GO FOR "BROKE" WITH CENTER STAGE THEATRE'S GAME NIGHTS

You are all familiar with Alex Trebek, of blessed memory, and the current host of JEOPARDY! Ken Jennings, where contestants can win tons of money by providing the questions to the show's answers. What you probably are not familiar with is a game show where the players are told to give the wrong answers to the questions and then in order to win, have to lose all their money. Welcome to BROKE The Game Show Show created by C. E. Simon for book and music, with lyrics and direction by Liz Muller and video design by C. E. Simon, produced by Center Stage Theatre of Shelton June 14 at 6:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. and June 15 at 7:30 p.m. Seating will be cabaret style so bring your own food and liquid libations to share at your table.

Games to be played range from charades to word associations, hangman and trivia. The less you know might be to your advantage, because you may find yourself on stage before you can say VANNA WHITE three times. Leading the action and fun and frolics are Ashley Rube’s Alex who is in charge of everything technical and Ryan Myers’ Hank who runs the actual show as master of ceremonies. Assisting them are Liz Muller’s VANNA, Scott Sheldon at the controls and The Brokettes who dance quite delightfully, Kayna Banez, Zola Kneeland, Julia Murphy and Sophia Perrone. Zany and wild does not begin to describe the action.

This super advanced game show is having technical difficulties and the host and his assistant are scrambling to fix what is wrong before air time. Meanwhile Hank is trying valiantly to warm up for the action but the virtual artificial neural network association (VANNA to you) is not cooperating. Will Alex and Hank develop a more personal relationship in the midst of all the production troubles? Will any one of the contestants be able to answer all the questions incorrectly? Will innocent bystanders find themselves in front of a microphone without knowing how they got there?

For tickets ($18-36), call Center Stage Theatre, 54 Grove Street, Shelton at 203-225-6079 or online at boxoffice@centerstageshelton.org.

If you thought you weren’t smart enough to be a contestant on JEOPARDY!, have no fear. You will surely be up for the task as a participant on BROKE. All you have to do is get every answer wrong!