Photos courtesy of Long Beach Playhouse by Mike Hardy.
Tonight, you can pay what you’d like to see the first performance of the Long Beach Playhouse production, Love/Sick, where playwright John Cariani brings out non-traditional love in the aisles of a grocery supercenter, the playhouse announced.
“Our director is Shinshin Yuder Tsai,” said Artistic Director Sean Gray in a statement. “When we talked about the show we both knew the chemistry between the cast would be pivotal to making it work. We’re a community theater but our mantra is always to be more, to do more and to deliver shows on par with theaters with bigger budgets and resources. Tsai understands what that takes and he delivers that in this show.”
All combinations of genders and human conditions are considered in the romantic comedy, which involves nine different relationships forming an overall picture, stated director Tsai. What makes Love/Sick interesting is that it doesn’t stop at forever-after love or a mainstream happy ending, but aims to answer the question, “what happens after happily ever after?”
Elijah Douglas as Bill, Maria V. Oliveira as Sarah.
“I love the set for this show,” Playhouse Executive Director Madison Mooney said in a statement. “All of us have walked the aisles of this store and all of us know what it’s like to fall in love and to fall back out of love. In this play that happens in the aisles of the supercenter store.”
Actors making their debut on The Studio theatre stage are Maria V. Oliveira, Devon DeLamora, Karen Owens, John Phelan, and William Jaramillo and those returning are Elijah Douglas, Elspeth Carden and Holland Renton.
Special events for Love/Sick include a pay-what-you-can performance Thursday at 8:00PM, a two-for-one preview Friday with tickets at $10 and an Opening Night Champagne Reception with the cast on Saturday, June 9 with tickets at $27.
For more information on ticket prices and Long Beach Playhouse, visit the website here.
Performances are 8:00PM Friday, and Saturday and 2:00PM Sunday. The box office is open Wednesday to Saturday from 3:00PM to 8:00PM and Sundays from 1:00PM to 2:00PM on scheduled matinees.
Long Beach Playhouse is located at 5021 East Anaheim Street.