Glendale Centre Theatre stages Mark Twain’s comedy ‘Is He Dead?’
The Glendale Centre Theatre is bringing an obscure comedy with a cross-dressing plot written by Mark Twain to the Jewel City with its staging of “Is He Dead?”
Although a relatively recent Broadway hit, Twain’s play spent decades sitting in archives from the time it was written in 1898 until a scholar pushed to have the play published in 2003. After that, “Is He Dead?” was adapted by playwright David Ives and first staged in New York in 2007.
In “Is He Dead?,” a fictionalized version of French painter Jean-François Millet can barely pay his debt to an art dealer and, with the help of friends, fakes his death to help boost the demand and prices for his work.
The local production, which will run through Nov. 18, is directed by Todd Nielsen, and actor Grayson Wittenbarger returns to the Glendale Centre Theatre for the third time, this turn around in the lead role of Millet. Art dealer Bastion Andre is played by Ted Wells, and Ashlee Abrams plays Millet’s girlfriend Marie Leroux.
“The play deals with art and the fact that a down-and-out artist — quite a brilliant artist — is not going anywhere until [he] is dead,” Nielsen said.
The plot leads to Millet reappearing as his “twin” sister, in full drag, mad and widowed. From there, Nielsen said the play adopts a classic comedy formula of mistaken identities.
“It’s really a delightful piece, and I think audiences are going to enjoy it … A friend who saw the play called it a cross between Jane Austen and Gilbert and Sullivan,” Nielsen said, referring to the British writing team of comic operettas.
Performances will be at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays as well as 3 p.m. matinee performances on Saturdays. There will also be performances on select Thursdays and Sundays.
For more information, visit glendalecentretheatre.com.
Twitter: @JeffLanda
