‘Barefoot In The Park’ Wraps Tibbits Summer Theatre Season With Laughs
Lots of laughs and a rom-com at that. Tibbits Summer Theatre in Coldwater is wrapping up the season with a Neil Simon comedy, Barefoot in the Park. The play, set in 1963 is about newlyweds Corie and Paul Bratter. She's a free-spirit, he's an uptight lawyer, starting their life-together. They move into a New York City apartment building and the place is less than perfect. Plus, remember it's 1963. Couples weren't normally living together before they got married, so there's the comedy of two newlyweds adjusting to each other and then you mix in her mother and an eccentric neighbor and, well the critics loved it then and should now.
Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley debuted the play on Broadway in 1963, while Jane Fonda played Corie in the movie four years later opposite Redford. The play ran for four years and is one of the Broadway's biggest hits ever. After the movie, Barefoot in the Park became a TV series in 1970, one of the first the feature a predominantly African-American cast.
The cast for this show features Tibbits newcomers Kate Turner as Corie Bratter and Michigander Doran Berger as Paul Bratter. Janet Essenpreis is Corie's mother, with Summer Theatre veterans Paul Kerr plays Victor Velasco and Chad Tallon is the telephone repair man.
The show opens Thursday, July 28th, and plays July 29th, 31st, and August 3rd through 6th. Tickets are available at Tibbits.org
In addition, award-winning Branch County children’s author, Patricia Polacco's Union City wraps up on July 29th and 30th as part of the Popcorn Theatre series.