-Courtesy of En Route Marketing
Renovations of the historic building will begin following the current production season. USA Architects out of Somerville, NJ, and Sweetwater Construction Corp. based in Cranbury, NJ, will perform the work.
Bristol Riverside Theatre (BRT) (120 Radcliffe Street, Bristol, PA 19007) begins its 38th season at The Regency Room (190 Mifflin Street, Bristol, PA, 19007), an intimate 150-seat venue with up close and personal views, ample onsite free parking, bar and concessions. Two entrances for the space, one on Mifflin Street and the ADA-accessible entrance at the rear of the building accommodate guests while Bristol Riverside Theatre’s main venue undergoes a multi-million-dollar renovation and facelift.
The season opens with a D.L. Colburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Gin Game in a production reuniting Keith Baker and Penelope Reed. Baker was the Artistic Director of BRT and Reed the Producing Artistic Director of Hedgerow Theatre, each for nearly 30 years. In this production they reunite to thrill local audiences as Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey, roles made famous by Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, in a touching story about friendship, isolation, and aging. BRT is delighted to welcome back Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Jon Marans (Old Wicked Songs) to direct. Running September 10 to September 29, the play tells the story of two elderly acquaintances locked in increasingly competitive rounds of Gin Rummy. In life, we play the cards we are dealt—some are winners and some are losers.
For the season’s second show, BRT presents David Ives’ sexy and hilarious tale about an uninhibited actress who weasels her way into an audition just when the director is ready to end the day. Venus in Fur received a Tony nomination for Best Play of 2012. This stage adaptation of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s 1870 novel depicts dissatisfied writer-director Thomas Novachek in a feverish search for the perfect actress to star in his play’s leading role as Vanda von Dunayev. As the audition progresses an entanglement ensues that shifts power dynamics and challenges the director’s tainted ideas about sex and women. This charming laugh-out-loud study of sex and power performs from October 22 to November 10.
The season continues back in BRT’s newly renovated theatre at 120 Radcliffe Street in January 2025 with a ribbon cutting welcoming guests to the fully revamped auditorium renamed the John Martinson Theatre. The new theatre will have enhanced theatrical sound and lighting, new seating, aisle railings, expanded concessions, a window-walled front entryway, a new façade and roof, a restructured main entrance for wheelchair accessibility, a refitted loading dock, a new HVAC, and upgraded electrical systems.
The new year kicks-off with Anna Deveare Smith’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated docudrama Fires in the Mirror, which investigates the 1991 violence in Crown Heights through the real words of the those involved in and affected by the conflict between the Black and Hasidic communities of Crown Heights, New York. Smith interviewed over 100 people ranging from teenagers to politicians. Those transcripts were culled down to 26 people and edited to create a striking tapestry of oral histories. This thought-provoking production is directed by BRT’s Amy Kaissar, premiering February 4 to 23.
For the grand reopening of the building, BRT will invite audiences in for a vibrant party celebrating community with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes‘ 2008 Tony and Grammy Award-winning show, In the Heights. Miranda’s love-letter to Washington Heights, Manhattan begins with bodega owner Usnavi de la Vega opening his store on the hottest day of the summer while shooing away petty vandal Graffiti Pete. Usnavi establishes his domain as the neighborhood historian and storyteller, introducing his community as a place defined by passion, promise, and grit. With its spicy blend of salsa, freestyles, and vivid characters, the stage smash runs from March 25 to April 27.
Finally, the season closes on a suspenseful note with the thrilling whodunnit, Alibi: An Agatha Christie Story. Based on England’s queen-of-mystery Agatha Christie’s 1926 novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the show was Christie’s first stage-adapted work. Here, it receives a fresh treatment and marks the return to BRT’s biennial Community Participatory productions, the first since the pandemic. The mystery surrounds Sir Roger Ackroyd, a man who knew too much about his paramour’s sudden death. There’s a blackmailer around, and a murderer on the loose, but who are they? BRT’s homage to the famous crime writer runs May 27 through June 15 to conclude the season.
“We’re excited to deliver the newly refurbished theatre that we’ve been planning for several years.” Co-Producing Director Amy Kaissar said about the nomadic season. “But more importantly, we’re excited that we won’t miss a beat in delivering great theatre to our audiences while that renovation happens.”
Single season tickets go on sale June 10 for all five shows of the upcoming 2024-25 theatre season, starting at $52 for standard productions and $57 for musicals, online at brtstage.org. Limited seats are available for the first two shows. BRT’s productions offer special pre- and post-show engagements, included with the ticket price, for guests to create a special night out. More information, updates, and advance ticket purchases are available at brtstage.org and through the BRT box office at 215-785-0100.
Philadelphia RowHome Magazine's Blog 