partner Carol Bayer Sager–or of Simon and Marsha Mason.
City Rep’s ‘Actually,’ a #MeToo Whodunit Treading the Blurry Lines of Consent, Assault and Guilt
“Actually,” the newest production at Palm Coast’s City Repertopry Theatre opening this weekend, tells the tale of two Ivy League freshmen – a young black man and a young white woman — who become mired in a he said/she said, was-it-date-rape scenario.
Teen Spirit and Lust Defy Conventions in City Rep’s “Spring Awakening,” the Tony Award Musical
“Spring Awakening,” a tale of adolescent sexual angst and libido-denial at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre starting this weekend, became a rock musical in 2006 by folkie rocker Duncan Sheik and won eight Tony Awards.