Syracuse Stage on Tuesday announced its lineup for the 2017-2018 season. “The Three Musketeers,” “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Next to Normal,” “A Raisin in the Sun” and “The Magic Play” will all be performed between September 2017 and May 2018. Multiple ticket packages are on sale now.

This is the first go-around of selecting the Stage’s plays for newly hired artistic director Bob Hupp. Hupp, who came aboard the staff last July, will make his directorial debut at the Syracuse Stage with the season’s first show, “The Three Musketeers.”

“I’m thrilled to share this great season, this terrific line-up of plays, with our audience,” Hupp said in a press release. “Syracuse Stage patrons are among the savviest in the country and they deserve the best we can deliver.”

That best effort will start Sept. 20 with the story of the Three Musketeers and their battle against the dastardly Cardinal Richelieu. Hupp said there is sure to be plenty of romance, intrigue and swordplay.

Up next and beginning Oct. 25 will be “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” which won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2015. It’s a play that’s graced Broadway for more than 800 performances but hasn’t made it much farther, and Syracuse is one of the first theaters outside of New York City to be given the rights to perform the play adapted from Mark Haddon’s novel of the same name.

“The Wizard of Oz” will run from Nov. 29 through the end of the year, and like “The Three Musketeers,” will be co-produced with Syracuse University’s department of drama. As Syracuse Stage’s annual holiday production, it is sure to gather a large crowd watching the stage adaption of L. Frank Baum’s classic novel.

“Next to Normal” launches on Jan. 17 and “A Raisin in the Sun” hits the Stage on Feb. 21

The 2017-2018 season is the 45th anniversary for for Syracuse Stage, and Hupp has gladly absorbed as much history as he could so far during his brief tenure.

“I’ve enjoyed learning about the proud tradition of artistic excellence that defines our theatre company,” Hupp said. “It is this unswerving commitment to artistic excellence and a passion to tell fantastic stories that demand to live on a stage that drive our creative process.”

But that doesn’t mean there won’t be fresh and new elements added to the Stage next season. “Cold Read: A Winter Festival of Hot New Plays,” will run Feb. 8-11. A project of associate artistic director and playwright Kyle Bass, it will incorporate reading of new and incomplete works and moderated discussions with one of the writers. The best part is that some of it will cost the public nothing at all.

To conclude the season, magic and drama will be combined in “The Magic Play,” which stars magician and actor Brett Schneider in an event that is said to have a different ending each time it runs. Schneider’s character grapples with off-stage personal problems while exhibiting a display of on-stage illusions.

“This is a fascinating new work that blurs the line of what we think of as theatre,” Hupp said. “It’s a new and very exciting experience for our audience.”

Published on February 28, 2017 at 8:00 am

Contact: jtbloss@syr.edu | @jtbloss