While Broadway theater has been back for a few months now (with vaccine cards and masks requirements), local theater is just now opening up to the public, and a few schools are inviting audiences back into their auditoriums for student performances.
Performances at Upper Perkiomen Middle School and Upper Perkiomen High School begin in March, with tickets on sale now. Muhlenberg College and Civic Theater in Allentown will be opening their doors and raising the stage curtains this weekend, the last weekend in February.
Shrek, Jr – The Musical, an abridged version of the Broadway musical Shrek, is this year’s Middle School musical at Upper Perkiomen Middle School. UPMS Drama tickets will be available at the door for the 7 p.m. shows on Friday, March 4th and Saturday, March 5th, 2022. All seats are General Admission so people can sit where they are comfortable. Tickets are all $8; if you want tickets ahead of time you may drop off a sealed envelope at the UPMS office, attention Mary for Drama tickets with the attached order form. The Senior Gold Card Show (matinee) is on Wednesday, March 2nd at 3:30, free for seniors ($8 for non-senior citizens who attend, the school will not card for the Gold Card.
The following weekend the Upper Perkiomen High School will perform an evening of one act plays (instead of their usual spring musical); The Internet is Distract-Oh Look a Kitten!, Oh Tangled Web, and The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong. Tickets for the 7 p.m. performances scheduled for March 10 – March 13, 2022 go on sale online on February 28th. The Senior Citizen Gold Card Show matinee will start at 1 p.m. on March 9th.
This weekend, the wonderful theater program at Muhlenberg College will be presenting their first full scale musical since the pandemic began, Miss You Like Hell, with the added bonus of offering a chance to talk and meet with the musical composer of the show. Erin McKeown will be giving a Songwriting Presentation & Conversation on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. on February 26th (free, but reservations required due to space requirements), and be part of a post-show conversation after Saturday night’s performance. A live seven-piece band will be on stage, playing a mix of musical styles from pop to folk to R&B. The show runs Thursday, February 24 – Sunday, February 27, 2022. Tickets are available online. Proof of full Covid-19 vaccination and masks required for all patrons. Muhlenberg College, Baker Theater, 2400 Chew Street, Allentown, PA
A mother & daughter’s journey of a lifetime into the heart of America.
Whip-smart and deeply imaginative, 16-year-old Olivia hasn’t seen her mother, Beatriz, for years. Now on the brink of deportation and hoping to make up for lost time, Beatriz cajoles her daughter into coming along on a cross-country expedition with a deadline. An intense, rambunctious new musical by Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes (“In the Heights,” “Water by the Spoonful”) and acclaimed singer/songwriter Erin McKeown, “Miss You Like Hell” brings audiences on a desperate, joyous, uniquely American road trip.
Muhlenberg College Theater and Dance
The Color Purple, the Tony winning musical based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Alice Walker, opens at The Civic Theater (19th Street, Allentown, PA) on Friday, February 25th and runs through March 13, 2022. Tickets may be purchased online.
Valley Art Scene 