Moon Over Buffalo

Performances

September 5-7, 11-13, 2003

Venue

Community Players Theatre

Synopsis

In the madcap comedy tradition of “Lend me a Tenor,” the hilarious “Moon Over Buffalo” centers on George and Charlotte Hay, fading stars of the 1950’s. At the moment, they’re playing “Private Lives” and “Cyrano De Bergerac” in rep in Buffalo, New York with 5 actors. On the brink of a disastrous split-up caused by George’s dalliance with a young ingénue, they receive word that they might just have one last shot at stardom: Frank Capra is coming to town to see their matinee, and if likes what he sees, he might cast them in his movie remake of “The Scarlet Pimpernel.” Unfortunately for George and Charlotte, everything that could go wrong does go wrong, abetted by a visit from their daughter’s clueless fiancé and hilarious uncertainty about which play they’re actually performing, caused by Charlotte’s deaf old stage-manager mother who hates every bone in George’s body.

Author: Ken Ludwig

Historian’s Corner

The theme for the 81st season was “New Things To See in 2003, And Even More in 2004.” This season would have shows that Players had never performed in its history. The first production was the Ken Ludwig farce-comedy, “Moon Over Buffalo.” The Pantagraph gave Players a full page photo article on the upcoming season, but the focus was on “Moon Over Buffalo.” The reporter, Steve Arney, spent a rehearsal evening talking with the actors on how they go about preparing to do a show, and the difficulties in doing a farce-comedy. This show was the directorial debut for Matt Drat and was highly praised for all aspects of the production.