The Curtain Rises On a Theater Season Full of Surprises

Theatergoers will be treated to an unusually fresh roster of comedies, dramas and musicals as the 2006-07 season gets underway this week in Prince William County.

Some theater companies are planning seasons highlighting new and rarely performed shows, a departure from the familiar productions that have been dominating schedules for years.

The new material will be onstage right off the bat. This weekend at the Cramer Center in Manassas, 2nd Flight Productions presents the local premiere of "Bat Boy: The Musical," written by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming.

The writers say they got the idea for the show from the tabloid Weekly World News, which ran a series of stories in the 1990s about a half-bat, half-boy discovered by teenagers in a West Virginia cave. One of the teenagers takes "bat boy" home, where he is domesticated and soon blamed for an epidemic of cows dying. The songs are drawn from a variety of genres, and the musical has a strong element of satire.

The rest of 2nd Flight Productions' season is tamer. It includes Steve Martin's gently comic fantasy "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," which is quickly becoming an area community theater favorite, and "The Kid Who Talked to Penguins," a comedy for young audiences by Ed Monk.

With five productions scheduled, Vpstart Crow Productions has the most ambitious season in local theater.

Its season begins in October with Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull," the first time the troupe has tackled the work of the Russian playwright. The 1896 play, set in czarist Russia, is ostensibly about unrequited love but is really a chance for Chekhov to make tart observations about how humans handle daily life.

Vpstart Crow usually focuses more on Shakespeare but has only one of his plays on the schedule this season, the comedy "Much Ado About Nothing." Its season includes "The Ghost Sonata," an intense drama by August Strindberg, and Molière's farce "The Imaginary Invalid."

Vpstart Crow has not fully rebounded artistically from the ouster of its founding members several seasons back, making the production of such an eclectic list of plays an interesting challenge and perhaps a sign that the troupe will reclaim its former reputation.

The third theater company calling the Cramer Center home -- Theater for the Community -- had financial and artistic difficulties last season, and it's not yet known whether it will perform.

Prince William Little Theatre is still in search of a permanent home -- a problem that has contributed to a steady decline in its productions. Yet that hasn't stopped the troupe from coming up with two shows this season that are new to the area and promise something out of the ordinary.

Its season opens next month with the familiar "Driving Miss Daisy" by Alfred Uhry and continues with "Cotton Patch Gospel," the story of Jesus as set in modern-day Georgia with music by Harry Chapin, and "Radio TBS (Trailer Park Broadcasting Scandals)" -- a raucous comedy set in a rundown Southern trailer park.