36°F overcast clouds

MAKING WHOOPEE BEFORE THE SHOW AT TRT

newlywed-gameEd Marmut, 18, and his girlfriend, Colleen Roberts, 19, winners of Two River Theater’s “Newlywed Game,” one of the theater’s pre-show events. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Ed Marmut and his girlfriend, Colleen Roberts, didn’t have much doubt as they walked into the Two River Theater last month that they were going to leave as winners. Their confidence bordered on hubris.

“So, how long have you two been together?” redbankgreen asked the couple, of Tinton Falls, before a round of “The Newlywed Game” was staged in the theater lobby.

“One year, two months and nine days,” Marmut, 18, said with confidence and a starry gaze into Roberts’ eyes that could make you want to cry or gag.

The abbreviated version of the old TV game show was the most recent pre-theater entertainment offering at TRT, in this case for the run of  “Barefoot In The Park.” But it’s just one of a number of enticements by the the venue to draw in theatergoers, says Sean Murphy, the theater’s marketing manager.

More →

OPENING NIGHT: A REALLY BIG SHOE


To enlarge the photo display, start it, then click the embiggen symbol in the lower right corner. To get back to redbankgreen, hit your escape key.

Well-shod theatergoers enjoyed a reception following the opening -night performance of ‘Barefoot in the Park’ at Red Bank’s Two River Theater on Saturday.

The Neil Simon classic comedy stars Meg Chambers Steedle and John Wernke and runs through February 28.

IN oRBit: A NOT-SO-ODD COUPLE

Noworbiting_icon

barefootsmall
One’s the most successful writer of comedies in Broadway history. The other’s a serious scholar of classic literature, a retired college professor and founding father of Two River Theater Company. Together they’re teaming up for laughs this Valentine’s season, as Robert M. Rechnitz prepares to open a new production of Neil Simon‘s Barefoot in the Park at the Red Bank performing arts auditorium named for Dr. Rechnitz and his wife Joan.

Today’s edition of Red Bank oRBit the details how the professor — a man more likely to be found staging the works of Chekhov, Ibsen and Moliere — came to be “Simonized,” as he tells it, and fall in love with the 1964 comedy by the creator of The Sunshine Boys and The Odd Couple; “a delightful, compelling play that moves like lightning.”

On the eve of the first previews for the production that stars Meg Chambers Steedle and John Wernke (above), director Rechnitz talks about his personal history with this show, about Simon’s lasting legacy, and about how a good romantic comedy brings out the youthful blush in all concerned. Read all about it, right here in Red Bank oRBit!