Front Row Seat

Nov. 20-Dec. 12, $18, Walnut Street Theater, Studio 5, 825 Walnut St., 215-316-1361, philadelphiatheatreworkshop.org.

by Mark Cofta

[ theater ]

Philadelphia Theatre Workshop — dedicated to new plays by area playwrights — launches its seventh season with the première of Kathy Anderson's Front Row Seat, a road trip comedy set in 1963. The Flannery family's wacky encounters with cows, Christians and other crazies complicate their quest to reach Dallas and glimpse the president and first lady. "There is literally something for everyone in this play," says PTW Artistic Director Bill Felty about its mixture of slapstick comedy and bittersweet nostalgia. Front Row Seat was developed through PTW's PlayShop Festival, which presented the play in script-in-hand performances with audience feedback last spring.