New Works From the Angry Grammarian Fam
Shakespeare gone folk.
It’s been a while, but for Angry Grammarian fans in and around Philadelphia, two new shows happening this month:
The Ballad of King Henry
Music and Lyrics by Jeffrey Barg & Book by Sally Ollove; Conceived by Benjamin Kamine
You never knew Shakespeare was all about the hootenanny. This raucous original new musical presents the Bard’s classic tale of a prince’s coming-of-age as it was intended—with all the foot-stomping, harmonica-blowing, acoustic-throwdown tunes your boxcar-riding bones can handle. The Ballad of King Henry adapts Shakespeare's story of Henry IV, Prince Hal, Hotspur and Falstaff—arguably the greatest character the Bard ever wrote—to the sound of folk music.
With music and lyrics by Jeffrey Barg, composer of The Angry Grammarian musical, who also appears in The Ballad of King Henry as the bandleader. Also featuring Abrham Bogale, who played Tim in The Angry Grammarian.
March 28-April 5, $10-$15. Players Club of Swarthmore, 614 Fairview Rd., Swarthmore, Pa. Tickets at pcstheater.org
Angry Grammarian Substack subscribers can get $3 off tickets with the code SPRING3.
Ink & Paint
Pier Players Theatre Company, who brought you 2024’s productions of The Angry Grammarian, is back with Ink & Paint: a staged reading of a new musical in collaboration with Media Theatre.
With book, music and lyrics by Danielle E. Moore, Ink & Paint follows the first women artists at the Walt Disney Animation Studios in the 1930s and beyond, whose ranks included immigrants, a single mother and architect, a record-breaking pilot, a concept artist, and Disney’s first credited woman animator.
The cast includes Chelsea Cylinder, who played Lisa in The Angry Grammarian; Madeline Snyder, who played Judge Sapphire; and AG marketing maven Julianne Kastner.
March 7-9, $30. Media Theatre, 104 E. State St., Media, Pa. Tickets at mediatheatre.org