Steve Martin’s Meteor Shower Lights Up Long Wharf in 2016

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Thisjust in: The Long Wharf Theatre, which has done two Steve Martin plays in recent seasons, has been given the opportunity to world-premiere Martin’s latest work, Meteor Shower. The show, a co-production with San Diego’s Old Globe theater, is tentatively scheduled to open the Long Wharf’s 2016-17 season. The show dates are said to be Sept. 21 through Oct. 16, following a long July 30 through Sept. 4 engagement at the Old Globe.

A Long Wharf press release describes Meteor Shower thus: “Get ready for the unexpected when Norm and his wife Corky invite another couple to their Ojai backyard to watch a meteor shower in the night sky. As the stars come out and the conversation gets rolling, cocktails flow, tempers flare, and sparks fly—literally. Steve Martin’s surprising new comedy takes an offbeat and absurdist look at the comic anxiety lurking just beneath the surface of modern marriage.”

Martin was at the Long Wharf in person last month, a sold-out appearance which served as a Long Wharf fundraiser. He was interviewed onstage by New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik (who has his own Long Wharf connections—he’s been working on a musical with LWT artistic director Gordon Edelstein for years), and also played banjo.

Steve Martin and his Three Amigos co-star Martin Short will perform at the Oakdale theater in Wallingford Nov. 8.

Martin reportedly saw Gordon Edelstein’s Long Wharf production of The Underpants and encouraged him to do Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Martin must REALLY like Edelstein to give him a shot at a world premiere.

My own reviews of the Long Wharf productions of Picasso at the Lapin Agile (in 2014) and The Underpants (in 2013) are here and here, with a Picasso blog follow-up from this site here.