Companies’ new seasons feature old faves, newer works

Broadway blockbusters, beloved musicals and seldom-produced plays are among the treats announced by Peninsula theaters for their upcoming 2022-23 seasons.

Before the new season begins, Smuin Contemporary Ballet is closing its current season with “Dance Series 2: P.S. Forever Smuin,” featuring Val Caniparoli’s playful “Confessions,” set to a soundtrack by American contemporary classical composer Nico Muhly and Faroese singer/songwriter Teitur, and Amy Seiwert’s “Renaissance,” loosely inspired by the 385-mile “Women’s Wall” protest in India to create awareness of gender equality, set to an a cappella soundtrack by Oakland’s Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble. Smuin artists Tessa Barbour and Brennan Wall will premiere the dances they presented in the 2021 Choreography Showcase and in last spring’s “Smuin al Fresco” program.

Smuin will present the program at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., May 19-22. Tickets are $25-$79 at 650-903-6000 or www.smuinballet.org

Under the theme of “Full Speed Ahead,” Palo Alto Players will open its 92nd season on Aug. 26 with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock musical, “School of Rock.” Next up on Nov. 4 is the retelling of the classic story of “Beauty and the Beast” though the eyes of Disney.

Considered one of the funniest plays ever written when it was on Broadway, “The Play That Goes Wrong” will open Jan. 20, 2023.  The family-friendly “The SpongeBob Musical,” based on the popular animated series, opening April 28. The season ends in June with a production that will be announced later this year.

Hillbarn Theatre’s 82nd season will take audiences on an exploration of what it means to consider the “other.” Each of the six shows will emphasize “the differences in all of us,” says Randy O’Hara, Hillbarn’s artistic director.

Here’s the lineup for the venerable Foster City theatre’s shows for 2022-23 and opening dates: “Gypsy,” Sept. 8; “Clybourne Park,” Oct. 13; “Elf the Musical,” Dec. 1; “Assassins,” Jan. 26; “Perfect Arrangements,” March 9; “The Producers,” April 27.

Los Altos Stage Company has come up with an intriguing 2022-23 season of old favorites and new shows.  LASC’s season opens on Sept. 8 with “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.”

The remaining productions are  ”The Secret Garden,” the musical about 11-year-old orphan Mary Lennox, opening Dec. 1; “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” Steve Martin’s humorous take on Einstein and Picasso meeting in Paris in 1904, opening Jan. 26; a stage version of the classic 1971 cult film “Harold and Maude” by Colin Higgins, opening April 13; “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” ,a jukebox musical based on the movie of the same name, opening June 1.

Pear Theatre in Mountain View expects to announce its 2022-23 season on June 12, but Pear artistic director Sinjin Jones says the theater will again offer a series of productions in repertory, similar to this year’s season.  Also planned are some standalone productions. Jones says the Pear also intends to offer cabaret shows, monthly improv offerings and special programming.

The past two years has turned TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s world upside down, with pandemic delays, rescheduled openings and some cancellations, according to Tim Bond, the Palo Alto company’s artistic director.

“Nan and the Lower Body” and “Hershey Felder at Monsieur Chopin” were rescheduled and will now open this summer. “Nan,” running July 13-Aug. 7, is the story of a brilliant female lab assistant who has mysteries to unravel and life-changing choices.

Longtime TheatreWorks favorite Hershey Felder will return Aug. 19 in “Hershey Felder as Fryderyk Chopin.” Considered the “poet of the piano,” Felder’s Chopin will welcome gifted students to his Paris salon in 1848. It runs through Sept. 11.

In the meantime, TheatreWorks’ “Ragtime” runs June 1-26 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. The musical’s book is by Terrence McNally, with music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens.

TheatreWorks’ new season is set to begin in October, and Bond says the company plans to announce it sometime this summer.