Huntington Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary
With Bernstein, Wilson, Coward, And More

To celebrate its 30th Anniversary, the Huntington Theatre Company will present an eclectic 2011-2012 season that includes classic drama, acclaimed comedy, inspiring new work, and glorious music. Events include the completion of August Wilson’s Century Cycle, two locally set world premieres by Huntington Playwriting Fellows, a musical re-imagined by one of America’s greatest directors, a classic comedy directed by Artistic Director Peter DuBois, and a Broadway hit.

The 2011 - 2012 Season:

"Candide"
Boston University Theatre
September 10 – October 16, 2011
The beloved musical comedy with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Richard Wilbur with additional lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, John LaTouche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, and Leonard Bernstein, directed and newly adapted by MacArthur Genius and Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman ("Metamorphoses"). The outrageous musical comedy tells the story of the naïve Candide, who, banished for romancing the Baron’s daughter, endures a series of absurd hardships that challenge his optimistic outlook on life and love. The Chicago Sun-Times called Zimmerman’s new production, “Gorgeously imagined, 'Candide' is a garden of delights!”

"Before I Leave You"
Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts
October 14 – November 13, 2011
A love story for grownups set in Harvard Square and written by Huntington Playwriting Fellow Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro. In this world premiere, Emily’s son moves out and her husband Koji suddenly embraces his Asian roots. Their friend Jeremy’s work on his novel gets interrupted by a health scare and his sister Trish moving into his home. Four longtime friends face too much past and too little future in this moving new comedy.

"Captors"
Boston University Theatre
November 11 – December 11, 2011
The world premiere of the thrilling true story of a battle of wills by Evan M. Weiner inspired by the memoir Eichmann in My Hands by Peter Z. Malkin and Harry Stein. It's 1960 Buenos Aires. Covert Israeli agents have just nabbed Adolf Eichmann, the world's most wanted war criminal. The agents, many personally scarred by the war's carnage, hold "the architect of the Holocaust" in a safe house, but bringing him to justice means getting his signature first. Malkin (one of his captors) and Eichmann, the infamous mastermind, compete in a thrilling battle of wills. To be directed by Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois.

"God of Carnage"
Boston University Theatre
January 6 – February 5, 2012
In the scathing Tony and Olivier Award-winning New York smash hit by Yasmina Reza ("Art"), two sets of parents meet for the first time to settle their sons’ nasty schoolyard tangle. But all attempts at civilized discussion quickly devolve into childlike behavior in this fast, furious, and very funny comedy of bad manners. The New York Times calls it, “First class! 'God of Carnage' incites the kind of laughter that comes from the gut.”

"Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom"
Boston University Theatre
March 9 – April 8, 2012
August Wilson’s powerful and moving drama, and the final piece in his ten-play Century Cycle. The Huntington was one of Wilson’s long-time artistic homes. Legendary 1920s blues singer Ma Rainey and her musicians gather in a run-down Chicago studio to record new sides of old favorites when generational and racial tensions suddenly explode. Newsweek called the play, “Extraordinary." To be directed by Liesl Tommy ("Ruined").

"The Luck of the Irish"
Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts
March 30 – April 29, 2012
The world premiere of a compelling Boston story by Huntington Playwriting Fellow Kirsten Greenidge, directed by Melia Bensussen ("Circle Mirror Transformation"). When an upwardly mobile African-American family wants to buy a house in an all-white neighborhood of 1950s Boston, they pay a struggling Irish family to act as their front. Fifty years later, the Irish family asks for “their” house back. Moving across the two eras, this intimate new play explores personal stories of integration and the conflict of calling any place your home.

"Private Lives"
Boston University Theatre
May 25 – June 24, 2012
Noël Coward's stylish comedy about romance and rivalry tells the story of divorcés Amanda and Elyot who meet by accident on their respective second honeymoons with brand-new spouses in tow. Fireworks fly as they discover how quickly romance and rivalry can be rekindled. This savvy comedy about the people we can't live with . . . or without, will be staged by acclaimed British director Maria Aitken (Tony Award-winning "The 39 Steps"), one of the world's foremost interpreters of Coward.

Subscriptions are on sale now, available in 4, 5, 6, and 7 play packages. FlexPass subscriptions start with a minimum of 4 tickets that can be used for any show and never expire. For information, stop by the box office, call 617-266-0800 or visit huntingtontheatre.org/subscribe.