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Steel Beam putting women's stories front and center

Steel Beam Theatre will examine the lives of women during its 2019-20 season, which opens Sept. 6 with the musical theater revue "Broadway Gender Benders."

The original show - conceived, written and directed by Doug Orlyk - features women performing popular tunes typically sung by men and vice versa. It runs through Sept. 22.

That's followed by "The Odd Couple (Female Version)," Neil Simon's classic buddy comedy which the playwright revised in 1985 for a female cast. In it, newly divorced Florence Ungar and Olive Madison share an apartment while negotiating singledom. It runs Oct. 11 to Nov. 3.

Steel Beam's holiday offering is "The Ballad of CC Scrooge #christmasmakeover," which runs Nov. 29 to Dec. 29. In John David Westby's modern take on Charles Dickens' classic tale, a miserly entrepreneur is visited by three ghosts and a former business associate.

Next up is "Love, Loss & What I Wore," adapted from Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron's book examining various milestones in the lives of women and the fashions and accessories they wore on those occasions. It runs Jan. 10 to Feb. 2, 2020.

Four women meet annually to recreate a photograph in "20th Century Blues," which runs from Feb. 21 to March 15, 2020. The comedy about friendship and aging by Susan Miller looks at how women navigate careers, marriage, motherhood and life's other complications.

"Quilters" - a musical by writer Molly Newman and composer/lyricist Barbara Damashek - details the lives of pioneer women from childhood to death in a series of "patches" that come together to form the titular quilt. It runs April 3 to 26, 2020.

The season concludes with Scottish playwright C.P. Taylor's "And a Nightingale Sang." It runs May 22 to June 14, 2020. Set in Newcastle, England, it's a nostalgic look at domestic life on the homefront during World War II.

Performances take place at 111 W. Main St., St. Charles. Season subscriptions are $150 for adults, $135 for seniors. (630) 587-8521 or steelbeamtheatre.com.

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