Bickford Theatre 2011-12 Season Announced

Eric Hafen, Artistic Director of the Bickford Theatre at the Morris Museum, 6 Normandy Heights Road in Morristown, NJ, is proud to announce the Bickford Theatre's 2011-2012 Season, celebrating his 10th Anniversary with four exciting and entertaining plays by authors whose works have previously graced the Bickford stage!

It's love on the lam in The Last Days of Mickey & Jean, the NJ Premiere of a new comedy by Richard Dresser (Rounding Third)! When Mickey, a fugitive mobster from Boston, is forced into early retirement in Paris with his no-longer-young girlfriend, Jean, the couple runs into one hilarious situation after another-and discover shocking secrets about each other along the way! With its funny perspective on unconventional love and loyalty, The Last Days of Mickey & Jean is a retirement story with a twist! This co-production with Old Castle Theatre of Bennington, VT, Playwrights Theatre of NJ, and Shadowlands Theatre in Ellenville, NY, will be directed by John Pietrowski and runs at the Bickford Theatre September 22 through October 9, 2011.

Season 17 continues with the comedy hit, Over the River and Through the Woods, directed by Eric Hafen, and running November 17 through December 4, 2011. Nick is a twenty-something Manhattan bachelor who dutifully spends every Sunday across the river in Hoboken with his Italian-American grandparents. But that's all about to change now that he's been offered his dream job - in Seattle. His grandparents are not ready to let him go, and they embark on a scheme to keep Nick around, including bringing to dinner the lovely Caitlin O'Hare as bait. The antics that follow are both hilarious and touching. Just in time for the holidays, don't miss this endearingly heartwarming and hilarious family comedy by Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change)-filled with love, laughter & lasagna!

Chills will run up and down your spine in Veronica's Room, directed by Daniel LaPenta, running January 26 through February 12, 2012. This spell-binding psychological thriller by Ira Levin (Deathtrap, Dr. Cook's Garden) explores the thin line between fantasy and reality as it spins a spider's web of deceit, madness and murder! A young couple find themselves enticed to the Brabissant mansion by its caretakers, the lonely Mackeys. Struck by the girl's resemblance to the long-dead daughter of the family for whom they work, the couple induces the girl to impersonate Veronica to comfort the only living Brabissant, her sister who believes Veronica is still alive. Once decked out in Veronica's clothes, the nightmare truly begins. The Washington Post called it "Suspenseful, compelling, spooky, and really good."

The Bickford's "cup runneth over with love" from April 12 through May 13, 2012, as it brings its Season to a charming finale with I Do! I Do!, the Tony-winning Broadway hit by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, (Singing Lessons at the Bickford). This heartwarming and nostalgic musical, originally written as a star vehicle for theatre legends Mary Martin and Robert Preston, famously takes place around a four-poster bed and chronicles the 50-year marriage of Michael and Agnes Snow through a magical score by the authors of The Fantasticks, the longest-running musical in New York history. Directed by Eric Hafen, with Musical Direction by Warren Helms, I Do! I Do! is fine entertainment you'll not soon forget.

Main Stage Series performances are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m, with select Thursday Matinees at 2 p.m.

In addition, Bickford Theatre subscribers have their choice of one of the following three "A La Carte Series" of concerts and variety performances, included with a four-play subscription.

The popular series begins Sunday, March 4, with piano virtuoso and bravura showman Vladimir Zaitsev in Bach to Beatles, followed on Sunday, March 11, with an exclusive NJ performance by popular PBS star Avi Hoffman in Still Jewish After All These Years, and concluding on Sunday, March 18, with an unforgettable afternoon of opera and popular song, Italian Giants and American Icons, presented by the Bravo Alliance for the performing Arts. All "A La Carte Series" presentations begin at 2 p.m.

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