Screwball comedy opens season

Hackettstown — Money (and the lack of it), love and marriage (or the hope of it) make a tempestuous brew in the Centenary Stage Company’s upcoming production of the comic romp, “Clandestine Marriage,” which opens Friday, Oct. 2 at the Centenary Theatre in Hackettstown. Set in the “roaring 20s,” this lively entertainment tells the story of a down-on-his-luck upper class patriarch, desperate to raise some cash through his nephew’s marriage into a wealthy businessman’s family. Meanwhile the nephew has actually fallen in love with another, a young lady who is in love with a penniless assistant. With an interfering aunt, a jealous sister, a social climbing father, an aging Casanova and his calculating nephew, “Clandestine Marriage” develops into a wild farce where everyone is in love with someone, just not the right one. Director Carl Wallnau calls the David Garrick and George Coleman comedy “something of a neglected masterpiece.” The play seems to be seldom revived. “This is unfortunate,” Wallnau said, “since the basic premise is as timely today as when it was written in 1767.” “The play so skewers the pretensions of the upper classes, as well as blue bloods,” Wallnau said, “as to rival the best screwball comedies of the 1930s, hence our decision to move the play into the ‘jazz age’.” The cast of “Clandestine Marriage” includes Steve Barron (Metuchen) and Roland Johnson (Leonia). Hackettstown actress Neva Rae Powers, recently returned from several years on the European stage in Austria, will portray Mrs. Heidleburg. Brooklynite newcomer Laine Bonstein (originally from Chester) will play Fanny Sterling, and Kevin Sebastian, who recently won “Best Actor” award for his portrayal in the American Globe Theatre’s New Play Festival, will be seen as John Melvil. Performances, which will run through Oct. 18, will be Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m., with an additional preview matinee on Friday, Oct. 2 at 2:30 p.m., and a Wednesday matinee on Oct. 7 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets range in price from $17.50 for matinees to $22.50 for Saturday evening performances, with discounts for seniors and students, and may be purchased through the box office at 908-979-0900 and online at www.centenarystageco.org.