TAP Goes “Barefoot in the Park”

Third Avenue Playhouse brings the quintessential situation comedy to the stage this spring with their TAPWorks production of Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park. Renee Kujawski directs the beloved comedy classic. Eight performances will be held over two weekends, April 16 – 19 and April 23 – 26. Thursday, Friday and Saturday shows are at 7:30 pm. Sunday matinees are at 2 pm.

As one of Simon’s earliest and most popular comedies, this light-hearted romance between a straight-laced lawyer and an impetuous free spirit begins where most romantic comedies end, bringing reality and humor to the life that happens after two people fall in love and get married. Set in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, Barefoot in the Park opens with newlyweds Paul Bratter (Stu Champeau) and Corie Bratter (Anne St. Henry) moving into their fifth-floor walkup apartment. Adjusting to married life soon becomes complicated by a leaking skylight and their eccentric neighbor Victor Velasco (Bill Bauernfeind), who must go through their apartment in order to get to his own. When Corie hatches a plot to get Victor together with her mother Ethel (Lynn Olson), the dinner party goes awry with hilarious results.

Neil Simon wrote Barefoot in the Park in 1963. It was his second play and so popular it ran for four years and was made into a film four years later starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford. Simon’s way of putting mismatched people together in a situations that are both perfectly normal and yet ridiculous has made him the second most performed playwright after Shakespeare.

Ticket prices for Barefoot in the Park are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and $8 for children under 12. Tickets are on sale at the theater box office, 239 N. Third Avenue, Sturgeon Bay, 920-743-1760. Box office hours are 10 am – 3 pm, Monday – Friday and one hour prior to performances. Tickets are also available at Dancing Bear, 13 N. Third Avenue and on-line at http://www.ThirdAvenuePlayhouse.com.