Lively 2022-23 theatre season will bring the familiar ‘Music Man’ and new favorites

Liberty University’s Department of Theatre Arts is set to welcome audiences back next year with a potent mix of new and familiar productions in the 2022-23 season, opening the fall with the Alfred Hitchcock parody “The 39 Steps” and marching out into the summer with “The Music Man.”

“Every year we try to find a good balance for the audience and students to go with the different talents we have in our student body,” said theatre professor Andy Geffken, who has been overseeing the upcoming season. “No matter what play or musical we’re doing, our goal is always to set the bar higher, and I think the audiences have come to trust that what we put on stage is the best we can make it. We don’t take anything for granted.”

Geffken said with the seating limitations and safety protocols due to the COVID-19 pandemic during the last two years, he hopes the comedies that fill much of the upcoming season will open audiences up to enjoy the theatre experience more.

“We’re going for a more encouraging, upbeat season, and hopefully people respond well to that and students enjoy it,” he said.

The fall season will open with a faculty showcase production of “The 39 Steps,” a parody of the 1915 novel by John Buchan and 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film in which the wide variety of characters are performed by only four actors. Then comes the musical comedy “Curtains” with a similar murder mystery setting, followed by the romantic comedy “You Can’t Take it With You,” the story of a woman whose eccentric family meets her fiancé’s snobbish family to approve their marriage. Before the holiday break, the sharp wit and romantic turns of Jane Austen will be at the forefront with “Emma.”

The spring will start with the ill-fated tale of star-crossed lovers in “Romeo & Juliet,” followed by the true story of 19th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt’s exploration of both the cosmos and a woman’s place in society in “Silent Sky.” To end the season, Liberty will be bringing back the show that became the university’s first musical production (in 1980) — “The Music Man,” featuring the musical exploits of con man Harold Hill in a small Iowa town.

“We get to build some positive equity with the audience before we get to the incredibly famous tragedy of ‘Romeo & Juliet,’” Geffken joked.

Even if audiences might have seen a show before, Geffken says Liberty has always remained dedicated to putting on sincere, fresh performances of familiar stories.

“We’re not just going to allow it to be the same show everyone has already seen,” he said. “We are trying to make these shows unique to the people we have working on them, and we try to make them fresh for the audience. You don’t have to do them differently. You have to make them honest, and if the show is honest, the audience will feel it. We want to handle them with care and make it new for people without undercutting what people love about the show.”

Tickets for the 2022-23 season will be available on the Theatre Arts website in the coming months.