The Arkansas Repertory Theatre opens its 2022-23 season Oct. 4-23 with a Neil Simon comedy -- "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" -- with Arkansas-connected star of stage and screen Judge Reinhold making his Rep debut.
Simon based the play on his experience as a young staff writer on Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" in the 1950s, where he worked in the writers' room with Mel Brooks and Woody Allen, among others. Reinhold plays the show's star, Max Prince.
"They're all a little crazy, against the overwhelming presence" of this mega-star, said Will Trice, the Rep's executive artistic director, "who is really crazy himself."
Reinhold is best known for his film roles, including "Stripes," "The Santa Clause," "Beverly Hills Cop", "Ruthless People" and particularly "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," and as "the close-talker" on TV's "Seinfeld." He spends a lot of time in Little Rock, in large part because it is the home town of Amy Miller, whom he married in 2000.
"Judge and I have been trying to find a project for three years," Trice said. After some pre-pandemic play readings didn't turn up one that worked, "we finally landed on this one."
The season lineup includes two musicals: Frank Loesser's "Guys & Dolls" (with a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, based on a Damon Runyon story and characters ), onstage Nov. 29-Dec. 30, and "Little Shop of Horrors," with music by Alan Menken, book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and based on the Roger Corman B-movie classic, screenplay by Charles Griffith), May 30-June 25, 2023.
In between, the Rep will stage:
• Jan. 31-March 12: "Every Brilliant Thing" by Duncan Macmillan, with Johnny Donahoe, in the Rep's "Black Box" performance space on its Second Mezzanine. Arkansas actor Chad Bradford plays a 6-year-old who devises a list of everything that's "brilliant" about the world for his hospitalized mother, who needs help finding things that are worth living for.
• April 11-30, 2023: "Clyde's" by Lynn Nottage, which the theater describes in a news release as "a delightful new play about reclaiming life, and the perfect sandwich," set in a truck-stop sandwich shop where the formerly incarcerated kitchen staff get a shot at reclaiming their lives.
Season tickets range from $141 to $343. Information is available by calling (501) 378-0405 or online at TheRep.org.