Tag Archives: Ilion Little Theatre

I apologize to local readers (if any). I really prefer to attend Ilion Little Theatre (ILT) productions opening weekend. That way readers of the post about the play have another weekend to catch the show. Didn’t happen this time. Then again, I often write about events that were one-shot deals, and people do still have two more chances to catch Don’t Talk to the Actors (if you act quickly, as they say in the infomercials).

We arrived at the theatre on Remington Avenue in Ilion, NY right around 7:30 p.m. last night (Friday, March 21). We wanted to get there early, in case the play sold out. It had played to very appreciative audiences opening weekend. We knew it had gotten good word of mouth. There were plenty of seats left, although we had to discommode people sitting on the end of the row. We like to sit in the middle, although at ILT there are no bad seats that I know of.

As we waited for the show to start, we perused our programs and, as always, looked around at the framed posters on the walls. So many plays! I love to look at the dates and look for names I know.

The director didn’t make the usual curtain speech. It was made by a character in the play, the most sought after stage manager on Broadway. A nice touch which pulled us right into the story.

It is a fun story for any theatre lover, especially ones like Steven and me, who have worked on many plays and perhaps harbored Broadway dreams of our own at one time (I’m not saying we actually did, but perhaps). A naive playwright and his innocent fiance are in New York City, where the playwright’s play is about to be produced. I did think it was kind of funny that Buffalo was treated as a small town, from which people came who had NO IDEA how to cope with the rat race of NYC. I always thought Buffalo was kind of a big city. Then again, I live in Herkimer.

I guess I don’t need to tell you that things do not go quite as expected for our hero and heroine (wouldn’t be much of a play if they did). It is a very funny and surprisingly touching story. I expected the funny, because of what I’d heard beforehand, but the touching was a nice surprise.

We laughed out loud in many places, as did a lot of the audience. We enjoyed some coffee and candy during intermission. Another highlight of my evening was winning the 50/50 raffle at intermission. Proceeds from the 50/50 go toward framing the posters I always admire on the wall. Some nice people donate their winnings back, but I greedily kept mine. Don’t judge.

I recommend the production and, like I said, if you hurry, you have two more chances to see it: tonight, Saturday, March 22 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 23 at 2 p.m. For more information, check out ILT’s website at www.ilionlittletheatre.org. You can also Like their Facebook page.