Marie Antoinette Loses Her Head, Zelda Fitzgerald Gets Jazzy & More Cross-Country Highlights

Great theater is happening all across America, and Broadway.com's new weekly feature proves it! We’ve sifted through dozens of offerings away from NYC and found excellent shows in all corners of America. This week, we highlight a fashionable Frenchwoman, a legendary jazz baby, an electric stage turn from Olympia Dukakis and more!


NEW HAVEN, CT
Marie Antoinette's Head Will Roll
Tony nominee Marin Ireland takes on the infamous French queen in the world premiere of David Adjmi's Marie Antoinette. Described as a humorous look at the fashion-loving monarch, Rebecca Taichman's production features choreography by Tony-nominated modern dance great Karole Armitage (Hair). There's even a puppet designer (Matt Acheson) to help bring Marie's haute story to life! The entire French affair runs from October 26 through November 17 at Yale Repertory Theatre.


SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Olympia Dukakis Fires Up in Elektra
After an acclaimed sold-out premiere in Los Angeles, American Conservatory Theater’s vivid reimagining of the Greek tragedy of Elektra is headed upstate to the city by the bay. Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis stars as a grief-stricken woman who burns for revenge after her mother murders her father. Carey Perloff directs a thrilling new translation of Sophocles’ text by Timberlake Wertenbaker (Our Country's Good), which plays at ACT from October 25 through November 18.


NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ
Andre De Shields Tells Knock Knock Jokes
Broadway vet Andre De Shields steps back into the role of African-American activist W.E.B. Du Bois in Crossroads Theatre Company’s season-starting play Knock Me a Kiss. Charles Smith’s family dramedy, which won a rave from The New York Times in a 2010 production, is set at the height of the Harlem Renaissance and offers a fictional retelling of the real-life wedding between Du Bois’ clueless daughter and a gay poet. This funny yet poignant play runs from October 25 through November 4.


FLAT ROCK, NC
The Roaring Twenties Swing Onto the Stage
Zelda Fitzgerald's rise from southern belle to national celebrity is chronicled in Frank Wildhorn and Jack Murphy’s Zelda: An American Love Story. The Tony-nominated team has tapped Broadway vets Lauren Kennedy and Jarrod Emick to play legendary lovers Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The jazzy 1920s tuner ends its run at Flat Rock Playhouse’s Mainstage on October 28, so head south quickly to catch at early look at this musical bio of a fascinating figure in American literary history.


IRVING, TX
Presidential Fever Hits Texas
Election Day is coming up fast, and what better way to celebrate democracy than with Broadway’s most patriotic musical? Lyric Stage, known for infusing popular musicals with fully orchestrated grandeur, lends its 33-piece orchestra to a new production of 1776, the 1969 Tony-winning musical about the signing of the Declaration of Independence. One Man, Two Guvnors alum Brian Gonzales leads the cast as John Adams in a production running from October 26 through November 4. (The patriotism doesn’t stop in Texas: California’s Cabrillo Music Theatre is also presenting the revolutionary tuner through October 28.)