Grand Singing Now at Women's Theater Company

Parsippany Playhouse is alive through June 2 with the sounds of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Parsippany's Women’s Theater Company presents the final show of its 20th season,  the Rodgers and Hammerstein revue “A Grand Night for Singing.” Performances run on the weekends now through June 2. The production, what the company calls a celebration of "timeless masterpieces from the music of Richard Rodgers and lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II," is produced by Barbara Krajkowski with musical direction from Warren Helms and staging by Lauren Moran Mills. The two act musical revue was conceived by Broadway legend Walter Bobbie, who compiled 34 Broadway gems from the R&H canon. It includes fresh takes on songs from popular and historic musicals such as "Oklahoma!", "The Sound of Music," "The King and I," "South Pacific," and even the recent …

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Spotlight on Parsippany

Women's Theater Company Prepares for 20th Anniversary

'A Grand Night for Singing' is theater company's next offering.

It's been quite a ride for Parsippany's Women's Theater Company. For 20 years, the thespian group housed within the Parsippany Community Center's Parsippany Playhouse has kept live theater alive in the township. Just in the last year, the WTC has delighted audiences with plays such as "Southern Comforts" and the recent "A Person of Interest"  and musical shows like "Carol Channeling." The next Parsippany Playhouse presentation will in fact be a musical revue: "A Grand Night for Singing" features the classic songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein.   Thinking of the company's milestone, we thought this was the perfect  time to shine the Parsippany Spotlight on a township treasure.  WTC Executive Director (and producer of "A Grand Night for Singing…

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'A Person of Interest' on the Boards at Women's Theater Company

The world-premiere production of this original play by Jewel Seehaus-Fisher runs weekends through March 31.

'Fantastick' Fun at the Parsippany Playhouse

Off-Broadway veteran enlivens cast of musical at Women's Theater Co.

The Women’s Theater Co. launched its 20th anniversary season in classic style Friday night at the Parsippany Community Center with a respectful nod to another theatrical institution—“The Fantasticks.” Director Barbara Krajkowski was a fan of the original production of this beguiling little musical, which spent a record 42 consecutive years Off-Broadway (from 1960 to 2002). It took her this long to finally direct it herself, and she’s gifted us with a production that not only pays tribute to its past, but manages to put an appropriate — and successful — Women’s Theater Co. spin on what so many of us have seen before. Jerry Orbach famously starred in the original cast as El Gallo, the dashing bandit who also serves as the narrator. Through …

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Parsippany Dramatic Ensemble Celebrates 20 Years

Women's Theater Co. opens anniversary season with 'The Fantasticks.'

This week marks the opening of the 20th anniversary season of the Women’s Theater Co., and producing artistic director Barbara Krajkowski has come up with a fantastic way to celebrate. The milestone season begins Friday with the premiere of the record-setting musical, “The Fantasticks,” which launches a music-heavy 2012-13 schedule for the professional company in residence at the Parsippany Community Center. After wandering from space to space for more than a decade, Krajkowski’s company finally found a permanent home in her home town of Parsippany, in the cozy 99-seat theater vacated a few years earlier by a community-theater group. Nine years later, the WTC is entrenched as an essential part of the Morris County and Parsippany cultural …

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Barbara Krajkowski: A Life in the Theater

Women's Theater Company director has been involved in local theater for decades.

Barbara Krajkowski has had a long and storied career in the theater arts, starting long before she founded Parsippany's Women’s Theater Company. “I’ve been doing theater most of my life, she said. "I started in Brooklyn when I was a child; I was always around theater. When I came back to New Jersey, I started looking for theaters. I’ve been here for 45 years and I’ve always been in a theater.” Krajkowski’s stops have included Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she earned degrees in theater arts,  William Paterson University, where she has taught for 30 years, and the Barn Theatre in Montville. What inspired her to establish the Women’s Theater Company, though, in 1993? “I was sitting with a couple of ladies and said, ‘Let’s start a …

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Spirited 'Southern Comfort' Served in Parsippany

Playwright attends premiere of Women's Theater Company season-ender

The world of theater often taps deeply into the imagination, asking the audience to conjure images of vast landscapes and settings, outrageous occurrences or outright magic. And sometimes, it knocks you out with simplicity, true-to-life settings and a dedication to honesty. “Southern Comforts,” which closes out the Women’s Theater Company’s 2011-12 season, falls into the latter camp, with the straightforward depiction of two seemingly mismatched seniors who risk the rewards—and the drawbacks—of a December romance. Adding to the fun is the Morris County setting of Mine Hill native Kathleen Clark’s popular dramatic comedy. WTC founder and Producing Artistic Director Barbara Krajkowski is now the only person to have directed all three of …

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Cast, Musicians Lift Grown-up Musical

Women's Theater Co. revives off-Broadway award-winner 'The Last Five Years.'

The Women’s Theatre Co. promises—right on the home page of its website—“a little off-Broadway right here in Morris County.” There is a slightly different mindset off-Broadway than there is in its big-brother theaters. Musicals, in particular, are written for smaller stages and smaller audiences, sometimes as minute as the 99-seat Parsippany Playhouse, where Parsippany’s professional resident company premiered its revival of “The Last Five Years” Friday night at the Parsippany Community Center. Jason Robert Brown’s two-character, one-act musical, won a Drama Desk award in 2002, is a good example of the small-room musical. With audience and actors sharing a tight space, the music and songs play a more dramatic purpose than on the big stages…

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Actress, Educator Shares 'Five Years' in Parsippany

Acclaimed regional artist stars in latest Women's Theater Company musical.

For the many North Jersey theater fans who have seen her act or heard her sing, the name Lea Antolini may be worth the price of admission by itself. A full-time instructor at Centenary College in Hackettstown, the professional actress and Sparta resident has limited her stage work mostly to Centenary and the kid-oriented Growing Stage in nearby Netcong. But this week, she will make her regional debut as a romantic lead in “The Last Five Years,” yet another intimate musical staged by the Women’s Theatre Company. Friday and Saturday performances through March 18 are at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees beginning at 3 p.m. Since taking residence at the Parsippany Community Center several years ago, this small professional company, traditionally …

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At Parsippany Playhouse, Comedy is All in the Family

Women's Theater Company does justice to Pulitzer Prize-winning 'Crimes of the Heart.'

A celebratory cake was cut in the final scene of the Pulitzer Prize-winning dark comedy, “Crimes of the Heart” Friday night at the Parsippany Community Center. Taken out of context, that gesture might have appeared a bit premature. But it was in the script and, as it turned out, this opening-night celebration was entirely appropriate. While no one will mistake it for the feel-good holiday show of the season, Director Barbara Krajkoswki’s splendid revival has all the southern belles and whistles expected of a crowd-pleasing hit. Beth Henley’s twisted tale of three dysfunctional Mississippi sisters is a treasure, and Krajkowski has assembled a talented cast loaded with convincing family chemistry. Nearly 30 years old now, “Crimes of the …

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