The Schoolhouse Theater’s What Keeps Us Going – Sells Out

The Schoolhouse Theater’s What Keeps Us Going – Sells Out

The Schoolhouse Theater’s World Premiere production of Barbara Dana’s comedy What Keeps Us Going delivered the theater’s best three-week run in its long and storied history, according to Producing Director Bram Lewis.

“Perhaps it was its Tony-studded cast” he speculated, that featured Tony-nominees Tim Jerome (Me and My Girl, 1987) and Amelia Campbell (Our Country’s Good, 1991. And starred Karen Ziemba, the 2000 Tony-winner for Best Featured Actress in the musical Contact. Who beat out none other than Eartha Kitt, Ann Hampton Calloway and Laura Benanti, the Tony-winner for Gypsy in 2008.

Or maybe it was the buzz from Barbara Dana’s spry script about an aging A-list actress who can’t remember her lines. And the deft direction from Austin Pendleton (Marty in Christmas With the Kranks) who received his own Tony-nom in 1981 for directing Elizabeth Taylor in the Broadway revival of Little Foxes.

“It’s hard to say what brought so many people out,” Schoolhouse Artistic Director Owen Wilson told us, “but we’re not complaining.” What may be most remarkable about What Keeps Us Going’s box office success is that it outperformed all the seven productions The Schoolhouse has successfully launched to Off-Broadway over its illustrious career. Including, The Enlightenment of Mr. Mole in 2017, and Lois Robbins’ L.O.V.E.R. in 2019.

“Whatever it was,” Bram added, “it sure beats COVID.” A reference to the grueling schedule the theater endured when they performed over 100 impromptu play readings on Zoom over a two-year period under the guise of The Pandemic Players. Including, presentations of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, Samuel Beckett’s Endgame with Austin Pendleton and What Keeps Us Going with Blythe Dinner.

What Keeps These Guys Going?

“Maybe ‘The Venerable Schoolhouse Theater’ is just hitting its stride after 38 years,” Bram continued referencing The New York Times description of Croton Falls’ crown jewel. Considering the nine Broadway World awards The Schoolhouse won for their 2023 production of John Logan’s Red about Mark Rothko, he may be on to something.

The truth is Bram, who founded and grew Westchester’s prestigious Phoenix Theatre to over 10,000 subscribers during its run at the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, has always been able to call on his extensive rolodex of theatrical friends to break a leg for his backwoods arts empire on the hill. Including, Alan Arkin, Ellen Burstyn, Billy Crudup, Ruby Dee, George Grizzard, Julie Harris, Rosemary Harris, Helen Hayes, Kevin Kline, Michael Patrick King, Carrie Nye, Jason Robards, and Elaine Stritch.

“I guess you can say, productions like What Keeps Us Going is what keeps us going,” Owen concluded as he bent my ear about what’s coming up this fall and winter at the theater. Beginning with Athol Fugard’s 1982 stage classic Master Harold and the Boys about apartheid South Africa that opens on September 6 and runs for 15 shows through September 22. And Brian Friel’s haunting 1979 play Faith Healer that will run in December.

“I’m sure there’s a plausible explanation somewhere,” Bram concluded about the productions sold-out run. “But I haven’t heard it yet.”