Players Center stages comedy ‘Moon Over Buffalo’

When it hit Broadway in 1995, “Moon Over Buffalo” was most noteworthy for coaxing Carol Burnett back onto the Broadway stage after three decades.

Since then, the comedy by Ken Ludwig, who’s otherwise best known for writing “Lend Me a Tenor,” has become a staple for regional and community theater around the country. (The Broadway production also launched a documentary film by D.A. Pennebaker titled “Moon Over Broadway” that features a long improvised bit by Burnett.)

“Moon Over Buffalo” is next up at the Players Centre for Performing Arts in Sarasota. It opens this week and runs through Nov 19.

It’s a physical and borderline slapstick show about a married couple of traveling actors named George and Charlotte, who are touring the country in the early 1950s. George receives a call from film director Frank Capra, who says he’s considering hiring George and Charlotte to replace Ronald Colman and Greer Garson in a movie he’s shooting.

But Charlotte at first doesn’t believe George, which unleashes a chain of events leading to George and Charlotte completely botching their performances when Capra is supposed to be in the audience checking them out.

Players regular Pam Wiley directs.

Details: Through Nov. 19, The Players Centre for Performing Arts, 838 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 p.m. Sunday. $27 regular, $32 premium, $14 student. 941-365-2494, theplayers.org.

This story was originally published November 1, 2017 at 4:12 PM with the headline "Players Center stages comedy ‘Moon Over Buffalo’."